Trip to India

WONDERFUL INDIA – A DIVERSITY IN UNITY AND A UNITY IN DIVERSITY
     
By Linda Sackstein

The "uniqueness" of our recent trip to India was made special by being exposed to every day Indian life.  We were a colourful conglomerate consisting of my cousin, Alan, his wife Carla and their 3 boys aged 15, 13 and 10 from Midrand, South Africa, plus Esther and Michael, an Indian couple living in South Africa and friendly with our cousins for the past  16 years.   Both have Ph.Ds. in English Literature and teach Applied Linguistics.

On the 12th of December 2007 my husband, Lenny, and I left for Bombay (Mumbai), an  amazing city  - so interesting, colourful and cheap.   A wonderful vegetarian meal with drinks and 3 courses came to 28 shekels for 2 people!!      Next day  we hired a private taxi which took us to the Gate of India, a Jain temple where you are asked not to turn your back on the idols, the Mahatma Ghandi house, the hanging gardens of Mumbai and the Dhobi Ghat , a communal  outdoors laundry.

The sight of Alan and Esther waiting for us at the Bangalore airport was like the nectar of a bee in a sunflower field.   They took us to our flat in the Golden Orchid Apartments  which had a large lounge, 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms and came  with 4 live-in servants!   Deepak our cook, Sanjay  the launderer, Ranbir  the  cleaner  and  Anand helping out .  Up until the mid 1960s Indian houses only had outside toilets and showers. However, about this time the builders had the good sense to start adding small en-suite bathrooms to every bedroom.

We then met Esther's sister and brother-in-law, Jaya and Babu, who live in a town house complex that resembles those found in South Africa.  This complex was called Trinity Meadows.  They gave us  lunch with  my favourite  goat biriyani which tastes exactly like lamb.  The table was groaning under all the other dishes.   We also had Pao bhaji, Portuguese in origin, salad with gooseberries, rice, dal and yoghurt,  Eating in     

2

people's homes is completely different to eating in restaurants.   Later there was a concert put on by people who live in the complex.  First a magician, then carol singing by the women all in beautiful saris and then all the small children did a dance that resembled the steps my daughter, Yaeli,  a dancing  teacher, uses with  her small pupils.  I asked if most of the people there were Christians and Jaya said   "No, they are mostly Hindus but they celebrate all the holidays of all the different religions. "   There was such a beautiful spirit to the whole thing.  Generally we found the Indian people to be ultra-courteous, calm and peace-loving.  There was no shoving and pushing.  There it is more common to hear, "Please, you are ahead of me."

Next evening we had dinner at Esther's younger sister, Babes,  and her husband who are both medical doctors  at the Baptist hospital. All 3 sisters were lovely people but so different from each other.

The next morning we left Bangalore for Kochin, where  we were met  at the airport by Mohan, our driver, in his mini-bus, for a five and  a half hour journey to Thekkady and  the Silver Crest resort hotel.  We were then 10 souls as Esther's friend, Vanu, had joined us.  Vanu, a 54 year-old widow, is an intellectual who is also completely down to earth.   She, too, has a Ph D. In English literature and speaks Hindi, Khannadi and Malayalam.  Her English is flawless.   She gave me lessons in history, geography and Indian culture.   Married Hindu women wear a red bindi  and  Vanu wears a black bindi   to indicate that she is a widow.

That first night in Thekkady we saw a wonderful martial arts show of Kalaripayattu  considered to be the oldest martial art in the world.  The official language of Kerala  province is Malayalam and is largely influenced by Portugese since Vasco da Gama arrived in India through Kerala.  Kera is coconut and la is land  -"land of the coconuts."  The following night we saw the famed Khatakali Dancers, 2 males playing female parts.  The programme reads:  6.30 – costumes and make-up
7.00 the Show.   All was done on stage  and it was as interesting as the show itself.  The main character has his "dress" made out of about 100 sacks tucked into his belt one over the other and finally his skirt is put over what looks like a 1950's "stiff petticoat".  Most of his face is painted green and the beard is  white.  The real action is in the dancers' ability to portray many different expressions using only their eyes, mouth and cheek muscles which shake and shiver on their own while the rest of the face is quite still.

On the way  we were lucky enough to find a true Elephant Festival .   There were 7 brightly decked out elephants in gold and red  with  2 mahouts sitting on each one.  In the front were15 musicians using only drums,  cymbols and what we called the Indian shofah as it is shaped like an elephant's trunk and makes the same sound.   It was the middle of winter and I almost  fainted from the heat.  Fortunately Thekkady is in the mountains and it was much cooler there.

The next thing that the guys discovered  was"Toddy" which  I can say is like drinking pure Skokiaan from a backyard Shebeen.  To non-South Africans,  imagine a local beer, viciously strong, made from coconut sap and other things.  It tastes and smells like stale sweat.   Disgusting!!  The guys who had been drinking Toddy  all had "Delhi belly" and were coughing their lungs out while the girls, who had not, were all fine.  To quote the boys, the first glass of toddy was not so bad as they were thirsty, the second tasted vile, but from the third onwards, it was a great drink.

The next day we made our way  around Allepey by  houseboat  on the river Periyar.  These boats are made of wood with thatched roofs and ours consisted of a large living room and porch, two en-suite bedrooms and a kitchen.  From Allepey we went on a six hour boat ride to Kochin.  Sitting on the upper level, gave us a wonderful view of the river and it's goings on – mostly people washing their laundry, others doing their dishes and quite a few guys relaxedly urinating into the river, facing the spectators.  Did not quite give us the appetite  for  eating fish in this area.

The shul in Kochin where 35 Jews live is in Jew street situated in Jew Town .  Seven women and six men live in Jew street.
Sammy the leader, is not a Rabbi, and  refused to open the shul for us as it is closed on Friday and Shabbat for cleaning and services.  We managed to return for Shabbat morning service.  The only young guy, an Israeli, aged about 40, was very rude to us.  I was sitting between my Indian friends, Vanu and Esther and he came up and asked us if we were Jewish.  I said I was and Esther asked  "why, do we have to leave? "  This Yossi then replied "well seeing as you are already inside, I won't ask you to go but if you were still outside I would not have let you in,  otherwise hundreds of people would  try to get in when we are having a service."  I wondered which hundred people as the street was empty outside except  for a few Indian merchants.  This was the first unpleasant experience we  had in India and dafka from our own kind.    Their minyanim are  very hit and miss affairs depending on what tourists are there.   The Indians could not have been friendlier or nicer to us, always smiling and helpful. We also visited the Jewish cemetery which has signs in Malayalam, English and Hebrew.

Two days later we flew back to our flat  in Bangalore.
Esther took Carla  and me to this wonderful store called FabIndia where we bought the most amazing things.  There was a sign in one of the dressing  rooms  about the dye, indigo. It said that although the colour runs it does not spoil anything else in the wash.  Then it said  "If the colour continues to run, do not despair.  Wash the item in salt and water."   We had a lot of fun buying khurtas, churidars, salwars and dupattas.  The colours and textures of the silks and cottons is indescribable.  The array is so great it is hard to choose.

On Christmas day we drove a long way  to the family farm, where they grow coconuts and  bananas and have a piggery. We all decided to wear our newly-acquired Indian clothes.   Carla and I looked quite snazzy.  Len and Alan wore their
khurtas with their lunghis – long "skirts" that can be worn  We had the most wonderful Christmas day on the farm.  Their house is very big and completely round.   After a most delicious meal, Japes, Esther's brother, pulled out his guitar.  We sang Christmas Carols followed by blues, popular songs, country and western, etc.  This was real home-made entertainment and everyone joined in.   At about 5 p.m. we had Masala Tea and Christmas cake.  

 Travel was by autorickshaws everywhere.  We called them tuk-tuks because of the sound of their engines.  They are designed to take 3 passengers legally  but that  seems to be a recommendation only.   We saw up to 9 people literally on top of each other squashed in to one tuk-tuk,   I did not see any seat belt notices anywhere.

The next day we left for the Nagarahole  Nature and Tiger Reserve.  We were now14 people and they organized 2 very large vehicles for us.  I swear I will never complain about Israeli traffic jams again.  In Indian cities they are simply indescribable and the hooters (horns) go ALL THE TIME.  I think if a wheel falls off one's car, one can still drive but if the hooter breaks then you cannot possibly drive at all.

The absolute highlight of this section of the journey was that we had our own National Geographic guide (or NatGeo as the Indians call it) His name is Gerry Martin and he is married to Esther's niece.  Gerry  is a fundi on snakes and reptiles and is very well known in most parts of India.   He caught 3 snakes for us while in our company, the largest of which was a rat snake and each of us had a turn to hold it.  My kids were amazed to see the pictures as they would never  have believed seeing their mother holding a large snake and smiling!!

We had very basic accommodation just outside the  reserve in a coffee plantation including our own wildlife of ants and other creepy crawlies that bite.  The price included 3 full meals a day and unlimited tea, coffee and cold drinks at the amazing price of $30 dollars per couple per day.

We boarded the minibus and, when the guide got on, he said : "Good morning,  my name is Cow Shit and this is your driver, Hard Dick."  The utter silence of total shock followed. Later  we checked and actually his name is Kaushek and the driver's name is Hardek.

It is very rare to actually see a tiger as they are solitary animals and keep themselves very well hidden.  So it is amazing that in only 2 visits we did see a tiger.  Very far away and only visible with binoculars  but what a magnificent sight he was.  Our guide let us get out of the minibus to approach a viewing site.   However, it was spoilt when  another large bus stopped and the whole herd of people came out and made a lot of noise.  The tiger was woken up and began to move towards us. Everyone quickly got back on their buses.

Gerry then took us to meet Sharm, the local and very colourful snake catcher and charmer.  He has caught 17,400 snakes to date and has recorded each and every one of them.  Sharm wears about 6 or 7 earrings in each ear, many gold and silver necklaces and a large ring on every finger.  His hair is long, black, grey  and red where he has applied much henna.  He is a very big man and has a wonderful big personality to go with his figure.  His
belief is that Snakes are not as dangerous as people.  In his car he had stored his small catch for the day in various sacks and also a large barrel containing 2 cobras  and the vicious Russell's viper which kills more people in India every year than any other snake.  The most amazing thing about his "catch" is that it took place in the courtyard of an ordinary petrol station and no-one except ourselves found this at all strange.

Once back in Bangalore, Vanu invited us to a meal at her house.   A devout Hindu, she had a shrine in her home.  Her chosen god is Ganesh, the elephant god but there were also other gods in the shrine.  They can choose to worship whichever gods they wish to.  Ganesh is my favourite god too as he is the remover of obstacles.  We met her son aged 19 and her daughter 25, who are so mature and cultured. Her
daughter called all the women "aunty" and all the men "uncle".  I had read of this custom but this was the first time it had happened to me.

Sadly, our wonderful holiday was coming to an end.  We were deep in the bush when it happened and so did not hear about the tragic assassination of Benazir Bhutto until we retuned to Bangalore.

England has left its 400 year mark on India.  In the 21st century, English has put India in the centre of the modern world.  The use of perfect English is  amazing but also has it's funny side.  We  saw a sign in the hanging gardens of Mumbai which  said :

 "Any play-games such as cricket, football, fly-kites, jogging, sleeping, plucking flowers, drinking alcohol, misbehaving, feeding animal or bird is strictly forbidden.  By Order."

By order of this author I can highly recommend a six hour flight eastward to marvelous, diverse India.  You will definitely find kindred souls amongst the 1.2 billion residents of this vast and wondrous land.