Apollyon's Adventures in India
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August 26, 2006
The last day in Bombay and I need to have a sleep in after my unusual night. We go to see what we can of the Ganesh festival. People are welcoming large Ganesh statues into their homes. Some need trucks and others can be carried by hand. In ten days time they will all be carried into the nearest river to be dissolved. This must be spectacular because even this parade, which diverges sparsely from many points, is quite a celebration. Ganesh can be painted in any colour and so although he (or very occasionally she) is normally light pink or orange he can also be silver, blue or red, anything goes!
We have said goodbye to Meethil and we each gave him the best books that we could find him in India. He accepted graciously. One was an encyclopaedia on Animals and one was National Geographic's best portraits. I don’t wasn’t to give anything away but the best portraits were at the end. (It had 'Afghan Girl'; the one with the red shawl and the eyes, awesome.)
The whole trip had a fantastic feeling of coming full circle.
How do I conclude this? There is no natural ending because life just kept on going, I got off the plane and went home. There is no real story or narrative structure, nothing to overcome or resolve. (Sanket didn’t renounce his passport by the way). I have met some wonderful people, no one I met was an arsehole, and I even got along well with the people I had an argument with.
India is an incredibly stressful place. I don't think there is such a thing as a relaxing holiday but if you want one, it's not in India. Thankfully Sanket his family and his friends shielded me from most of this stress.
That's what I should say, because they didn't let me say it when I was there:
I am extremely grateful for everyone’s help in guiding me around India, for everyone who gave me a roof, a meal or a scooter ride: Thank you.
Yeah, that's probably the best way to end this.