Not by inhaling some of its roadside greenery tamped into a bong but by travel. Which will do that to your mind (if you let it), regardless of where you go. But we usually start with such polarised preconceptions about India that any visit there dislocates our understanding of the place. This picture from a collection taken of the India Fashion Week reminded me of the effect the subcontinent can have on our expectations.
The enduring images of India for me as a kid were the classic ones of poverty and simple, crowded living. That was reinforced by those I met who worked in India – missionaries back on the occasional furlough (sanity and fund raising break) who would tell you about the tough places in which they worked. Their worlds came to represent all of India. The occasional glimpse of something else – the richness of pre-colonial culture for example had no context into which I could place it so it sat isolated in my mind without a sensible home in which to live. You almost go so far as to imagine that any gorgeous about India must belong to another world altogether, completely divorced from the one you imagine India to be.
India is of course all those things that we know it to be in terms of poverty and sub standard living. But to describe it in those terms only is to do it a disservice altogether. That would be akin to reducing Australia to living in Cambeltown (Sydney), England to Brixton (though that place is on the up and up!) or the US to D.C’s Trinidad. What India reveals to the visitor is a diverse range of experiences that positively assault the senses but especially sight. (I will concede “taste” to second place, followed by smell). It is a sumptuous place with colours and design that are luscious and complex. It is seen in their art and architecture, ancient and modern. It is of course seen in their fabrics and the way clothes are designed to flash off colour and movement. The place is a constant revelation and this weeks Fashion Week only reminded me of how much these people love playing with fabric, colour and light. It is very different to the black and white poverty picture I grew up with.
India is a journey of mind and soul, a journey of self discovery. Be it traveling through the serenity of the Himalayas or the fascinating landscapes or the jungles teeming with wildlife, forts and palaces & sand-dunes of Rajasthan, backwaters of Kerala – it is as diverse and as fascinating land as you will ever come across.
Among the poverty you will see the rich mansions.
* Did you know even though you call India poor and a land of sub-standard living – it is home to the world’s richest man.
* TATA’s for example control – tea, steel and Jaguar & Land-rover in England.
*The richest man in England is an Indian, Lakshmi Mittal and so forth.
India is charging ahead! Let’s see the world equation in another 30 years!
You are certainly right about India, having grown up there and lived there until I was 13. Been back in 1982, how shameful. Hope to get there with my husband and daughter at the end of next year, who haven’t been there. Friends tell me I wont recognise it. I have a sense of nostalgia, when I think of the smells, taste, the variety in markets/colours and want to discover the parts of India I haven’t seen. Glad your experiences were great!
Sharon