Travels to the Ganges and Himalayan Foothills

Another week has passed and I now have less than two months left in India. This week was overwhelming, like every week. How do I describe India to those at home? The India portrayed in the United States consists of an over-crowded, dirty, poor country where everyone smells like curry. There are also great sites like the Taj Mahal, but that’s about it. When I was telling people I wanted to come to India, I had some people ask me why I wanted to go to that “hell-hole” and it’s a “dirty place where your snot will turn black because of the pollution.” My point being, India is not portrayed particularly well in the U.S, especially after the Delhi rape case.  After my first blog post here with pictures, I had several people comment that it was prettier than they expected.

There are also the people that view India as a profoundly spiritual place where one can find themselves. (I see these people everywhere. Fun fact: the American grungy hippy look is not popular in India. They think you look ridiculous and strongly encourage good hygiene.) There is a romanticized version of India.

There seems to be very little in between in how people view India, its one extreme or another. So now I’m here, and I’ve been here for a month and a half at this point.  How do I describe India to the people at home that have these extreme assumptions? India is a country of contradictions. There is extreme wealth and poverty. It is majority rural but has huge urban hubs and is up and coming in the economic scene. It is considered to be “developing” but their education system demands more of their students than in the United States. It is beautiful in so many ways, but there are piles of garbage on the streets. I live in a city, where cows, goats, dogs and camels are in the streets next to the cars. The levels of bacteria and disease are high and people have been sick off and on the majority of the semester. It is a patriarchal society. It is also a very spiritual country where yoga, meditations, and being vegetarian is popular and leads to a better way of life.  The people are welcoming and talkative and welcome you in to their lives very openly.  You cannot describe India in one sentence or even one paragraph because depending on where you are, your experience will be completely different.

I don’t want to romanticize India, because over all it is not a romantic country in a lot of ways. There are a lot of problems here, problems that I may not always see first-hand but are important to remember. However, there are problems in every country. I also don’t want to make it sound terrible because it is a great experience, I’m learning a lot and the country and people are beautiful.

Anyways, going off of all that I’m realizing how much of India I won’t see while I’m here; both tangibly and intangibly. I had this discovery last semester in Morocco as well, that there is the India I see and then the part of India I won’t see.  Accepting this is difficult, but something that has to be done. There is corruption in the government and all around. There is only so much I can understand so I just have to keep going.

More specifically to what this past week entailed: there was lots of traveling. We went on our Northern excursion, which took place in the foothills of the Himalayas. What? Freaking, beautiful. Our journey began with at 14 hour train ride last Sunday night, in the sleeper compartment. An adventure to say the least, but fun none the less. After a fairly sleepless train ride, we arrive in Haridwar, one of the holiest pilgrimage sites in India because of the Ganges River; and proceed to take a three hour bus ride to an organic farm called Navdanya started by Dr. Vandana Shiva.  Even though biodiversity and agriculture don’t tend to fall in my normal range of interests, it was really interesting. It is a sustainable farm that works with local farmers to improve their farming abilities and to help them avoid using the chemicals promoted by the government.  It was beautiful there and they were interesting to see.

From Navdanya we left for another NGO based in Dehradun which was also beautiful due to the surrounding Himalayan foothills. I got to watch the sunrise over the foothills, and at that moment I realized how incredibly lucky I am to be here and having these experiences. 

These are the foothills...imagine how big the real mountains are....

Sunrise :)

 Through this organization we visited a bunch of sites including a settlement from the Van Gujjar’s community. They were a traditionally conservative Muslim nomadic tribe that moved through northern India. They are now starting to settle due to wanting to provide a better education for their children. Visiting them in the forest to see their homes was incredible and we got to spend the morning with their children at school. Again, they were very welcoming and excited to share their knowledge with us. They know more about the wildlife and forests in India than most people and the fact that they have been able to survive there for so many decades is astounding.

The forests

 Some of the children I was with...once they saw cameras,they all wanted their pictures taken!

After some more running around to visit NGO’s, we ended up in Rishikesh; a city where the Ganges flows through. In this town the water of the Ganges is much safer and cleaner. For those of you who don’t know, the Ganges in a holy river in India. People will put the ashes of cremated loved ones, or bodies of ones that have passed away. People die yearly from bacterial infections received when dunking in the river. However, if you dunk, your sins are washed away and you are cleansed. You could feel the spirituality in the air there.

So although I did not dunk in the Ganges, I did cross it to get to a rock-bar area in the middle where myself and some friends sat for a while to watch the sun set. Again, in this moment I was overwhelmed with how lucky I am to be experiencing all these things.  The experience was overwhelming and wonderful and so many things I’m still figuring it out.

                So besides the typical stressed of trying to process and understand the country I’m in, and how I’ll deal with the reverse culture shock of going home; everything here is phenomenal!

Next week in Holi, the festival of Colors, so I’m excited for that and will be sure to update again soon!

Random side note, here is what people getting ready to sit on the fourteen hour train home look like. (And yes, we all slept in that little space you are looking at)

Thank you Allison for your fabulous photo. By far, one of the best pictures thus far. :)