It was a cool and topaz blue night, when I arrived in New Delhi from Bangkok. Finally India! A country of so much culture, religion, spirit and history. So many people came here to find their inner strength, and try to center their Soul - From the Beatles to Steve Jobs. A list as colorful and diverse as the country itself.
Yet the first moments where far from the glory and glamour seen in Bollywood movies. The dusty hand of India's capital grabbed me and pulled me back into reality. Which turned out to be the inside of an old, weathered and hardly road fit cap. It sped along an empty highway, fluorescent road lights trowing their thumping rhythm into the car. Between my legs, the tarmac rushing by, clearly visible through a large hole resulting from years of untreated rusting. A group of camels galloped along the other side of the highway. Is this what people call culture shock? Only hours ago Bangkok engulfed me with all its glory. Deeply devoted Monks in bright orange ropes, the sweet smell of Marigold flowers at every corner, streets and parks so clean you could almost eat from the ground. And now? Rust, dust and decay?
It's not by accident that India is called the country of opposites. At first sight, this world of raging contrast is hard to grasp for the western mind. Even at second sight, it seems unbelievable, improbable, even cynical, in the face of some thousand years of culture and the oldest written religious text known to (wo)men. If this is to be an adventure, it's a journey on the inside just as much as on the outside.
This is just the fist part of an ongoing series called "Discovering India".
Have you been there? What have your first impressions been? What did you expect? What did you find?