Getting high on masala chai

Well, I’m back from the UK and it already feels like I was never away. I’m also just back from a short but very memorable trip to Kodaikanal with my colleagues.

The timing of our trip was not exactly perfect what with the perpetual showers and a constant thick cover of fog over what were considered to be the best sights around. Despite this, we ended up enjoying our brief stay in Kodai and I was busy relishing some of the many little pleasures of traveling in India that I sometimes pined for while in England- like having endless cups of masala chai and paying for them in Rupees.

It is surprising to see how my idea of what is symbolic of India and to some extent, our national pride has changed ever since I have come back. My idea of these themes and objects now coincides with what a first-time tourist or an Indiaphile who has never visited India would imagine them to be. This is not because a mere 6 month stint abroad makes me think like a firang but more so because I am now probably able to see what India is that not many other countries can be.

Even a few months ago, I was annoyed to see how India was depicted as this strange, exotic land that is a destination for spiritual fulfillment for dummies in The Darjeeling Limited. But now, I see nothing wrong with this description- I would probably only explain to the uninitiated that this too but not solely, is India.

I now see nothing wrong with a tourist defining India by the box of spices in the average Indian home, the stray animals on the road that have a sophisticated sense of traffic etiquette, the colours, the cacophony of dialects, the scary traffic, Bollywood and whatever other stereotypical image there is of India (but no, not snakes and snake-charmers- I take exception to that one – it is surprising just how many people are still told the “India is a land of snake-charmers” story and how many people buy it!) I now see all of these things as catalysts in making the experience of living in India a very entertaining mind exercise. I do not know if I am right in thinking so but I am now of the opinion that we use our creativity and judgment rather well while living in an environment where we take nothing – rules, penalties, liberty- none of it for granted.

India, in some ways seems like the punk district of Camden in London, in standing for the alternate as against the regular- with the exception that we are regular people leading regular lives which just happen to be in essence unusual, without anyone really trying to make a statement. This is why I would recommend India to anyone who is looking for a holiday that is going to play havoc with their idea of the quotidian. The more practical side to it is that it just happens to be a huge landmass that can offer starkly diverse experiences and it is all easily available with a single visa and a single currency.

I can see that my outpour of nationalistic sentiments is eerily close to sounding like a copy for Incredible India . I think I might have fallen prey to the “saare jahaan se achcha” syndrome, which I suspect affects every true blue Hindustani returning from his/her first trip abroad- which is why I cannot be blamed for this post.