29/jan train-time & hypocrites
Cold shower, and train to Bubhaneswar, after that, if everything is ok, hyderabad. After 3 weeks in india, I'm very impressed everytime I see a hindu woman, with that dark skin, sarees... you already know, I've written about that many times, I know!!! But it's so strange to see princesses working like 'slaves' (I just wanted to use this exagerated word to see a bigger contrast with the word princesses, I don't think they are slaves), In the fields, surrounded by shit, rubbish, smells... And I don't really think that this is the most comfortable clothes for them, with all those things hanging all the time. I wonder which porcentaje of the reason is for the blissfulness of men. I know it's not for that, but it could have been a reason, in the very past. Who knows. But they are so beautiful that you can not stop looking at them!!
We will be in hyderabad in 24 hours. We'll take our first overnight train. Trains are working very well here, almost always on time, not that crowded, comfortable, cheap. They have a quite amazing net.
Through the window, the omnipresent rice fields (but how was that before they regularize all the land?). I imagine a quite homogeneous landscape all around india, full of rice fields. A part from that, the exceptions, like the himalayan mountains, rajastan (with its desert), and potential surprises... or where is not possible to plant rice. After 3 hours traveling, but still in orissa, the landscape changes a little bit. A couple of eagles in front of the biggest lake in asia, chilika lake. The fields are worked by buffalos instead of cows. They are darker and bigger, fatter and stronger. But look also very calmy, like cows. We saw also monkeys, a few families in the dry rice fields. In the wet a green ones, just the same colors, each color one person, leaning down all the time. And women working all the time, anywhere, charging firewood, water, always on their heads, moving only the hips, never the upper part. There are also very young children, playing naked, with these strings around their bellies, covered with dust.
There was a brahmin that passed through my train compartment 5 minutes ago. A brahmin is a hindu monk. They are the higher cast. after them kshatriya or military cast, then the vaishya or bussines men, and the shudra. So he came to me, and start saying strange words, maybe mantras (that's what they use to say), and touching my forehead. After that, I had a red dot. He smiled to me and left.
I was reading my book, next to the window, alone in a compartment, and I heard people yelling very loud, like discussing. I went there, and 3 men, between 40 and 60 years old, were insulting, and fisically assaulting a boy that might be 12 or 13 years old. He might be deaf-mute, he was very dirty, with broken pants, also very dirty, barefoot, and with a big burned scar in his arm. One of them hit him 3 times on the face. I went there and asked them to stop, and why were they hitting that boy. The told me that he was dirty, and that was not allowed to be there. Of course the boy was very nervous, and crying. I took him with we, and bought him a samosa (food). After that some of the people that were looking at that, came and gave him some more food. After a while the police came and with a stick, took him away of the train. He had a lost look while he was sitting there with me. He had psoriasis all along the legs, and I'd guess that he is living in the street. I've felt quite bad after all that. And imagine the boy, passing through that every day...
It was so great to sleep in the train, so comfortable. So 'india', for me.
4/4/05
We will be in hyderabad in 24 hours. We'll take our first overnight train. Trains are working very well here, almost always on time, not that crowded, comfortable, cheap. They have a quite amazing net.
Through the window, the omnipresent rice fields (but how was that before they regularize all the land?). I imagine a quite homogeneous landscape all around india, full of rice fields. A part from that, the exceptions, like the himalayan mountains, rajastan (with its desert), and potential surprises... or where is not possible to plant rice. After 3 hours traveling, but still in orissa, the landscape changes a little bit. A couple of eagles in front of the biggest lake in asia, chilika lake. The fields are worked by buffalos instead of cows. They are darker and bigger, fatter and stronger. But look also very calmy, like cows. We saw also monkeys, a few families in the dry rice fields. In the wet a green ones, just the same colors, each color one person, leaning down all the time. And women working all the time, anywhere, charging firewood, water, always on their heads, moving only the hips, never the upper part. There are also very young children, playing naked, with these strings around their bellies, covered with dust.
There was a brahmin that passed through my train compartment 5 minutes ago. A brahmin is a hindu monk. They are the higher cast. after them kshatriya or military cast, then the vaishya or bussines men, and the shudra. So he came to me, and start saying strange words, maybe mantras (that's what they use to say), and touching my forehead. After that, I had a red dot. He smiled to me and left.
I was reading my book, next to the window, alone in a compartment, and I heard people yelling very loud, like discussing. I went there, and 3 men, between 40 and 60 years old, were insulting, and fisically assaulting a boy that might be 12 or 13 years old. He might be deaf-mute, he was very dirty, with broken pants, also very dirty, barefoot, and with a big burned scar in his arm. One of them hit him 3 times on the face. I went there and asked them to stop, and why were they hitting that boy. The told me that he was dirty, and that was not allowed to be there. Of course the boy was very nervous, and crying. I took him with we, and bought him a samosa (food). After that some of the people that were looking at that, came and gave him some more food. After a while the police came and with a stick, took him away of the train. He had a lost look while he was sitting there with me. He had psoriasis all along the legs, and I'd guess that he is living in the street. I've felt quite bad after all that. And imagine the boy, passing through that every day...
It was so great to sleep in the train, so comfortable. So 'india', for me.
4/4/05
posted by Unknown at 17:34
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