Leben in Indien – www.somosa.de

You know, it´s one of those evenings when you finally rest your mind a little from the heat, the drought, the dust. I take my young sick dog Kalu for a walk, just now, and I enjoy a bit of a breeze that is going while I slowly walk down the narrow society lane to get to the common garden. In the yellow glow of the fading light I watch people on the roofs of the few neighbouring row houses preparing their bedding or their nightfeast: men drinking together to celebrate another shitty day in paradise, or their niece´s wedding or whatever.

I watch the palmtrees swaying lightly in the subtle breeze while Kalu is bringing me a twig from a nearby pile of burnable rubbish – tail high up in the air, nose equally, the whole dog a testimony of the joy of being alive.

I stand and observe, asking myself what the difference of living in India is to living in Germany or Europe or any other country. I can hardly find any.

It might be somewhat hotter here. It might become a lot rainier here, soon, I hope. There are tropical plants around, the obligatory palmtree, this explicit symbol of the tropics, is swaying around the corner. You get bugs here that you don´t get in Europe – we´ve had our share of that stuff lately. Everything might take a little more time and effort to get done. You do spend a lot of time in traffic, mind you. But basically, life remains the same. Same joys, same fears, same old Julia, same old thoughts, everyday. Same tasks, too.

So what is there to gain?

A lot, still.

I am thankful this night because living here has brought a new quality to my life that hasn´t really been missing but was subconscious, somehow. You know, since I have been here, life in itself hasn´t been different, but it´s just that I get a totally different approach to everything, my ATTITUDE has changed. I, for once, am open. And that is a terrific thing to say because I am much more able to live in the present than I´ve ever been before. And it is this kind of awareness that I am grateful for: I DO FEEL when I´m sweating, when I´m upset because of what I´ve just seen on the road, I´m getting involved with whatever I read in newspapers or experience on the streets. Life doesn´t leave me cold. I´m here, right here in this shitpile that´s trying to be one of the world´s economically leading countries – and it makes me happy somehow. It educates me, it challenges me, it tires me. But one thing it never does: It doesn´t bore me.

So I walk down the little lane of our society, once more, I capture the flying bats during nightfall, I watch my dog while he´s sniffing at something that just he can really understand and appreciate, and I am content and humble because I am here, in India. A country that does not work like all the other ones I visited (and lived in) before and once more, although I am going to swear tomorrow, I am goddam thankful to be here, to be alive in India.

Tags: India, Indien, Leben in Indien, Living in India

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 16th, 2009 at 9:35 pm and is filed under Daily, India rocks, indische Gesellschaft, Leben, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.