This post is a long response to R's plan to drop everything and spend 3 weeks in the deep hinterland of India. I mean, Balia really is the middle of nowhere, unless you count places like chandrapur or dangs, which are even more nowhere than balia :) But that is immaterial, what counts is that R is going there on her own, spending time in the midst of strangers who will, in all probability, have radically different ideas from her.
What could be the reasons for R's decision to go away to a place where she knows no one and no one knows her? I suspect even she does not know. And this is no place for a pop-psychoanalysis, so lets stop.
Truth be told, I am not happy about she going away for such a long stretch of time. She is a great friend, a great colleague, and it is going to be terribly lonely without her around. But I also know its a good thing for her to do, she will find it to be a "REAL GROWING UP EXPERIENCE" (TM).
With six more years of life than R, I think I am old and wise enough to give her tips on packing. There are things she should take along, others that may have no purpose there and would just be deadweight on a trip like this. So R, here's some suggestions:
> Carry medicenes that you need. Like Omez, the pill that has saved you time and time again. The food there may be good and you may overeat, and then you may suffer stomach cramps, so Omez will be a good thing.
> Carry your cellphone. But only for emergencies. Don't call anyone; if you need to, call the Gaul. If it is a trip about exploring another world, then try to keep as little connection to this world as possible.
> Pack your laptop; so that you can record your thoughts and impressions without them fading away into dim, sepia-toned memory.
> Carry salwar-kameezes; for you are not going there to draw attention to yourself and its better to be a fly on the wall when you are looking at another place only as an observer.
> Don't carry food, soap, water etc. If you are planning to live there, don't import your world with yourself.
> Leave behind the judgemental part of your outlook. If you think you don't have it, look deeper inside yourself; we all have it in us. Go there, see that world, don't judge the people there; when you come back, then you can spend time deciding whether they are right or wrong, ugly or beautiful, just or unfair. In the meantime, travel light on this commodity.
> Carry lots of patience. Despite Gandhi, Buddha, and Mahavir, our country has very little of it and people in the cities are especially short of this.
Take care and be good. Learn lots and teach some.
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3 comments:
Alright! There we are.
Most was on the cards except for patience. :)
have been asking everybody whether i shd carry my laptop but its since its yes from all so be it.
Leaving judgements behind is going to be very difficult but I promise to try.
Bah...a laptop! Dunno much about this place, but in the distant past, in a small village in the USofA, I alterred some people's lives by showing them my laptop, which they thought was a portable TV, the best thing someone ever thought of, according to them.
IMHO, less gadgets the better...
You might want to take a spike-guard along with your laptop.
The power is not as uniform as in the cities. I've seen a lot of fluctuation.
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