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Why India?

by Julie Nasmith

Almost every winter during the 90s, I spent several months in India, mostly in Jaipur, Rajasthan. Back in Canada, people would frequently ask me "Why India?". One evening after dinner during the '95-'96 winter, I went back to my room in the small hotel where I stayed and started to write.  An hour and a half later I had forty-five reasons why. And over the next couple of months I added about 20 more.

The number one reason is:

1. People. Most of all my friends. As well, I must include all those (besides my friends) who make India the crazy, welcoming, delightful place it is - the obnoxious little girls begging on MI Road, the salesmen who relentlessly try to lure foreigners into their shops, the saddhus, the rickshaw wallahs, the doormen in their elegant turbans, the guards in their military garb with their huge shotguns, the women sitting on the ground in the marketplace with their vegetables for sale spread out on burlap - they are all the spirit of India.

The other reasons are:

2. Bystanders are always happy to give directions even if they have no idea where you want to go
      
3. There is always time to accept an offer of tea
    
4. The musicians that play in the bands at weddings, even the most elaborate weddings, all seem to be playing different tunes at the same time
    
5. If you need change you can always get it even if you're not buying something in that store
    
6. If the price is 6 rupees and you have a 5 rupee note and a 50, they will take the 5
    
7. Everything is flexible
    
8. Men walk down the street holding hands.
    
9. Driving down the road eating a banana, when I am finished I can just throw the peel out the window for the cows (pigs, goats etc.)
    
10. Mehendi
     
11. The sun always shines
     
12. A pedicure in a luxury hotel beauty salon costs 75 rupees ($3) and a good haircut costs about the same
       
13. There is always room for one more person on a seat in a train
     
14. If the bus is full they hang out the door or sit on the roof
     
15. If a woman enters a bus carrying a baby and there are no seats, a woman who has a seat will take the baby
      
16. There is always time to visit with friends
     
17. If it doesn't get done today, tomorrow is okay too or the tomorrow after that
     
18. In Hindi the same word (kal) means both yesterday and tomorrow
        
19. Giving is considered an honour
     
20. On your birthday you give presents to other people (usually sweets)
     
21. Food is always shared no matter how poor someone is
     
22. What is impossible one minute (not possible madam) becomes possible if you stand around and look anxious long enough
     
23. When I left my favourite pen in the public fax office I returned the next day and found it stuck neatly behind the calendar on the wall
     
24. You can't take a train from one city to another without being invited to someone's cousin's wedding or someone's home for dinner
     
25. Grown men have names (nicknames) like Googooji and Tinky
     
26. Many women still wear saris every day
     
27. Bicycle rickshaw chauffeur all afternoon for 60 rupees ($2.50)
     
28. When it comes to spelling, close is good enough
     
29. Designs in powdered colour in the middle of the road
     
30. Nobody is afraid to sing
     
31. It is not fashionable to be thin, only poor people are thin
     
32. Shops have names like Decent Travels, Famous Tailors, Honest Hairdressers and Precious Drycleaners
     
33. If you are stopped for a minor traffic violation, 20 rupees (bribe) handed over to the policeman will end the matter
     
34. The first time I had my shawl dry cleaned it cost 30 rupees. The second time I had the same shawl cleaned at the same place it cost 25 rupees. The third time it cost 20 rupees.
     
35. My credit is good everywhere, no need to sign anything, I can pay when I get around to it
     
36. The transport trucks are all decorated with silver and gold Christmas garlands and painted with birds and flowers and on the back it says HORN PLEASE and THANK YOU TATA
     
37. I am referred to as Julie-Ji, Julie Madam, Julie Memsahib (pronounced memsaab) or (good grief) The Julie Memsahib.
     
38. Bombay (Bollywood) produces more than 700 movies each year, far more than Hollywood, all are musicals, all singing is lip-synced sung by an (approx.) 70-year-old woman named Lata Mangeskar
     
39. Rajasthani village men wear turbans in bright orange, hot pink or lime green with their sparkling white shirts and dhotis
     
40. Item from the "helpful hints" column of Femina magazine, a leading women's magazine: For an animated centrepiece at your next dinner party, mix water and vinegar in the ratio of 3:1 in a tall glass. Add a teaspoon of soda bicarb and several moth balls. The balls will rise and fall automatically for a long long time. Ranjana Pasupathy, Noida
     
41. First cousins are considered so much a part of the family they are referred to as cousin-sisters and cousin-brothers
     
42. When a new refrigerator was bought for the hotel restaurant, it was decorated with a garland of marigolds, sweet balls and sacred symbols, a candle was lit in front of it and pujas (prayers) were performed by the resident Brahmin priest to ensure its success
     
43. I once saw man going down the road on a rickety bicycle with a baby goat in a burlap bag hanging from each handlebar
     
44. At the train station, ladies (correct term) get to go to the front of the line when buying tickets
     
45. Everything can be repaired - from my broken rubber sandals to my computer printer
     
46. There is lots of time to just BE
     

Some more reasons:

47. Dal Batti Churma, a traditional Rajasthani feast
     
48. Monkeys, camels and elephants
     
49. Maharajahs, palaces and forts
     
50. Polo matches
     
51. Toe rings, bangles, ankle bracelets, nose pins
     
52. Sandals everyday, all year
     
53. Kite day
     
54. Bougainvillea, jasmine, queen of the night
     
55. Rose garlands
     
56. A sense of the sacred is never far away
     
57. Gods and goddesses
     
58. Festivals - Diwali, Festival of Light - Holi, Festival of Colour, etc
     
59. Every day I see green parrots, mynah birds, peacocks and hoopoes
     
60. At night there are a thousand sparrows in the bamboo tree by the pool at the Rajputana Hotel
     
61. In the evening at dusk the owlets come out of their tree where they sleep all day and perch on the sprinkler heads on the lawn
     
62. If we get a craving for Creme Caramel after dinner we can send somebody up to Niros Restaurant to get us some
     
63. Fresh squeezed orange juice every morning
     
64. Ramesh, one of the sweepers at Hotel Diggi Palace sings while he sweeps