People, people, everywhere

It is little more than two months ago that my companion and I returned from our Indian adventure. As has been noted, the whole experience was so intense that some substantial processing time is needed to internalise the things that we saw and did. Add to that the various setbacks that have surfaced since our return to Finland, and you have a reason why it has taken so long to blog anything much about the trip.

Now, however, I flip to the pages of my travel notebook. On the road out of Delhi, I scrawled the words "wall-to-wall people; what do they all do?"

The sheer number of people was quite amazing. Take one example from the desert city of Jaisalmer. At the hotel, one of the staff (a charming older chap known to the rest of the staff as 'the boy', who would engage you in pleasant conversation for as long as it took you to twig that a tip was expected) guided us to the hotel gift shop. The lights were off and all was quiet. It was undoubtedly shut. Except that it wasn't. Immediately we approached, the lights snapped on and we suddenly had four or five shop assistants showing us clothing and souvenirs.

I was reminded of the children's television series Mr Benn, and the quote "as if by magic, the shopkeeper appeared." I have no idea how these guys spent the doubtless long hours without customers. They must simply have been sitting and waiting, because there was no delay to fetch them, as there would have been in the West. Furthermore, whereas in Europe you may expect one or two people to be doing a task, in India that number is easily doubled or tripled or more.

Such an abundance of humanity must surely lead to a different view of life than in a more sparsely populated country. In Finland, for example, I experience crowds as aggressively indifferent places. (Yes, that is an oxymoron; but yes, it does make sense.) On the other hand, in Finland, a group of people is unlikely to form around you to just stare, as happened to us straight away in India, when we entered the Jumma Masjid mosque in Delhi with our guide. Yes, that can be intimidating, even if the stares are merely inquisitive.

All told, though, for an Indian in India, with friends and family all around, the feeling in a crowd must be something quite at odds with that of a European in Europe. Perhaps the feeling of constant familiar company is warm. Perhaps the feeling is supportive. Perhaps the regular Indian seems happier than the regular European because they are so often in this sort of situation.

Perhaps I'll never know.