'India
is crazy' is the conclusion that many people come to while visiting
the country, me included. The country is two thirds the size
of Australia, yet has fifty times the population. It is rather
overcrowded as you can see from a typical street scene on the
right.
There
is always something going on, when I arrived everbody was covered
in coloured paint after the 'Holi' festival (which was on the
same day as Good Friday). Many processions came past where I
stayed in Delhi, you can see a man blowing his Trombone on the
right. The usual procession format involved brass instruments
(played badly) and drums (played well) and a god image or a woman
being carried past at the end.
Delhi
was very different from Chandigarh which was designed by the
famous European designer Le Corbusier. It was a much cleaner
city with wide boulevard style streets a typical example of which
can be seen right. You can see one of the buses on the street
on the left. There are thousands and thousands of these buses
all over India, made in the country they carry the people across
it. Looking into the eyes of the drivers is not recommended however
as it does not instill 
confidence in his ability to drive the bus. Also
looking out the window while travelling is a bad idea.
Better to travel by train in fact, the
signs in the railway stations should look familiar to anybody
who has been on the London Underground. 
Other weird and wonderful things that can be
seen in the stations include the amazing 'Check your weight'
machines. The psychedelic disc wheels around while you are weighed.
Presumably to soften the blow, but Indians in the main are not
an overweight people so one can only wonder what the designer
had in mind. Perhaps it has a dual purpose helping out those
wanting to enter a meditative trance while waiting for their
train. As you do!
India
has many beggars but one I encountered in a station just had
to be photographed. He was wearing a pair of shorts on his head!
It was in Chandigarh station that I met this man and ,as there
aren't many tourists in Chandigarh, he looked extremely pleased
indeed when I gave him some money... approximately 7 pence.
Other ways of getting around India are the taxi, the rickshaw and the autorickshaw (see below). The taxis are in fact based on the Morris Oxford which obviously proved a very durable design. As usual avoid auto rickshaws because the drivers will take you to anywhere but where you want to go.
|
|
||||
|
A
visit to India can not be complete without a trip to the Ganges
river. I visited it in Rishikesh where it is amazingly clean.
So clean, in fact, you can actually swim in it and I would've
drunk the water if I'd been thirsty enough. You can see me in
the river to the right. It is amazingly refreshing to come out
of the searing heat and go into the water which is freezing cold
having come down from the Himalayas. It is an experience I will
never forget!
For
some strange reason a lot of Indian people have an immense amount
of respect for white westerners. At times it feels like you are
a rock star or a famous footballer as so many people come up
to you and ask if they can have their picture taken next to you.
Indians are tourists themselves and this family, visiting the
same temple in Rishikesh, asked if I would pose. It was pretty
windy up there as you can see my shirt billowing.