Welcome to India destiny destination !?

It already feels like weeks since I arrived in India...

...even if it was just about a week ago on the 24th November.

I am modifying this post to add text today on the 5th Dec..

Here it comes - what was and is - in between:






First time in India!? Yes - I am one of those rare travelers who had never been in India before. Well, it was a tough time, as it seemed that some "real travelers", the expired India travelers, do not considered others as "true" traveler if you have never been to India. Good, that's history now... and I might now become a true traveler ;-)

Apparently a "must do" thing in India is, to expose yourself and stand trough India's specific viruses, germs, life-style and culture. For sure, somebody told you too about most terrifying and horrifying "outcome" and excessive toilet paper abuse caused by being exposed to an, on the one hand middle age time, and on the other hand most modern and progressive, society and country. Whatever you heard: All is true in one way or the other, but based on my own personal experience, I was never interested in any detailed texture analysis. But yes, I got sick too! Already in the first days. But thats just the way to become a true ... whatever... and at the end, getting a little bit sick is almost nothing compared with... well, just read on to find out about my own true first-week terrifying India experience (keep on reading until the end, the bitter end to understand "my India"):

What did I got sick about? I call it a kind of civilization sickness.
After the sticky air in the plane, I could not breathe better in Mumbai. In fact, my lungs would desperately love to inhale but just would stop to do so immediately after sensing Mumbai's traffic emission output.

Just arrived at 1 o'clock in the night, I took a mini bus directly to Pune, breathing in on my way all upcoming vibes and air of India. It was good to feel the cool breeze coming into the mini-bus while jolting riding through the outer suburbs middle in the night, accompanied by the high volume India music to keep the driver (and all passengers too) awake.

Eventually I felt asleep and woke up for rest area break, already on the higher altitude of the mountain ridge splitting the 200km between Mumbai and Pune. It was cooler, cold for India, actually freezing cold in the Bus. The AC, the air condition in the car, one of the greatest invention of the 20th centuries - I hate it! It seems India is a true digital world with only two conditions "on" or "off" applied to the AC. Or better described with: If something works, it will work on maximum until it reaches the second condition, best described with "Out of order".

However, the common India way to respond to enquirers finding out the current status/condition of anything will be most likely a simple "keep on smiling" and "side-nodding" head (the most common gesture used in every situation and not quite correctly interpretable by non-Indians, even if some claim it as a polite way of avoiding saying "no" or "whatever").




The AC worked in the Minibus on maximum - even I asked them, almost begged them, to reduce it. India still felt freezing cold after the break and being exposed to an Indian tea on the rest area.
Yes - I know (and for sure you know too), I shouldn't have done something so stupid, actually a travelers lapse, a travelers amateur and novice mistake: Drinking tea on a rest area middle in the night, tired and with a weak immune system from "traveling" for hours.
But I was lucky, as the tea didn't harm me, and I still claim the AC for everything, all AC's in the world: The AC of the minibus, the AC of the car we used to drive out of Pune with my sisters family to visit the mountain Fort Sinhagad, the AC in Puna's Adidas shop....



Adidas shop? Yes - why not! Come on, it is not a 3rd world country....partially, well, actually it is, and well, it is not, on the one hand.... well, lets call it "maximum minimized digital contrast diversity with multiple condition fuzzy logic", or more simple, we keep on calling it: INDIA.
And well, for sure if you are a true traveler already have been here ;-) you will know exactly what I am talking about. Something between the two extremes of very poor and very rich. All depending on the perspective, or society you currently living in (some in India would call it simply "destiny"). And yes, you are right, thats possible on many places around the world. India as well offers both extremes directly side by side in one smiling and head-side-nodding, his destiny accepting society, somehow saying, but not quite sure:

WELCOME TO INDIA !


I am not high.
I am not on drugs.
I am flying, but again:
I am not high, but I am flying.
I am flying on a place called Tower Hill
close to Kamshet, an one hour India traffic ride west of Pune.

It is one thing to "hear" about India's driving habits, another thing to see it in a video, but nothing comes close to the self-awareness possible to gain sitting in a India maintained car without any modern, direct driving experience disturbing, safety systems.

The absence of those allows myself to fully concentrate on the drivers skills, not crushing into oxcarts driving on the left side of the road. You might think that an oxcart is big enough to be visible, but again in India it is the extreme that makes it special: It is already night and dark on my way back from paragliding last Sunday (2nd Dec) and the oxcarts without any lights are still on the two line NH4 highway. I am glad that our Captain (he is Captain on Oil transport ships - with an Hindu name translated as "Wind god") finds always a gap, changing to the right line, squeezing in the car just right before crushing into an oxcart. The way of how he is doing that is by accelerating from the moment he sees the oxcart, speeding up until he wins the race between us and the truck to our right, pushing the lights and horn to motivate the other drivers on motorbikes and rishkas to make space that we can pull over to the right lane before crushing into the oxcarts back. It worked out. But I wasn't any longer "easy going" or "take it as it is" as I lost already this day my trust in India's emergency transport system and I am not good in accepting what some call destiny.




It is destiny! That seems to be the common accepted way why things are as they are. But not for everybody. We did not meet up with the local welcome committee waiting on the paragliding landing zone, eagerly waiting to change their destiny. Apparently, they sometimes wait on the road out of the paragliding area to request their own portion of toll. Unfortunately we have been even too late for them and they missed us, or we missed them. Destiny.

Destiny? Yes and No. Personally, I don't believe any longer in it (if I ever did?). It eliminates any possible niche for an bit of free will and own responsibility. For me it is to simple, to easy explaining human error caused fatalities and accidents by destiny. It is an excuse. An religion made to explain unacceptable things, things not possible to explain. If there would be destiny, it would be us to make our own.

It was a hard crash!
As it seems there is always traffic on roads in India, I was surprised to face a lot of traffic in the air too. However, as there are almost no safety features in the car, why would you use to have a reserve parachute while paragliding? It might be anyway too late to pull and as I learned, most "student" paraglider pilots in India do not have a rescue chute built in at all ...whatever...too late, too late to pull, too late anyway.

Obviously, while we share the same air to breath and fly in, we do not share the same destiny. Crashed cars on the highway roads - destiny. Acceptance.

After a few hours (!) waiting for our lift back to Pune in a road-shop style India restaurant, a second ambulance with signal horn horn passed by. The horn was almost impossible to hear in between the other commonly used horns on the roads.

Another accident? NO! Good!
But this time it wasn't any good.
It was bad. Sad and very bad.

Before I went to India, I read a posting about hospital standards in India. Somebody claimed that some of the hospitals are even better equipped (at least temporarily) as in Germany, Europe or the USA. Well, even if true, it doesn't help you at all if it takes hours to get there, or even worse, if you will never get there!

...the first thing I noticed was a sound.
A swish in the air.
An unusual swishing and rustle,
an swishing indicating that something went wrong,
my head turned, my eyes saw...
...and my mouth starts shouting:

...RESCUE-RESCUE-RESCUE...

!Warning: Do not watch the movie if you do not like to see a fatal paraglide crash!

While waiting for a lift back to Puna in the road-restaurant, sbd. told us already that the first ambulance sent up the hill to pick up the two crashed paraglider pilots did run out of petrol . Apparently, it is common not to fill up all too much petrol, avoiding the miss-use / private use of cars!
Both have been alive.
One is dead now.

Why?
Destiny?
No!
It is acceptance in the worst appearance, inexcusable by claiming missing education or poorness, it is acceptance of stupidity, acceptance of destiny, whatever, whatever it is, it is India: WELCOME TO INDIA!

I feel very sorry. Sad. We shared the same air on the same day.

What else?
Yes, I was sick.
I got a cold.
An infect,
pain in my ears and throat.
Thats it. Nothing fatal.
Nothing compared with...
After that, I will fly again.

I feel very privileged to stay with my sister and family, giving me a very comfortable place to feel home in India. They gave me the opportunity to set up my blog, test all my electronic toy's, took good care of me and guided me through the India way of life. After my recovery, I would like to go on to.... well, come back and read on ;-).
But first I might post the other things we did, positive India impressions and experiences...Andreas