India trip report (12 October to 15 October)

Is this my own country?

My friends who hop around the world always warned me of this…. When you reach IGIA after a long haul abroad and after seeing the best in the world… the difference is stark and killing… and no amount of patriotic fervor is able to bridge that up…. You inevitably ask… why we can't be there, among the US, the Europe… why immigration treats you like shit, why everything needs to be this shabby…. Why, why and more whys

I couldn’t have helped myself… I asked the same questions… despite the fact that I was coming from Cairo, not Frankfurt or Heathrow… despite the fact, I was given special treatment at the immigration…

The moment I stepped out, I was greeted by a huge huge crowd of people waiting for their near and dear ones to arrive…. Some years back, I was one among them… now I am on the other side… but even then I used to wonder, why we have to come in hordes to bid adieu or receive anybody… be it railway station or the airport. The answer lied perhaps in our mentality that told us…if we are not there then may be we are sending the wrong message.

Waiting for the taxi despite having booked it, driving through the roads that never seem to get better… just worsen… filth all around… slums, shanties…it was enough to depress me. I had heard for last one and a half years, India is booming, infrastructure is changing, and Delhi is preparing itself for the Commonwealth games in 2010. I had something else in mind when I heard it all. It was not to be.

Stayed in Delhi for a day, same struggle to survive… things have worsened… prices have almost doubled, despite the fact that the inflation rate is under 10 percent. Did I learn mathematics or the Government has unlearnt it? The auto-rickshaw driver refusing to ply with the meter on, charging almost 1.5 times of the official rates… take it or go to hell…. I had heard the news of Blue Line crushing people to death…. But could sniff it, when I saw the bus coming to screeching halt near a pack of people, almost menacingly.

For my son, it was all amusing… he intently watch everything… everything was new for him…. From the rickety taxis and chauffeur driven Mercedes in Cairo to the golf cart running all over the Dubai airport to the green yellow auto, things were changing at a furious pace around him. And he was absorbing them all.

It was my son's birthday; we went to a temple in Malaviya nagar… a middle class locality in south Delhi. I was seeing Lord Shiva after 1.5 years…. It made me numb and happy. Later we went to a nearby Sagar Ratna restaurant, for a dinner. For exorbitant prices, the restaurant offered shabby service, poor food and still hordes of people were just streaming into the place…. Perhaps that’s the only way to spend their new found riches and perhaps they have resigned to this kind of product and service. We grumblingly ate everything from a hard idlis to the Punjabi version of Sambhar to the oil soaked Dosas. I hope no one new is subjected to this introduction to South Indian food.

I reached station just in time to catch my over night train for Allahabad. It was a train called Rewa express. The compartments and the seats of the train were all wet; disinterestedly cleaned by some cleaner without using a bit of common sense. In other countries, it would have raised hues and cries… stalling of the train and even compensation, but here from every passenger's bag, almost magically, came out a old newspaper that was used to clean the seats… they are all used to it.

Allahabad has definitely improved. Is it the new government, with Law and order high on agenda…? (The sitting MP and high profile criminal of Allahabad Ateeq Ahmad is on the run, ever since the new government has come to power). Or is it the Shock absorber effect of Delhi.

My elder brother told me that Allahabad University has changed into a central University…. This has reduced the number of students… and now only cream is able to find admission in the University… this has purged a lot of non-serious students that used to hang around the University as if they were born to just hang around over there…

Result is Allahabad is a quieter town, a mellower town…resonating the same vibes that it used to give during my early childhood. Hope it remains that way.

I came back to Delhi the same day, after meeting with Papa, Ma, Nani and other family members… seeing them after a long time was a beautiful experience… Allahabad will always remain my hometown.

The next one and a half day was spent in Delhi; doing various chores… buying things for people back in Cairo, meeting a few good friends of mine over here… it was all a nice experience. I went to Sarojini Nagar market… and was almost crushed by the huge crowds… one motorcyclist with his pillion associate drove into the one way… almost crashing with into a car… the Car man objected, only to be subjected by a barrage of foul language and threats by the two motorcyclists… nobody came to the rescue of the car man… it was not their matter. Nothing is anybody's matter in India… almost nothing, till it affects you

On 15^th, my flight was at 9 in the evening… I left the place at 5, anticipating a traffic jam… My son somehow sensed that I am going away, he was inconsolable…. And not ready to leave me.

My wife somehow held him while I rode the Auto Rickshaw…. While I was going away, I saw my son crying…. It was very painful for me.

Drops of tears rolled down my eyes… I searched for a handkerchief, but as I am, it was not in my pocket…. I started wiping my tears with my sleeves. When the Bihari migrant auto driver spoke.

"Saheb ee to Zindagi ba, Hamka dekhai… apna dui saal ka bachha aur mehraru ko chhod ke unki khatir yahan kaam kar rahe hain… ka karenge, jeena to hai hi (Sir, this is life… look at me. I have left my two year old son and wife back home and working over here, what to do-this is life)"

I looked at him and smiled… he smiled too… he was my brother, my companion and yes

This was my very own country, of which I am proud. Home is where the heart is