Indian Journeys

I began this blog almost ten years ago (What?  Really?).  But it wasn’t my first.  I’d started blogging two years before that, on a different platform, to record my memories of a very special holiday in India. It wasn’t the best of platforms and in fact it no longer exists.  Eventually I took a deep breath and moved to WordPress, so you can’t flick back and read about my Indian adventures here.

These days, I’m in a writing group.  Last week, we fell to talking about travelling, and about how we often overlook the pleasure of the journey in favour of impatiently anticipating our arrival at our destination.  It sent my memory scurrying back to India, and I can feel a series of posts coming on about Journeys in India.

Are you sitting comfortably?  Then I’ll begin.  Now that dates me……

I’d wanted to go to India for more years than I could remember.  As a London child and then as a student in Manchester, Indian culture had always been at the periphery of my life:  its foods, its smells, its clothing.

When we lived in Sheffield during my thirties there had been ‘The Arts of India’ at the Mappin Art Gallery, when craftsman from all over India came, and every day for about three weeks, made pots, wove, carved, and worked with inks and cloth in the art gallery. By night, since my then husband was the gallery curator, we’d eat together, joined by Indian heritage Sheffield residents who became our friends too. They would cook for us and we for them, and we’d talk into the night.

Some years later my son, by then eighteen and just finished with school, worked as a teacher in a village school in Uttar Pradesh, then travelled for some months following his nose all round India.  His letters – no emails then – tantalised me.

Family and work all pushed the dream of distant travel away. Until my 60th birthday and my retirement,  when my daughter and her husband gave me a very special gift to be spent on travel. India. That was it. I’d go there –  with no Malcolm, no friend, no companion found on Thelma and Louise – though I considered all of these options. This trip was for me.

And I went, choosing south India instead of the more visited north.  I have memories of markets, of quiet temples, in one of which I was blessed by an elephant, of cows and goats in busy city streets, of eagles soaring over rooftops, of eating at workmen’s cafes from banana leaf ‘plates’, of the Imam’s call to prayer every morning at 5.30 and every evening at 5.30.  I had a week in a small group too, in rural locations, discovering the parts of India that work the land.

A temple elephant raises her trunk before lowering it to bless me.
Garland sellers at Bangalore market
Eagles fly above Bangalore
A back street in Bangalore
Cow on a mission in Bangalore
Entrance to a Hindu temple in Bangalore
Washing an elephant in the River Kaveri.
Sunset in the Western Ghats.
Zebra crossing in Mysore.
Street decorations, Thanjavur.

Above all though I remember journeys. It was on these journeys that I often felt closest to being an ordinary citizen doing ordinary things in an extraordinary  country.

  • My first rickshaw ride, on my very first day in India,  which turned into an extempore, personal tour of Bangalore from my driver, who loved his city.
  • The overnight train ride, travelling across India in the company of tea boys, soldier-smart railway officials, giggling girls, serious lecturers, a family groups sharing their carefully prepared three course meal before washing up, then arriving very early in the morning to a busy station community.
  • Or the intercity bus journey along a motorway, where goats carelessly wandered onto the carriageway from the central reservation where they grazed..
  • Or my final journey on a local train which I truly didn’t expect to survive so tightly were we all packed. But that, like all the others, is a story in itself.

Click on any image to see it full size.

Author: margaret21

I'm retired and living in North Yorkshire, where I walk as often as I can, write, volunteer, and travel as often as I can.

24 thoughts on “Indian Journeys”

  2. I have never been, but I imagine what it’s like from all I’ve heard; a feast of colour with always lots going on, hearing noise and chatter from dawn till late.

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  3. Wow! I wish now that I had gone to India when I was younger and fitter, but events conspired. And now my health is against it, but I always enjoy seeing images from there, so looking forward to future posts of yours, Margaret!

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    1. Yes, India is certainly no place to be if you’re not fit: as you’ll find out in a future post. Although my own experience of their healthcare was wonderful.

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  4. I can see how all those elements in your life added up to this desire to visit India. It’s not a place that’s ever called to me although I’m sure, if I went, I’d be caught up in a world so exotic to me. I’ll look forward to other posts on the subject!

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    1. It’s funny, isn’t it, why some places ‘call’ us while others simply don’t? Not that I’d refuse a trip anywhere that came my way. I’ve loved revisiting that holiday – such memories.

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  7. I expect some aspects of your trip would be the same today as they’ve been for probably hundreds of years, and yet some would be entirely different with the coming of the Tech World to so many places.

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  8. Wow, you WERE a true adventurer! India never had any pull on me and the more my age number advances, the less inclined I am for lengthy travels. The back and forth between F and CH is quite (more than) enough for me, thank you very much! But of course, your memories are the true treasure in all this. Things you’d never have done make a reappearance in your heart and brain, you re-live the moments and you smile at the adventures you experienced! Thank You for this look back to your travels. That was precious!

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    1. Yes, I’m in no hurry for further long-haul travel. There’s such a lot to discover in Europe still. But I wouldn’t have missed this. I’m enjoying revisiting my memories.

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  9. How very wonderful a gift that was! I shall look forward to some armchair travels. 🙂 🙂 It’s always seemed so exotic to me. Many sights that call but perhaps never quite loudly enough.

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  10. Ah, India…. So exotic, such contrasts. But if truth be told, I am fearful of it. I’d love to go and feel sure that I would love it – but only if my hand were tightly held the entire time. Which means I shall enjoy these posts enormously. And you’re off to a great start 🙂

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  12. I well remember the Listen with Mother reference 🙂
    I love your diverse pictures of your trip. I have travelled from A to B alone, but have not travelled about as you did on my own. It must open you up to engaging much more with the people you meet and the strangers you travel in the company of on trains and buses and so on. I imagine that one has to get in touch with one’s inner extrovert 🙂

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  13. Pingback: My Indian Wildlife Adventure – From Pyrenees to Pennines

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