In just two days, we’ll be docking into the port of Chennai (India), and I have to be honest with you. I’m a little nervous.
Excited, but nervous…
The last time I was in India was about 7-8 years ago. I spent a little over a month there living in a Tibetan refugee camp near Darjeeling, photographing people’s daily lives during the monsoon. I also got to visit several cities like Varanasi, Calcutta and Delhi. Over all, it was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had.
So why am I nervous?
Experiencing India as a whole is like getting violently slapped in the face by an angry clown…there are so many things going on at once in this place that it’s sometimes overwhelming. You may occasionally find yourself in the uncomfortable position of not knowing if you’re enjoying the situation you’re in…or dreading it. Sometimes you don’t know for sure until you’ve left and had time to process the experience.
I once walked into New Delhi’s business district, where men in suits walked briskly and purposefully down the street. I remember thinking that this could be the business center of any modern city I had ever been to…when suddenly a Tantric yogi seemingly THREW himself into the middle of incoming traffic and began running in-between cars. He was completely naked and his dreadlocks swept the floor behind him. I have NO idea what he was doing.
No one seemed to notice him, or care. They just kept marching down the street.
Another time, I was coming down a mountain in the back of a jeep. We stopped to pick up a bunch of crazy-looking guys dressed in orange. They were all quite jovial (at this point there must have been a dozen of us leaning out of the jeep), and I learned that these men were followers of a specific Hindu god (whose name I forget). They joked a lot, kept slapping me- and each other - on the knees and smoked joint after joint…after joint. When we dropped them off, they began walking single file, chanting and ringing their bells… Again, this impressed no one but me.
Obviously, I knew very little about India or Hinduism at the time. But by the time I left, it’s as if I knew even less! There is so much variety, so many colors, so many smells, so many unpronounceable words, so much traffic, so many people, so many spices, so many temples, so many colorful buses, so many Hindu cults, so many gods, so many movies and so much LOUD music (often at the same time), in India that it’s hard to take it all in at once.
It takes many days to acclimate to India, and we’ll have exactly 5 days to get our work done. We will not have the luxury of “adapting”. Once we’re off the ship, we’ll have to hit the ground running.
But I know what you’re about to say and I wholeheartedly agree with you, dearest reader: “But this is GNG we’re talking about! If anyone can do it, it’s the Nomads…”
Right you are, my friend. G-G-G-G-G-G G Unit!
Ah. We’ll do fine!
Comments