It is not "goodbye" it is "until next time" ...

Orange, Orange, Orange. Our first introduction to Diwali - The Festival of Lights and the most important festival of the year in India was a man we ran into on the street who was dressed as Hanuman, the Hundu Monkey God. His costume included orange fabric draped over his body with a long monkey tail, bright orange face paint and fake bristly hair along his jawline. Orange marigolds were for sale in long garlands and huge piles all over the street. These brilliant flowers were used to decorate everything from houses to offices to trucks and rickshaws, always in excessive quantities! Makeshift booths all over the place were selling boxes of wrapped Diwali sweets and every object and building was decorated with lights, Christmas light style. It ended up being quite lucky that we took an overnight bus that evening, as it provided us with front row seats to the events of Diwali - mainly the fireworks that were being lit up all over the place (on the road, from rooftops, outside of shops) all throughout the night and by all ages of people (little kids to seniors - I don't remember ever being able to play with fireworks when I was a child.....). The lights on all of the houses combined with the random and spontaneous bright lights of the fireworks was such a beautiful sight (and distracted us from the insanity of yet another mountain bus ride adventure!) I can't say I have ever really seen a firework display quite like this one.

Our Diwali bus ride concluded at Chandigarh - India's only planned city, and by far the cleanest and greenest. You may be thinking - "India's only planned city, what is the big deal?" Well it is a huge one. This city actually has roads that are straight and in a grid system, wide streets with medians, very modern traffic lights that not only work, but are obeyed, trees and green spaces, and garbage cans. If it weren't for the rickshaws and horsecarts sharing the wide roads with marked lanes and beautifully landspaced traffic circles and medians, I really may have been fooled into thinking that I was in a North American city! Definitely was a huge contrast from the India we had seen thus far. Unfortuantely this unique city brought an end to our time with Leslie and her friend, Fayza and we said goodbye and went our separate ways. Who would have thought in first year University when Leslie and I were roomates in residence that we would be trekking in the Himalayans together four years later ... small world it is.

As our time in India was fast approaching an end, we had to make a difficult choice as to where to spend our last few days before heading back to Delhi. We made a very spontaneous decision and caught a bus headed to Northern Punjab and the city of Amritsar. This bus ride encompassed us in a very valuable quality in India - as we arrived to find the bus full of people and were just thinking that we would have to catch the next one, India's strong sense of community and "help your neighbour" mentality slapped us smack on our sweaty foreheads, as we were pulled onto the bus and then told there was one empty seat left at the front. There really is always room for one more person here..... This was a huge lesson to me in lending a hand, and another example of how India has really shown me how to be a better person. Not only seeing, but being on the receiving end of freindly people who have done things to help us out, which to them are so small, but to us make a huge difference, and experiencing and witnessing the incredible generosity of people who sometimes have so little themselves has reminded me how much friendliness and the desire to lend a hand can go such a long way.

I feel it necessary to comment on the dynamics of the road in India, as I was able to sit in the front seat of the bus on this trip I think I now actually understand how this organized chaos works. Aside from the hierarchy of the road which I had already witnessed on numerous occasions, in which pedestrian yields to cyclist, cyclist to cycle-rickshaw, cycle-rickshaw to autorickshaw which yields to cars, cars to trucks and trucks to buses. The only thing the bus (and ALL other entities on the road) will always yield to, without question, is the King of the Road - the cow, I learned something else. Here is how it works: the bus roars down the highway in the right inside lane. When an object blocks it's path, the driver simply lays on the horn (which sounds like a doorbell-meets-video-game-sound-effect) until said object moves out of the way into the outside lane. This continues until the destination, meaning that the bus barges along in the same lane for the entire journey - no time wasted on passing or anything silly like that. In the rare instance that it is necessary to pass, often the vehicle in front will use their signal, but not to initiate a lane change, to tell the driver behind that it is safe to pass on that side of their vehicle. As crazy and bizarre as this all sounds, it really just works.

Amritsar is home of the Golden Temple which is the holiest and most sacred sight of the Sikh religion. We were actually able to stay in the temple, as the Sikh temples always offer accomodation, to anyone. Due to the scale of this particular one, there was actually a "foreigner visitor" dormitory, which we stayed in for free (but gave a donation for). This was the beginning of what was to be a very incredible and memorable experience. In search of the toilets, I walked out of our dorm and immediately entered a circular area full of people - curled up on the concrete floor sleeping, families sitting cross legged and pilgrims enrobed in bright orange cloth bathing in the communal shower area in the center of all of this activity. I kept on walking to the female toilets - a room with 20 or so squat toilets which I used along with the other female pilgrims, Indian visitors, Sikhs and non-Sikhs and the few other foreigners. For the first time in our travels through India I felt as if I was truly a part of this fascinating mass of humanity, rather than an external observer ..... The temple itself had a truly magical feel. I still can't really describe it, but it just felt so peaceful with such a vivid sense of community and ... belonging. Before going to sleep, I went out to use the toilet and was stopped in awe of the scene before me - the same circular room of earlier was now filled with hundreds of people sleeping on the concrete floor. The various sleeping positions, rainbow of fabrics and sheer mass of people gave it the look of a woven tapestry carpet. If not for the fear of disturbing the sleeping ensemble, I could have stood amongst this scene for hours, taking in the details of the faces, the minimal belongings tucked safely beside each resting body and imagining the life of each person. On our last night, we ate our dinner in the dining hall that offers free meals to all (a characteristic of all Sikh temples) and serves over 30 000 people per day. Sitting on the cold concrete floor, surrounded by the warmth hundreds of people from all walks of life all eating the same Indian meal (which, even in this instance was offered with so much generosity - the food just kept on coming), was truly an experience of welcome and generosity.

We spent our last few days in India in Delhi, back in the luxurious comfort of Mr. Sahgal's house. Walking through Delhi on our last day felt quite different than one month ago - somehow things just make a lot more sense now! I have to say that I am quite sad to be leaving India, and feel that I could easily spend another few months in this vast and fascinating country, and still not see everything. However, this only means that I will be returning sometime in the future. India has been a great host, teaching us so much and also steering us clear of food poisoning! (No Delhi Belly for us!!!!!) Not only have I learned so much about religion, culture and humanity, and am also now know the ins and outs of bargaining and have perfect the squat toilet technique. To this country with its ability to inspire, frustrate, thrill and confound all at once - thank you, and I will be back!

"... India .. it's ability to find beauty in small things - the tattoo of circles on a camel's rump, a bright silk sari in a dark slum, a peacock feather in a plastic jar, a delicate earring glinting by a worn face, and a lotus painted on a truck. ...the sheer exuberance of a billion individuals and their pantomine of festivals.." - From Holy Cow by Sarah MacDonald