Monday 25 January 2016

ahmedabad to kathmandu

at the streets of Kathmandu
I feel like a child and my family are people around me. You feel it even stronger when you are far from the place where you was raised. 

[I'm very grateful to each person with whom I talked and shared some part of the journey.]

Smile is a key to begin a conversation. 

[My friends sometimes worn me that I should be careful because people are different and some of them might be not always willing to do good. I appreciate their worries and always reply that I rely on my intuition.]

Smile is a sign which makes me feel who is this person in front of me. Smile is a beginning or an end of a conversation. We transmit huge amount of energy to each other through this simple sign.
Sometimes it happens that we don't speak the same language and than smile and gestures are coming for help. 

It's only a matter of willingness to understand each other. 

With most of the rickshaw drivers, cart sellers and elder people we communicate through the vocabulary of hands and smiles. 

I was traveling from Ahmedabad to Delhi by an overnight train. It reminded me a journey from my city Kharkiv on the East to Lviv city on the West of Ukraine. There is a specific agreed time to have dinner, have a chat with strangers and go to sleep. Same here. My neighbors were men from different parts of India that came together and shared a dinner. Each of them was having part of the meal. I was familiar with one dish and I loved it very very much. It's a type of bread, if I can call it like that, which is made out of flour, spinach, green chili and sesame seeds. I smiled. "It's one of my favorite dishes" came out of my mouth suddenly. I was surprised myself. I was invited to share the dinner immediately! I felt very shy because I haven't got anything to add to the table. Conversation started. About many many different things and I thought that it's actually not about food or dinner, it's about being together and sharing this train journey. Each of us got something to put on the common table improvised on our beds. 

Sleeping time arrived and I took out all my warm clothes to heat my body, as it was one of the things I was not prepared to: to face real autumn here. One of my neighbors was getting off at Jaipur at 4 am and I woke up without any alarm to greet him and wish a safe journey. I was cold and dreaming about blanket that I left in Ahmedabad because there was no space in my luggage. "Here, have it" - woolen blanket was in front of me. My neighbor was smiling. "Don't worry. Have it. I meet you in Delhi when you are back to pick it up." I couldn't stop say Thank you. I put woolen blanket over myself and fell in a beautiful sleep. 

It happens that I wake up in the morning with a feeling of where am I. I looked at the window it was foggy and wet. I opens my bag pack got a warm sweater put it over myself, took out winter boots. Tooth brush, tooth paste, bottle of water. Good morning. 

Ready to have my breakfast. 
Chai with a Gujarati sweets left for me by another neighbor yesterday. They were already off from the train. Unfortunately I haven't greet them in person. New people were around me. I propose my little package of Chiku and smile. Good morning! 
One boy from the evening came and we greet each other. 

Cold made me feel at home. January is snow and cold in my place. From December my body was a bit stressed by the fact that there is hot temperature outside the time when it should be cold. Now everything came to a place. January, winter clothe. I wanted to escape winter this year, but now I see that it's deeply rooted with my experience of living in Kharkiv and having all four seasons with cold winter, blossoming spring, hot summer and golden autumn. 

Welcome to the Winter. 
Welcome to Delhi. [Sunday]
Welcome to Kathmandu, [Monday] 

2 comments:

  1. I simply love these train journeys. You meet random strangers and end up having amazing conversations or even good lasting friendships.
    My dad always finds long lost relatives or acquaintances in such journeys. I miss this warmth in Germany where the personal space is valued more.

    I must also add, I felt refreshed reading your post after a long tiring day. Internet is doing a good to transmit good thoughts across the globe!
    Hugs

    ReplyDelete
  2. I simply love these train journeys. You meet random strangers and end up having amazing conversations or even good lasting friendships.
    My dad always finds long lost relatives or acquaintances in such journeys. I miss this warmth in Germany where the personal space is valued more.

    I must also add, I felt refreshed reading your post after a long tiring day. Internet is doing a good to transmit good thoughts across the globe!
    Hugs

    ReplyDelete