And the journey starts
Off to India we go. I’m writing this at midnight on the night before we leave. My alarm will go at 6:45 tomorrow morning but I just can’t simply lie down and sleep right now. There is way too much going through my head. I’m thinking about how crazy it is that I’ve just packed a bag in which I should have everything I need and want to have with me for the next year. I don’t think you can really plan for everything ahead but somewhere something is nagging at you to overthink everything twice. On earlier travels I always adhered to a simple way of packing: pack everything that you think you need and for the rest make sure you have your phone, money and travel documents. It means you get where you want to go to and will be able to get anything you still need once you get there. I have a hard time making it as easy as I have done before. Well, I guess there’s only one way to find out if I took what I needed and that is to simply go.
I feel some anxiety brewing inside of me, that tells me I’m doing something completely stupid and reckless whereas on the other side I catch myself jumping and bumping because I wish I could leave right now and start everything I’ve been working for the last year. There are obviously ideas and expectations that I imagine. What will India look like? How will I like the culture, the people? These are questions I try to give some answers to but let it be clear that from my comfortable bed here in the South of France it is impossible to know the truth. I keep catching myself to try and compare and rationalize my expectations from what I’ve seen and lived through before in Africa. This gives me some reference but most likely these places and regions will be anything but similar, probably the only thing they got in common is incredible heat.
Immense cities, deserts, swamps, hills, mountains, Buddhist, Muslims, Hindus and over a billion people. I mean how can one even start to imagine what it is like in a place where everything is mingled together. Where culture favours men over women in a way I can’t even start to understand. I’m going to have to keep an open mind and be ready to take the time to let the impressions settle in. It is interesting to write about a place and ones expectations before traveling. It might turn out that my perceptions are wrong or partially true. Whichever it will be I realize that I’m ready to find out. I look forward to the unknown and want to get out there and experience it myself. I have hopes, I have doubts and I guess I will have to let the universe set out my path and see where it takes me over the next weeks and months.
