A short introduction to India

a street of Mumbai

The lights of the landing plan pierce the night at Mumbai (Bombay) airport. India receive us for a few weeks.
I’d rather say Indies than India, not because of a fondness for colonialism, but because India is so diverse it’s a permanent wonder it hasn’t burst.
India clean off your habits and scales and mirrors brutally to you your Occidental nature.
Modern physique is all about time and space being linked, it may be difficult to understand, but it will be easier if you go to India. Time slows down because elementary tasks you are used to take a lot more time to do, distances are stretched, because on a good day of travel on major circulation axes you only go for 400 km. But most of all properties of spaces change, going 10 km into the country brings you back one century ago, and may take you one hour. Even human-distances are changed, like the people speak to each other, distance when they are queuing, driving, everything is different.

Now that time and space have changed, your personal value can follow. It is not possible to stay unchanged in a country so profoundly spiritual it has given birth to many religions, and where many religions more are currently followed.

To come in India is to take up again the bases of life in city. To have a roof, a room, to clean it sometimes, deal with all the garbages, human and animal droppings.
Justice, integrity, the right to chose the person you want to live with, women rights, drinkable water, all is more basic in India.
And mybe this is why this country is so profoundly touching. Because by keeping things simple, you discover the brutal vitality of a society which desperately wants to live.
Then life is more intense, more dense, and maybe, if you are not blinded by the occasional ugliness of human soul, maybe you will see the great beauty of Indian soul.

2 comments for “A short introduction to India”

  1. J’aime beaucoup l’humilité avec laquelle est rédigé et conclu cet article. Merci de nous introduire en Inde sur ce ton là.
    Et merci aussi pour cette vidéo : le contenu ne la fera pas passer á la postérité, mais si j’en crois le titre du fichier, elle nous vient de Sardhana, Rémi, la ville de ton “ancetre” le Maharadja, Walter Rheinhard !
    J’espère que vous nous posterez bientôt des nouvelles de votre excursion dans ce royaume du Maharadja et de son épouse la Begum “SOMBRE” !

  2. C’est comme cela qu’on devrait voyager, dans le sens le plus large !

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