India - An Experience
Driving north from Delhi to Dharamsala (10 hours) was an incredible sight. The landscape was flat and not very interesting. The trees were not unusual nor the flowers. There were no buildings of architectural or historic significance. However, it was the most amazing experience because I was mesmerized by the people. At home in Canada, when walking or driving in the streets, all I mostly see are people walking.
Here, all along the many hours of travel up to Dharamsala, were people living their lives out in the open. Their stores were open-air shops or stands, selling everything from candies to soccer balls. Their homes were so tiny that outside is where they cooked and ate, slept, washed their clothes, and filled their water buckets from the well. Children played games; men played cricket; they combed their hair and shaved their faces. When we drove through the Punjab, they were celebrating a festival. They waved at us and smiled for our cameras. And the animals were everywhere – oxen, sheep, cows, dogs, camels, elephants, birds, deer, goats and monkeys. Life was unfolding before my eyes.
We went to Dharamsala to meet the Dalai Lama, who to me is a very wise human being. He told us that we are ‘all in the same soup.’ I understood that intellectually.
Because I was sick the night before our ride back down to Delhi, I decided to go in the small van that accompanied our large bus, so quick stops could be made. Being at the van level gave me a different perspective of driving along the road.
When we reached Delhi, I felt like I had moved into a surreal world. It was dusk. The road was about 4 lanes wide but no one kept to lanes. There were motorcycles – women with saris flowing, whizzing by, holding on to their man; people riding bicycles and bicycles with carts, driving horse drawn carts, and driving small 3-wheel motorized cars that could hold more people than one would think; they drove trucks with highly decorated cabs. All the vehicles, along with the cows and other animals, were making their way in no apparent order. Pedestrians and animals were crossing the street and walking along side. Our driver squeezed our van into every narrow possibility of the dense traffic. The rule was ‘honk 2 times and the vehicle in front of you will move over.’ The margin of error was as close as an inch as everyone expected the others to move in the right direction. I am the kind of person that closes my eyes when my son goes into a parking spot. Here I was in this seeming chaos with my eyes wide open taking it all in and feeling excitement and calmness at the same time.
Three things came from this experience. A fellow traveller said it well when she said ‘There’s always more room than you think.’ A second realization was that there was actually order in chaos – order in chaos! And the third and most powerful was that drive into Delhi. It was a visualization of and a feeling for what the Dalai Lama said – we’re all in the same soup.
According to our Hindu guide…Namaste means
We are one.
You are in my mind.
You are in my heart.
Namaste
2006