I put a big tick on my personal bucket list last month when I made my first ever visit to India. I have been fortunate to have travelled quite a bit this year – just prior to going to India I was in the south of France for the second time in as many months, visiting my youngest daughter who is there as part of her university studies. I repeat – I feel very lucky indeed.
Having a personal connection to a place makes visiting even more special and we were invited to India by my son’s partner who is from Assam, who was going back to celebrate ‘Durga Puja’ with her family. Durga Puja is a major Hindu festival celebrating the goddess Durga’s victory over Mahishasura, the triumph of good over evil, and is particularly important in eastern states of India, including Assam.
Assam is probably one of the lesser visited states of India. It does have some very important tourist sites, in particular the Kaziranga national park, home to the great Indian rhinoceros, although we did not visit that area this time (I definitely plan to visit again!). In the week we spent in Assam we did not see one single other westerner; when we arrived at immigration in Delhi, the officer seemed surprised that we were going there at all!
After a week in Assam we travelled back to Delhi and made our way around the ‘Golden Triangle’, visiting Jaipur and Agra as well. We nearly did not go to the Taj Mahal – I thought it would be too touristy, I’d heard there is nothing inside to see, I thought I’d seen it all in the photos, plus it was towards the end of the trip and I had developed a slightly dodgy tummy. Oh my goodness, nothing could prepare me for the overwhelming emotion I felt at my first sight of it. And no photography can quite capture the beauty and majesty of this truly magical place. It was a once in a lifetime moment I will never forget. It was an overcast day and this translucent monument seemed almost to blend into the surroundings, or perhaps emerge like a mirage. Spectacular.
When I travel somewhere I always try to read something from the place or country. The Indian novels I have read are some of my favourite of all time, in particular Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy, an epic novel I read one Christmas about thirty years ago, Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance, which I read soon after because I just wanted more India, and Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie’s groundbreaking Booker Prize winner from 1981 about the 1947 partitition of India. I decided this time to read Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things, a novel I remember enjoying when it was published in 1997, but which I was keen to re-read since I did not remember too much about it. Look out for my review soon.
I also like to visit a bookshop whenever I travel to a new place. I did not come across too many on my travels, until our very last day in a western-style shopping centre in a Delhi suburb. I bought The Last Queen by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, a recommendation of one of our Indian companions. I look forward to reading it once I have finished working my way through the Booker shortlist!
If you ever get the chance to visit India, please do. It is a remarkable country, but my outstanding memory is of a place with some of the most welcoming and kindest people I have ever met.
