Exploring even more of India

And then it was my last day on campus. I spent it packing mainly, but there was also time for a long lunch at the Aplha One mall and an even longer dinner in a restaurant nearby - until it was time for the last chai and last goodbyes. Studying in Ahmedabad and living on campus was a great experience with many good memories, but it was time to start traveling and explore India a little more with Jonna, a friend who flew over from Sweden. During our two week travel we visited in total five states and seven cities, spent hours in different modes of transportation, saw the richness of the culture and the many contrasts India has - I think you could say we saw the real India. Our adventure had many highlights and a few lows but definitely a good way to finish my stay in India.

Red Fort

We started in Delhi, where we saw the Red Fort, Gate of India and Jama Masjid. The last one is a mosque where we and all the other Western women visiting the place, had to wear a full body cover cloth. We also had to pay 300 rs, either as entrance or for the cloth - it wasn’t very clear to us. In Jaipur we met a very nice rickshaw driver called Ali, who drove us to all the places we had to see, such as the Amber Fort and Jal Mahal, the water palace. He probably knew what Western girls like, so he also took us to a guru, which was a very interesting experience and gave us a lot to think about. For instance that the place I live causes me depression and said I should think about Australia.

Taj Mahal

Then we continued to Agra, where we saw the Taj Mahal early in the morning. As the sun was still rising we could see the Taj in different colours. There were several advantages of being early as we did not have to wait long, there were not many people yet and it was not too hot - in fact quite the contrary and we were shivering. Saying the Taj Mahal is beautiful isn’t enough, because it is so much more! The building captures you completely, and we really did not want to leave. 

Varanasi

The next stop was again a very new kind of India. We went to Varanasi, which is one of the oldest places of human settlement and it is the most holy place for a Hindu because of the Ganges river. There we saw for instance Manikarnika Ghat, the most famous burning ghat - a place where Hindus burn their dead loved ones. Our guide there kept talking about life, because death is a part of life. Actually sadness and crying was not allowed because it is bad for the dead person who will be reborn to the world in a different creature anyway. The relationship had to be broken.

Dharavi

In Mumbai we met a local friend who showed us the city by night. He showed us the most expensive home in the world, a 27-story skyscraper owned by the most rich man of India where 600 staff members are working for a family of four. The following day we did a slum tour in Dharavi. It is one of the largest slums in the world, there live a million people and the annual turnover of the production within the slum is 650 million USD. The term slum is a misleading term and in fact it is more a city within a city where we can find all basic facilities, children go to school, small businesses offer employment and mothers keep the homes running. It is built on government land, and only a recent law gives it the status of a legal housing area and therefore the people do not have to live in fear of their houses being demolished for some expensive real estate project. 

The last days we spent in Kerala, where we did a boat tour through the backwaters. Our boat man lived in the jungle, but his daughters studied in the city biotechnology at university. That's development to me! We then spent two days on the beach, ate good food and enjoyed the peacefulness of the place until we had to get back to the airport and our trip was over. 

Backwaters in Kerala