Indian-ness?

Mom was Raving after her return with the bags. I overheard her telling this to anybody who would care to listen. I feel I have experienced the se incidents myself. And I do feel for her. Being a dog who hates being cuddled and handled, I can very well sympathise with what she went through. So let me see if I can recall all that she raved about.

During their trip they went to some temple town famous for its Krishna temple and its partner temple on an island just off the mainland. A  10 minute ferry ride [ don’t ask me what all this means, ok? I am just the messenger boy here] is required to take people across to the island. The ferry point was a sea of humans, sweaty, grimy, and bursting at the seams of the pier. It was a hot sultry day, which didn’t help matters. The next ferry had docked and people were pushing, shoving, jumping over others and the pier wall to somehow get into the boat before it got full. It was a stampede, with kids getting squashed, chappals getting lost, bags and pockets getting picked, women getting pawed, you name it. A boat that was to carry 100 people was loaded to ‘just 130’ [ the ticket collector- who doubled as a peanut seller told our party proudly]. The boat swayed -in equal parts due to the choppy sea and the mass of humans packed like sardines, and our party had their hearts in their throats, hoping for a safe docking at the other end.

Once on the far bank with everyone alive, thankfully, the ‘double role’ informed Mom that there was just 10 minutes till the temple shut for the afternoon, so they all started running up the sloping path which led to the temple and was lined with touristy stalls selling every knick-knack in the world and which could as well be a stall in any other tourist or temple town in India, same identical stuff. It didn’t seem to bother anyone else except our party that the path was littered with garbage, cows’ urine and other un-mentionables. Religious fervor made people blind to their surroundings apparently. Just before the temple entrance, people were required to leave their phones and cameras for a small fee. The attendant was a village idiot who took long  precious minutes trying to explain to Mom that he wouldn’t be available after the temple closed so they should return quickly to collect their stuff. I mean, Hello? People can return only AFTER they go in, or can it be any other way?  After hurriedly assuring him Mom and Ganjoo rushed to the temple door only to reach it and have the doorman shut it on their faces. Much pleading and begging that they had come a long way didn’t cut any ice. The lady cop told Mom- ‘God dosen’t care if you’ve come from America. This is his resting time’. RESTING TIME FOR GOD? Mom was speechless, having come this far just to hear those words. And I think she didn’t want to make a scene so they just left. Let me assure you, if it were ME, I would have scratched that door down, b’cos I always get what I want.

Anyway, they didn’t want to spend 2 hours on that filthy garbage dump of an island, so they went back to the ferry point for a return ride. Once again, there was the same overloading, but my party was better prepared and decided to board last! Once in, squeezed between smelly people, Mom spotted a lady throw a plastic bag into the sea! As luck would have it the breeze was so strong that the bag swooped back into the boat and Mom caught it, and lectured that woman about the perils of littering the sea. When Mom starts, let me tell you , she can go on and on. But that lady was even worse. She snatched the plastic bag from Mom, and threw it right back into the water saying ‘ Yeh sab chalta hai India mein’. [ All this is acceptable in India] Once again Mom was left speechless.

Ganjoo on the other side of the boat was facing his own set of problems. The guy next to him had a mouth full of tobacco and he let forth a long spurt into the sea, the red spray catching on Ganjoo’s sleeve. That made him so MAD and HE started lecturing that man about the perils of tobacco and spitting in public spaces. I think the guy looked embarrassed. I doubt he would be reformed though. It’s a wonder he didn’t reply – This is acceptable in India!!

Moving on to the main temple, the experience was equally bad. Long serpentine queues though separate for men and women, had no cops to mind the crowds, and women were pushing, sliding past, going over other people just to get ahead in the line. Mom and K-mau went hoarse telling them that EVERYONE was gong to get a chance, but nobody was listening. Once again Fervour had taken over any semblance of civility, or discipline. The whole episode till the ‘darshan’ took hardly 15 minutes but it sure put them so completely off, I doubt they are going to visit any famous temples in a hurry! The touts outside, trying to make a quick buck, the apathy of the cops, and the disappointment over a state that boasts of a high NRI population, majority of whom would be devout followers , is unable to clean up temple sites, organize ‘darshans’ in a peaceable and orderly way, and make it pleasurable for visitors.

These same Indians are so careful when they travel abroad, they never spit or litter or cause trouble while waiting in queues. Maybe it’s being in one’s motherland that brings out the hooligans in humans???