White? Yes, you heard it right!
Random? For me this trip was totally a random trip. And more than that it was with some random white girls. Sarah, whom I met at my cousin’s wedding in India, flew here all the way just to attend her best friend’s (the bride) wedding. Sarah had been to India earlier and pretty much familiar with most of the stuff here. Mish, Sarah’s friend from college, came to India the very first time just for traveling purposes. About me: Let’s not talk much about myself because I really suck. In brief, an Indian guy with an Indian passport who recently quit his job in the US and have lost like fifteen pounds in the last one month which makes him look more skinnier than he already is.
I’ve joined Sarah and Mish for a day trip to Delhi where we covered so many tourist spots. I, being born and raised in Delhi, never been to many of those places we covered. We got back home late at night after having dinner at a restaurant, when the two white girls finally decided to leave for their adventure, starting the next morning.
I was totally free and was under no obligation at that time. I mean no job, no school and no family shit. I asked the white girls, “Do you guys mind if I join you?”. They seemed pretty comfortable to me but I’m not sure if I actually interrupted the white girls privacy by jumping into their plans at the very last moment. Anyways, the time has already passed. And there is nothing that I can really change now. So let’s move to the beginning of our trip.
Leader/Follower? We were total like three of us and coincidently, we all were twenty-three. We were waiting at the bus stop just to catch the bus to our first destination and were talking about the kind of bus we should take. There were both local and volvo bus options. Sarah has totally made up her mind to travel on local buses as they are quite cheaper than volvo. Seriously, I asked her more than once to make sure that she really wants to travel by a local bus. She was determined. It took me a little bit to make up my mind because I’ve never traveled in those kind of local buses before. But I could totally understand after she spent so much money on expensive flight from US to India and the fact that she only does some part time jobs. I mean, working as a full timer, I myself would think twice before spending on flights just to visit my family in India once every year. If she had told me that we should also save on hotels just by sleeping by the trees and taking shower in the pond, I seriously would have never mind. Sarah is kind of weird and I somehow knew this already.
I was only worried about Mish who just flew to India for the first time and I didn’t really want to turn her excitement into grief. I mean seriously look at the glow on Mish’s face. Her body language. Her dressing style. Her scarf. Her figure. Her sunglasses. She totally looks like a celebrity.
|Say ‘Hi’ to Mish….Hi Mish, I really mish you.|
But Mish seemed to follow Sarah relentlessly. Anyways, we finally got one leader and two followers assigned.
Sarah seems to dress normally whenever she travels in countries like India. Most of the volunteering communities in India where lots of foreigners come every year, highly recommends women to cover their arms and legs when they go out in the local markets is just because western dressing style has never been a part of Indian culture even though you would find lots of women doing fashion in the big cities of India these days. Even in Delhi, I myself can’t go out for running without having my shirt on. It is unacceptable not only for women but also for men.
|Say ‘Hi’ to Sarah…..Hi leader.|
Backpack Buddy? As per the leader’s choice, we all got on a local bus heading to Agra, our first destination. The bus was having like three seats together in a row and it was just perfect as we were exactly three. But I was wrong. We were actually four. I mean look at the guy, the one, Sarah is leaning against. Unfortunately, that’s not me.
|Please do not disturb.|
That backpack, son of a bitch, took away my spot right when we got on the bus. The reason is that it’s too big to fit in the luggage carriers provided in the bus. Anyways, it was needed otherwise it would have taken someone else’s spot. After the bus got full and all the seats were occupied by the passengers, people who couldn’t find a seat and eventually had to stand in the aisle, started staring at Sarah and her backpack buddy. At that time, I had to leave my seat empty. I stood in the aisle right by that backpack. Looking at me standing, Sarah offered me to exchange the spot with her backpack buddy. But I could never imagine both of them separating from each other just to give a little comfort to my ass. So I kept myself straight in a standing posture.
A little more about this backpack buddy who looks really cool and sweet only until you try carrying it. I said “try” because I have tried carrying it once to see how it feels on the shoulders. And seriously, I couldn’t even stand properly after I tried to lift it from a seated position. I don’t really know what kind of extraterrestrial shit she was carrying. Whatever it was, I feel really jealous every time I look at the picture above.
I don’t know if any of us have a picture of Sarah carrying her backpack buddy. I mean throughout the trip, we spent quite a bit time finding a safe and comfortable place for that baby before we found something for ourselves. Photo credit goes to a squirrel from a tree in the front yard who volunteered for this picture.
|Say ‘Hi’ to Sarah’s cool and sweet backpack…..Hi backpack, you suck!|
Tour Guide? After so many local individuals thought of me a tour guide for the two white girls, Sarah recommended me to actually become a tour guide. She said, I just have to talk shit and people won’t even know if that’s completely true. She literally insisted me to become a tour guide throughout the trip. But when, right in front of me, Sarah turned a tour guide away without even listening to the discounts he was offering, I told her right away that
“Sarah, this is exactly what my future is gonna be as a tour guide.”
(But seriously, if she is ever coming back to India then I’m ready to be her tour guide for free. Because I’m just gonna talk shit whether she believes it or not.)
Local People Wanting Pictures? We faced quite a number of local people coming over to us just to take some pictures. Obviously, they meant to take pictures with white girls and not with someone like me who almost looks like them.
India is not a diverse country like US. There are still lots of people who can’t even afford to fly and analyze the existence of different world. For them, these different looking tourists are just like aliens from different planet. I used to think exactly the same way untill I experienced diversity in the US. I used to have the same excitement of going, taking pictures and talking to people from different world.
Mish seemed to be really cool with people who asked her for a picture with them. I mean Mish can’t even imagine people asking to take a picture with her in the US. But here, for these local people of India, Mish is just like a celebrity from hollywood. I mean look at the picture below and see by yourself how happy the local white horse looks like while being captured with a white girl from different world. Level of excitement in the local human beings is just beyond my imaginations.
On the other hand, Sarah is totally opposed to this kind of act from local people. Right on the face, Sarah turned some people away who asked her just for a picture. And I’m sure she has her own reasons for that. Or may be, after having long beautiful hairs, Sarah thinks that she is more than just a celebrity.
Kids Begging On The Streets? After looking at the two white girls, local beggars mostly the kids started begging and following us, when we were exploring the street markets. The white girls were their main targets is just because beggars think that all white people or foreigners are rich.
Sarah had been to India before and just like me she didn’t really give a shit to those kids. However, Mish being a full time nanny, couldn’t stand looking at their condition. And I could see that very clearly.
“Awe, so cute”
(That’s what she said so many times after looking at those kids.)
I guess, for Mish it was the first time when she found kids begging on the streets. I recommended her to buy them some food if she wants rather than giving money.
In most of the cases in India, poor people spend time making babies than finding a job so that they can send their kids out for begging just to run their families and sometimes they literally sell them as labors to work in factories. It’s all about the population that fucks up everything. Rich people don’t really care as long as they are getting cheap labor and as many as they want. Now what’s the point of finding reasons for this condition of poor kids after they are born already? And it’s not their fault that they are born in a poor family. They are just not lucky enough like most of us are.
“I feel like it’s the nanny who can understand kids more than their own mothers.”
Looking at one of the kids who was approaching Mish, I imagined myself being unlucky, born in a poor family, walking up to Mish who looks like a celebrity from different world who is saying “Awe, so cute” to me and buying me some oranges and bananas.
Cross Culture? We mostly lived on local fruits during the time we spent on local buses. If one person in our group eats something, he or she would offer it to others. But offering someone just once is different than keep offering to someone until that someone takes the offer.
In one of the eight hours long bus, we found three seats together and quite airy room for the backpack buddy in the trunk. Mish got the window seat, Sarah in the middle and I got the aisle seat. After an hour or so, I finally enjoyed some silence, after the two white girls got bored of their girly white talks. Mish got back into her dreams with her dream music on. Sarah got back into reading some kind of book about India. And I, as usually, was just looking here and there and was doing nothing. After doing nothing for few hours, I got bored and thought of killing my time in eating. We were carrying oranges, bananas, chikus and some peanuts. I took an orange out of the bag. Mish was still in her dreams. So I asked Sarah if she wants to eat anything.
She said “No, I’m good. Thanks.”
(She got back into reading the book she was reading while I began to peel off the orange I just took out.)
After living in the US for like four years, I got used to that American thing where if you ask someone once and if that someone denies then the whole orange is yours. But this is not the case with the Indians.
Sometimes I really like to piss Sarah off. So I asked her again when I peeled that orange off almost halfway through,
“Sarah, this is an orange. Do you want some of it?”.
With some weird expression on her face this time, she replied, “No. Thanks.”
I recklessly asked her one more time, “Sarah, are you sure that you don’t want some orange? We got some chikus left too.”
Sarah kind of understood what I was actually trying to do. I can imagine Sarah been going through those kind of things a lot lately after she spent like a month among the bride’s and the groom’s relatives and all of them are typical Indians. She kind of knew that I’m not gonna stop asking her until she finally eats some.
Without any choice, she finally said, “Ok. I’ll take some orange.”
Some other time, Sarah found me busy writing something in a diary that I bought on the trip after I found myself just wasting my time looking around here and there while in the bus. She opened up a packet of peanuts and asked me if I want some. I was really focused on my writing about some weird thoughts and I didn’t want peanuts to interrupt me.
So I replied, “No. I think, I’m good. Thanks.”
Few seconds later, she asked me again and this time she started swinging the packet of peanuts just to gain my focus on peanuts instead:
“Prateek, want some peanuts?”
“Peanuts?”
Damn! She is doing the same thing back to me, I silently talked to myself. I got a feeling that she is not going to stop asking me. Eventually, I had to eat some peanuts forcefully. She repeated the same thing so many other times during the trip and successfully took the revenge.
Things That I Think? Regardless of the fact that most of the time I was being ground between the chit-chat of the two white blades, IT WAS THE BEST TRIP OF MY LIFE.
“There are so many other things that I’ve experienced but I can’t write everything just like a camera no matter how good it is, can never capture the quality of the air we breathed and the taste of the local food we munched on.”
Major part of this trip we spent on local buses. Traveling in local buses in India is just like sitting on a massage chair having continuous vibrations of all frequencies and high pitch sound of continuous honking doing some kind sound therapy even though it’s not meant to be healing. Twists and turns and jumps including most of the motion effects that you can get on a ride in Disney Land. And the best part is that you will get all these comforts at a very low cost. Thanks to Sarah for leading us through such an ultimate massage therapy.
“In simple words, if you’re in India and you’re traveling in a volvo then you’re simply not in India.”
Traveling doesn’t mean covering all the tourists spots listed on Google but to get a full feel of only few places for comparatively a longer time. I mean if you are given with some limited time to explore some place, it’s better not to cover all the tourists spots while giving only little time to each of them but to cover only few spots and giving enough time to explore only few of those.
It was only few days into this trip when I already began to get a feeling that this is what my life is. Getting up in the morning; munching on local food; exploring locally; traveling in local buses; living on fruits and peanuts as our ultimate snacks; sampling sweets from local sweet shops; once in a while giving special attention to the backpack buddy; listening to the chit-chat of the two white girls and then finally back to sleep. I was not even aware of the time period I was living in. There was no rush I ever felt in this trip because none of us was crazy about covering all the tourist spots mentioned on the Google’s list.
At first I thought that it depends on how long you stay at a place while traveling. But later I found that it actually depends more on “with whom you are traveling”. In my opinion, it’s the fellow travelers who make the difference during traveling and not necessarily the part of the planet you’re exploring. Some people travel with their loved ones; some with joints; some by themselves; some make strangers as friends on their way and while some with random white girls.
Trip is over. Travelers got back to their normal lives.
Only the shadows left behind.
SHIT CAN FLY 