Final words of wisdom

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” - Henry Miller -

As the faithful followers of this blog might remember; I really wanted to go to Varanasi because I was hoping to find something important there, that is, the reason I chose to go to India.

Well, I found many things in Varanasi, the most fascinating Hindu city on the banks of the Ganges.
People were bathing and washing their clothes in the Ganges, taking sips of its highly polluted water and not to forget there were the live open-air cremations of which the ashes flow down that same ‘Holy River’. The shocking thing about all this was that I wasn’t shocked. Early one morning, sunrise-time, I took a one-hour boat ride to watch the people performing their daily rituals. It was unreal, entertaining, inspiring and unforgettable. One of the best moments in my India! 

I also found fellow travelers, which makes you feel less alone while backpacking on your own. There were the shy mouth cap-wearing Japanese girls I shared the boat ride with, the Belgian couple that made me realize it wasn’t easy speaking Dutch after using mainly English in the previous 3 months, the American girls who I met in the train to Varanasi and I was about to meet many, many times more during my trip and of course the lonely Japanese guy who needed me to fight of all the Indian touts at the train station like Dal needs Chapati.

The most valuable thing I found was the guest house where I was staying, owned by a family with their hearts at the right place. This family runs the Learn for Life Society and a few years ago started a free school for local poor children. The Society also runs a woman empowerment group. They are really doing great work and a short visit to the school was very inspiring. On a daily basis they provide some 50 children with breakfast and lunch, a school uniform and lessons in Hindi, English, Mathematics, Science, Stitching and Arts. These children get a way better chance to escape poverty than the numerous children I saw working and begging in the streets.

It opened my eyes. It was actually there all along but this experience and all the poverty I have seen in India makes me want to dedicate my future career in helping people who really need it and for some reason do not get the opportunities to escape their sometimes miserable situation.
So finally, (I think) I found what I was looking for!

And if that wasn’t enough, I came across another school on my next stop in Bodhgaya, one for orphan children; Siddharta Free Children Educational Centre. Two kindhearted guys I met at another charity organization brought me there. Again, impressive work they are doing at this free school in the extremely poor state of Bihar. However, just like at the school in Varanasi, they are too dependent on random donations. Donations are more than welcome of course but they are not regular which makes the school very difficult to manage and expand plus there is always this uncertainty about having to close down due to insufficient funds. In the next few weeks I'm going to see if I can help them change that.
(If you want to know how or contribute to this noble cause, just contact me on dennisvanerp_87@hotmail.com)

It has been two weeks since I left India. Already feels like months. Luckily it hasn’t been so hard adjusting to the Dutch lifestyle again. Some structure is actually nice after 3 months in that crazy country  subcontinent. I do miss the people though…I miss the Indian families that invited me for delicious dinners and the teachers and staff at the kindergarten. I miss my buddies at the gym and of course our mildly insane neighbor. They quickly made me feel at home in Chandigarh. Not to forget, I’m very thankful to my Indian friends who organized so many things for us and tried to help us out wherever they could; Anmol, Harmeet, Karan, Kunal, Preet and Robin…you are always welcome in my country!

Fortunately I wasn’t the only outsider in India. I met a bunch of foreign trainees like me. Too bad I didn’t have the chance to spend more time with the great people that arrived in the last few weeks but the first 2 months gave me sufficient time to get to know some interesting characters:

-          Daniela; with her I shared the mind-blowing Golden Temple experience

-          Malick; my African brother who always takes care of his eggs

-          Maria; my Ganges-dipping partner in Rishikesh

-          Sebastien; the spiritual Dutch connection

-          Jonas; our chai-making white Sikh, who is always interesting to listen to

-          Marta; my energetic Colombian friend who always puts a smile on my face

-          Jose; the dancing, cooking and turban-wearing Brazilian party animal

-          Nora; such a sweet, positive and great girl who is sooo cute together with Preet

-          Sasha; spontaneous, always laughing and easy-to-fool blond roomie

-          Mariano; crazy,crazy, crazy guy who is always in for a joke, and a surprise

-          Martin; my fellow adventurer, thali-lover and Holland-supporting Terry Fox runner

-          Gabi; basically impossible to describe in one line. Let’s just say she’s a big part of my India.

Guys, I miss you!

Ok, enough with the sentimental crap. Let’s not forget what this blog is about.
Competition! Dennis versus India! 27 versus 27 so far..
Lots of things happened the last week, let’s see how it affected the score shall we?

India gathered…8 points!* After visiting the main burning ghat (cremation site) in Varanasi I had to throw away one of my favorite shirts as it smelled too much like burning bodies (1)
* Not a Himalaya mountain to see during 3 days in Darjeeling. My dream trip was not complete (4)
* My 24-hour train to Delhi had a delay of 9 hours so I finally spent 33 hours in that train, pretty pissed off and ignoring all the friendly but privacy-destroying Indian people around me (2)
* It eventually took me 44 hours to go from Darjeeling to Chandigarh. My rhythm was out of control! (1)

Dennis gathered… 11 points!
* Survived some very questionable restaurants in Agra, Varanasi and Bodhgaya (2)
* Sleeping like a baby in my first (not-so-spacious) sleeper train (1)
* I am able to talk about cricket with the Indian people and they actually believe I know a lot about it (1)
* I managed to go to Darjeeling even though my train ticket got cancelled last minute (1)
* Finally got the courage to get rid of my curls by having a funnily-performed haircut at a Darjeeling barbershop (1)
* Ran out of money during the delayed train ride but managed to buy a bus ticket to Chandigarh with the 200 rupees I received from a nice stranger (1)
* Introduced the sexchange theme in India (2)
* Donated a hockey stick + ball to the kids of a nearby slum area. They were very happy! (2)

So…I won!
Let’s do a rematch some day... 

Thank you for reading,

Dennis Singh van Erp