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| See...I took this picture of the Taj Majal! |
It's been about two weeks since I've been
back from my travels to India. Suffice it to say, it was an once-in-a-lifetime
experience for me that I will never forget. Actually I can't forget because I
have pictures, outfits and a bunch of bangles to prove that I was there.
Now I started writing this post a day ago,
but realized that one post will not encompass what I wanted to convey about
this trip. So I’ve decided to make this a serial. There is so much I want to
convey aside from describing places, people, and events, I want to talk about travel in general and other insights.
This all started with an invite to a
wedding. A's boss and founder of the start-up he works for decided to get married
in India (He's Indian). A has known about this since the summer of last year
but as far as he was concerned, his boss would be away from work. Or so he
thought. His boss, let's call him P, specifically requested that A attend the
wedding. A wasn't sure if he could go, but hell...how do you say no to going to
India? At first he thought he'd go alone. Then he asked me if I'd accompany
him. Apparently I couldn't say no to India either, after some deliberation I
said yes. While I was trying to make up my mind, his son also agreed to go to
India.
This set into motion various events that
was not completely related to travel, because I hadn't been formally introduced
to his kids at this point. I’m still a mystery to his daughter. His ex-wife
just recently discovered my existence because of a silly, somewhat childish
circumstance that required A to reveal to her that he was dating and that he
was dating me for some time. He had meant to have a meaningful talk to her
about it, but the timing was never right. And for the record, the circumstance
that prompted all of this wasn’t truly horrible or even eye-opening, just something
that looked like a scene from a bad tv sitcom from the 70's.
Anyway, so I had to meet his son, see if
we all go along before A was comfortable taking the both of us. We met for
dinner over bowls of Pho and rice plates as we discussed our plan to see if
this was doable. By the end of the evening, we all agreed that this could all
work.
We only had about a month and a half to
prep for this trip, during the holiday season. Any enthusiasm I had for the
Christmas and New Year holiday was tempered by the need to get my passport
renewed, to get my immunization shots in order and researching the shit out of
what to expect when traveling to India.
While most of it was helpful, the research
made me quite fearful of the trip. Don't drink the water. Don't give money to
beggars, it's a crime syndicate. India will overwhelm you and steal your money
and your dignity. There were heeded warnings for woman traveling to India alone.
Unfortunately, it basically said that men will stare at you in a not friendly
way, so try not to stand out too much, lest men will think you’re a whore. As
you can imagine, I wasn't sure how to take this all in, but it was making me
anxious. So much so, that by the time I boarded the plane at SFO, I felt
physically sick. It didn’t help that
hours before we literally boarded that plane, A met my mother and I met his
ex-wife in person.
Maybe the 20-ish hours on the plane did
something to my brain, because all that anxiety disappeared, replaced by
a sudden familiarity once when we landed at New Delhi. A commented that it
didn't feel like he was in India, until we stepped out of the airport terminal
and became inundated with airport pick-up traffic. It was crowded, noisy, full
of people, the air was humid and thick with pollution. To me it felt like I've
experience this before. Because it felt just like when I traveled to the Philippines,
some years ago. Now I know that India isn't anything like the Philippines, yet
throughout the trip I couldn't help but compare the two countries. But somehow,
just that past experience made me more at ease being in India than any of the
travel research I did in the states.
Our adventure was just beginning...
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