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Tales from Abroad

Spring 2003
Barb Smith with groom at Hindu wedding
The past two weeks have been quite a trip! I ended up solo on a last minute (13 hour) bus ride up to the area of Dharamshala (in the Western Himalayas - to leave the Delhi heat)...the home of the Dali Lama and so many Tibetan refugees. I remained for two nights in the home of a wonderful Tibetan family, eating vegetarian momos and trekking around in the beautiful hills. After a few days with a friend and his family in the town of Dera Dun, I headed, again by bus, up to the wonderful mountain town of Kausani. I met a guy and took a four-hour trek to his family's mud hut in the mountains. The view and atmosphere were something special, but the walk...I think it was up hill both ways. We both shared the burden of my pack, ok, so maybe he carried it a bit more, but who's counting? Later today I'll be heading back to the U.S. I wanted to leave you with a small list of India's senses through me:

Smells

  • Indian spices in the food
  • A bunch of sweating Indians jammed into a bus so full that they are sticking out of the windows and doors.
  • White jasmine flowers in women's hair
  • Pooja (prayer) incense
  • Delhi pollution
  • Walking past a spice market and inhaling chili powder dust from the air

Sounds

  • The sing song languages of India
  • Honking horns
  • Hindi music

Tastes

  • Amazing foods with outstanding spices - sweets: gulab jammon, keer; paneer cooked just right; south Indian masala dosai

Touch/feelings

  • Being on the back of a total stranger's motor bike with the wind hitting me from all directions
  • Hotter than hell - 42.5 deg Celsius = 107 deg Fahrenheit in Nagpur
  • Being alone, at the same time feeling an overwhelming amount of people around me
  • Finding it too easy to look away from the unappealing sights (and fighting the urge)
  • Feeling the extremes of life: being as tired and drained as I've ever felt, and on the other side, having my whole body tingle with happiness, love, life.

Sights

  • Life as I've never seen it lived before
  • Men placing their arm around a perfect stranger (also male) before they lay a hand on their wives
  • Indian clothes - bright, flowing saris; wedding attire, all the way to naked people
  • Seeing into someone's soul through their eyes and smile - no words, and knowing that I will never in my life see them again.
 
Barb Smith
Spring 2003
Multidisciplinary Studies in New Dehli - India
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