India I – Pre-trip & pre-conceptions

This trip had been long wished for, long planned for, long dreamed of…

That fantastic picture of a girl _ I saw when I was a child in one of those fantastic magazines my dad used to have_ all dressed in magic colours and wearing bangles on her wrists was about to being seen live. It is always good to contrast what you imagined with reality :).

Before travelling, and although I was not telling people about my precious project, I had to let some of them know. People such as my dentist, doctor, work related people, family and closest friends.

As I went on telling them, I got all kinds of reactions: Some were: It sounds so exotic! So different! Why so far away? Oh! So are you going for that spiritual experience people tend to talk about? They say it changes your life! Are you seeking that change? Oh darling!, you are such a candle burner! One of my closest male friends would make fun of me saying I was such a candle burner (he was probably thinking I was going to shave my head, wear white only and become all religious looking).

Other comments were: Oh! You are going to India? What for? They say it’s really poor… All those documentaries we see on television. Oh! But why are you going there and Oh-so-far?* Are you going to be safe? What if you get sick? Were some of the reactions. Another friend said I was totally out of my mind exposing myself to such trip. She was even annoyed by it. She did try to prevent me (in a sweet way) from going but I guess she saw me so determined that all she finally did was to give me a list of the things I should not do/not try and places I should not go.

I promised I would not eat worms (it was a way of saying I would be safe when feeding myself) I would not jump on crazy-running-wheeled machines (I did jump on rickshaws and it was great! -except for one time) and I would not bathe in dangerous looking places (Hmmm, I don’t know why they made me promise that and no, I didn’t), etc., etc.

It all sounded pretty alarming but I was not even touched by it. I understood where they were coming from. Had it not been for my _still precarious_ research on the richness (in all senses) of this country, my fondness _since I was a child_ of their culture and my love and curiosity for the unknown, I would have probably had the same pre-conceptions.

We travelled from Lima through New York with no major things to remember except for the very long journey (and a delicious stopover in NY, of course, one of my favourite cities).

The New York- Dehli plane had one of the best services I have had in a long time. So good, one our companions said, “he was pretty impressed”

We arrived in Dehli airport… And well, it was just about I would need to face my very own pre-conceptions… not pre-conceptions about the country, but you see? In a very unexpected way… pre-conceptions after all… (To be continued…)