I write this post in English, especially as I don't have any conveniently available Hungarian characters on my phone. For the same reason, please excuse typos.
For me, India is surprisingly difficult to take in. When I arrived at first, it seemed easy and I wasn't frightened. I was longing to let India close, see it, feel it, experience it. Enjoy the food, involve in conversations with locals. Still, after a week or two I found myself in a state of mind in which I felt I had to constantly fight for my life or safety, and a sense of security in any meaning was difficult to achieve. Some of my continuous activities included:
- Processing new types of bacteria and incredulous amounts of oil and carbs in food.
- Worrying whether I made the right decision on food - should I allow myself to eat this deliciously looking item or rather just eat bananas once more?
- Adjusting to 40-47 C, often with walks in the sun. At this this was easy and pleasant for me, and I discovered even I am able to sweat.
- Trying to avoid getting hit by auto- and bicycle riksha drivers - a true challenge.
- Processing amazing amounts of dust and smog.
- Processing incredible amounts of honking and other sounds.
- Protecting myself from pick-pockets.
- Protecting myelf from scams
- Indians try to give you less change than they should at leasy 50% of the time.
- Informing myself on prices and negotiating so as to at least get the fair tourist price. (Don't hope for the price locals get.)
- Adjusting to the feeling of ignoring shopkeepers, beggars, riksha drivers etc. who try to get your attetion. Handling a bad conscience that at some point of saying no to child beggars with a pair of despairing eyes is quite sure to appear.
- Trying to figure out while Indian women warn you as a woman traveller so much of Indian men and trying to figure out how to stay safe.
- I was doing a Rajasthan round trip which meant that more often than not I had to get up way too early (5-8 AM) and did not go to sleep before
The above list is just an excerpt, but probably hints at the amounts of energy of both the body, immune system and mind, emotions that go into just sustaining. These activities did not necessarily bother me, but they required a lot of my attention, attention that could therefore not go into observing more openly and lively. And the lower level of security also seems to form a barrier between me and diving into the heart of India as closely as I would like to. But of course - to some level - I still did.
This post is rather to show the starting point, particularly as the above listed aspects are not only part of the barrier, but also part of the culture itself. Looking more closely, they seem to start to tell me the Indian story... :)
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