India for me in a nutshell

When we landed, Bombay was drowning – monsoon season they call it. After a 9 hour turbulent filled flight over the Indian ocean (i was writing my message and getting ready to put it in a bottle incase the plane didn’t make it over the ocean) i was tired and nauseas. My sister who i was travelling with had been fast asleep throughout the turbulence, she, unlike myself, was doing this trip for the second time.

Bombay was humid, too humid and pouring with rain. The airport was buzzing, it was 8am Indian time. They were making the usual annoying airport announcements loudly but this time they were even more annoying because they were in some strange language – Marathi – my sister later told me. We were in the state of Maharashtra where Marathi is the commonly spoken language. Our connecting flight to a city called Pune was at 11am – i wanted to cry. I was tired and edgy from the flight and there was absolutely no place to sit at the overcrowded airport (i was to find out later that only ticket holders are allowed inside the airport, no relatives or friends – you say your goodbyes outside) so there we were with our luggage, tired and sleepy with no place to sit. By the time 11am came i felt like i had been stuck there for years. Consolation was that the flight to pune was only half an hour.



Pune: formerly called Poona, also known as Punawadi or Punya-Nagari, is the eighth largest city and seventh largest metropolis in India, and the second largest in the state of Maharashtra, after Mumbai (Bombay) the day was bright and the sun was shining, contrary to the coastline of Bombay. Outside the airport there were so many people and God the smell!! It was an oriental, curry filled with dirty rotting debris all in one. We got into what is called a rickshaw – a three wheeled vehicle used as public transport in that part of the world. The road was chaos, cars hooting, bikes zooming past and rickshaws trying to pick up and drop people in the middle of the road. There were no traffic lights so sometimes we would be stuck at an intersection for more than 10 minutes with horns just going off all at once, it was incredible. I laughed out loud, it was ridiculous. Eventually we got to my sister’s friend’s place and freshened up and went about to sort out our papers at the international center – that on its own is another story. I met really interesting African students in Pune and made good friends – fast forward to 2 months later to New Delhi.



New Delhi: the capital of india. It is situated within the metropolis of Delhi and is one of the fastest growing cities in the world and home to a population of 14 million. New Delhi is one of the nine districts of Delhi. When we landed at the Indira Gandhi airport it was – well you guessed, hot! I couldnt breathe. The traffic situation was the same as pune although there were a bit of traffic lights here and there on the road. New Delhi was interesting – with people mostly from Europe working for NGO’s there all over the place. The vibe was different, very cosmopolitan and the clubs did not close! I went to a lot of different clubs there, met South africans who were very arrogant and were not friendly at all! But my main attraction to Delhi was that it was 4 hours drive away from the famous Taj Mahal........



Taj Mahal: the Emperor who built it describes it in these words:

“Should guilty seek asylum here,Like one pardoned, he becomes free from sin.Should a sinner make his way to this mansion,All his past sins are to be washed away.The sight of this mansion creates sorrowing sighs;And the sun and the moon shed tears from their eyes.In this world this edifice has been made;To display thereby the creator's glory.”

Undoubtedly one of the most beautiful sights i have ever witnessed, the story behind it even more amazing. The four hour drive on a bus was a nightmare, it was again too hot to be out on the road but i had to see it and it was worth it. We drove through the most rural areas of the country with unbelievable horrendous statues that are gods along the way. The people there have more than 3000 gods that they worship and they are very passionate about their religion so its a matter of who can build the biggest monster of a god. (to be continued)