You’re never alone in India. While in Germany you can still escape to the mountains, to a lake, to the forest, this won’t work here in the country. 1.3 billion people live in this country. Hold it. Stop. 1.3 billion. So many do not even live on the entire African continent. Either you always like people around you or you sometimes need your space like I do. But you just can’t have it, because even at every sunset on a hill or on the meadow in a park you don’t stay alone for long.
The following is a typical scene that everyone knows who has already been to India, the conversation goes like this:
“Hello. What you name?”
“My name is Conny. And your’s?
“Vijay/ Anand/….” You country?”
“Germany.”
“Good bye.”
This scene can be repeated up to 30 times and more in one day, depending on where you are walking and how often a white tourist passes by. It’s nice, the Indians mean it politely, and the children want to try out their English. In the more rural regions, the children only shout hello at us. The adults in the countryside don’t dare to talk to us anymore, rather a shy look or an intense staring sometimes also physically too close for Europeans. This leads to funny situations when I stare at women in brightly colored saris with an incredible amount of silver jewelry and they stare at me (with my light skin and without any jewelry). Somehow fair, everybody’s got something to see.
But being alone or disappearing just isn’t possible. Even in the hotel… I ordered a pancake with chocolate on my own (!), dreamed and watched the leaves in a tree. “What are you thinking?” Jesus Christ. India, you challenge me. On purpose we didn’t rent a lonely castle on a hill with 14 rooms for 300 € per night. Let’s not get out of this affair. We book a desert safari.
Early in the morning a jeep drives us into the desert to the camel spot. There everyone is given an animal, Matthias and I are the only tourists today and they saddle up. We form a caravan, the foremost camel with the guide Tadu and his nephew, then Matthias, then me with my young wild camel, which really likes overtaking. The desert sun is blazing down on us, it’s 37°C in the shade. The camels are now only trotting. We see a desert fox, antelopes and many birds.
The nephew of our guide, whom I estimate to be 12 years old, is dizzy and has headaches, despite baseball cap and dark skin. He gets water poured over his head, but has to go on with the ride. There is nothing here anyway. We finally stop at the midday heat. At very nice sand dunes under a three meters high bush we crawl into the shade. Tadu makes a fire quickly and asks us to peel and cut onions, garlic, cabbage and potatoes. He prepares a very tasty curry with bread and rice for everybody. Of course with chili, so we can sweat even more. Shade, I need shade, not more sunshine. The second layer of sunscreen is applied. And water. I need water. I’ve been drinking like a camel for days. Well, almost, I can’t do 200 liters in three minutes… “Tadu, where are the camels? And how do you find them?” He just laughs, stands on a dune and then, oh, he hurries up. The camels are really far away. Now I feel sorry, it may still be 35°C, but a hot wind has come in. After a long time he returns with the three runaways. Now the leader camel cannot feed any more, but must lie with us so that the other two stay with us.
We ride in the afternoon sun for another two hours to our camp at the next sand dunes. Further tourists come just for the evening and together we see the sun set in Pakistan. Now it is slowly becoming pleasant temperature wise. Again they cook for us and in the dawn there is Chai and again curry with rice. We talk to a French couple in the dark for a long time and look into the stars. Until we are so tired that we lie on our camp beds and look up into the night sky. Orion, the Big Dipper, the Milky Way, look, a shooting star. The sky canopy is the most beautiful canopy. And there it is, the peace and solitude I’ve missed so much. In the background, quietly, we hear drums from a wedding in a desert village. In India you are never alone. But this time it doesn’t bother you, it’s beautiful. The drums together with the starry sky – a great movie.
