The India of today isn’t the same India I became obsessed with on my first trip 20 years ago. The mosquitoes and that distinctive musty smell are long gone from Delhi airport. It now ranks among the best airports in the world. Similar transformations are going on all over the country.
Yet, the essence of India remains as untamed as ever. Slowly, it has enabled me to embrace my untamed side too. A country of extremities, India prompts extreme emotions. I was hooked from the start. My first trip was the typical northern India circuit that most foreign visitors begin with. Amid the overwhelming sensory overload, I felt aliveness and possibilities. And, amid the dirt and disintegration, I discovered immense heritage and culture. India opened my mind and inspired me. It lured me back again and again.
My third trip to India, to Calcutta, in 2005 proved to be life-changing. I wanted to get out of my comfort zone. However, little did I know that I would eventually end up leaving everything that was familiar, including my stable government accounting job in Australia. Not only had I fallen in love with India, I fell in love with an Indian guy as well. It was not at all sensible. In fact, it had many elements of a far-fetched Bollywood fantasy. He was a DJ from Mumbai with a residency at one of Calcutta’s biggest nightclubs. I had had enough of the party scene in Australia. Yet, fate drew us together late one night in Roxy at The Park hotel.
Seven months later, we boarded an Indian Railways train bound for Kerala with our lives packed into 11 bags. I had asked him to take a chance and come with me to Varkala, where I was to manage a guesthouse by the beach, and he had agreed. That opportunity, too, eventuated from a fateful encounter at The Park hotel. It was only because I was running late that I happened to see a friend of a friend from Australia there. Her lease on the guesthouse was up for renewal but she was undecided about continuing with it and offered it to me for the tourist season, thus giving me the perfect reason to stay in India.
Afterwards, in Mumbai, a matching of horoscopes indicated marriage was possible. I had always been too scared to take a risk. Therefore, I was amazed by what unfolded when I took the biggest risk of all. Opportunities kept coming my way. During the course of my travels, I’d discovered my passion for writing about India. My enthusiasm for my work sustained me through the challenges of adjusting to life in Maximum City. I thought the city had an identity crisis—it appeared to be a disparate mishmash of elements, conflicted between western and traditional.
In time, I came to realise that it reflected much of myself, fluid and not fitting in anywhere. I got used to the crowds, the din, and the extremities in living standards; and grew to appreciate the beauty amid the unsavouriness. The uplifting aroma of incense in the evening, the soothing sea breeze, the joy of eating vada pav and fresh fish thalis, the honesty and helpfulness of autorickshaw drivers, vendors selling cheap fashion accessories in the local trains, the innovative jugaad that people do to get by, the unity in diversity. Life can also be raw and objectionable, and it’s those small everyday sunshine that are the key to happiness.
For me, travel in India is all about personal growth and transformation. There’s much to learn from the different lifestyles and beliefs that permeate the country. I find it’s the simplest people who have the most to offer, such as tribes with their ritual paintings and connections to Nature. So many experiences have left a deep imprint on my soul, including the powerful tangible energy of the Haridwar Ganga aarti and the silence that possessed me on Mount Arunachala. India is where I can connect with something greater than myself. A quote by author Douglas Adams pretty much sums up my life, I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.
