Ahhh India. The beautiful nation that gave birth to things like Curry, Yoga, Gandhi, the Taj Mahal and a host of other scientific and cultural accomplishments that we relish today and that have helped to shape mankind over the centuries. (They invented the number system for Pete’s sake. And ever grateful I am as it will aid me greatly throughout this piece.)
It is an immensely alluring place and the millions upon millions of visitors that cross its borders every year can attest to that.
Long before you alight she sits in your imagination and eventually seduces you to her dusty shores and remains in your memories long after you leave like the scent of a burnt out candle that lingers in the air and quietly reminds you of its enduring presence.
But there is a middle bit. Stuck somewhere in the space between longing for it and living it. A space that is occupied by three mental and physiological states of being that plague many a stranger. I like to call them the “Three Stages to Enlightenment.”
In India the world passes by with such fervour, such colour, such noise, that the foreign nervous system can’t help but to feel overwhelmed.
Days pass though, and the body and mind soon acclimatise to this violent assault on your senses, and you’re no longer having an embarrassing mental breakdown in the middle of a crowded street being giggled at by those who can smell your fear from a mile off. That’s what I like to call Stage One.
Next is Stage Two. Which is characterised by a period of unadulterated observational intensity. Otherwise known as “the dumbs.” You will stare, fearlessly, unabashedly, at all that you see around you. You’ll not yet be ready to articulate quite what you’re looking at, and you won’t necessarily be enjoying it either (that’s Stage Three), because at this point your neural pathways have ceased functioning and are in a state of temporary suspension, and really, you’re pretty much just staring out with your mouth open like an idiot.
Stage Three is when all of the fun begins, usually around days 3-4. You’ve taken it all in and it’s destroyed you from the inside out, but now you’ve been rebuilt as a better version of yourself (the less dumb version) and are ready to face all that India has to throw at you! The sea of bodies! The smells! The livestock!
It’s riveting, all of it, and you’re privileged to be experiencing it. The beautiful contrast that’s woven into Indian culture almost makes you want to cry. For you’ve never seen such extremes, such intoxicating customs, tastes, scents and movements. It’s a tapestry of wonder and at this point you’re giddier than a pig in sh*t. For you’ve been blinded but now you can see the light.
After your first full day in Stage Three you let a cold bottle of beer wash away the awkwardness that was the past few days. As you finish the bottle you congratulate yourself for surviving, no thriving, amidst the masses. Over the past few agonising days you’ve earned your freedom …
… and the reward is INDIA herself.
