Mob

Christmas Day, Sophie and I decided to venture to Fort Kochin. To get there from the mainland we decided to take the ferry. The line at the ticket booth was packed! People were squashed, pushing and shoving each other. The line snaked through the whole warehouse. People, once they bought the tickets, had to climb onto the ticket booth and over those pushing from behind, just to get out. It was madness! This is INDIA!

Lucky for us, there was a separate line for women. But they were just as aggressive and I definitely got felt up, unintentionally of course. We spent an hour just to get those 2.50r tickets. I half wished there were scalpers.

The whole experience came off so strange to me. Surely there must be a better system. Do they enjoy all the pushing, shoving, suffocation, and the disorganization? I dont understand why they would put up with any of this and not try to change the system. But I guess this is just what they prefer and what they are accustomed to so being an outsider, it's not my place to judge.

I've been here for a month and the honeymoon period of my experience in India has ended. I'm getting tired of the stares, the honking, the language barrier, the bargaining, and the possible health risks I have to asses at every meal. But if there's one thing I take away from reading Shantaram, it's that I have to surrender to the people, the culture, the system; to India. I have a month and a half left. Sure I can survive by just getting used to it but if I want to take anything away from this trip, I have to surrender and give myself up. It sounds difficult and it's definitely easier said than done, but that's my goal. I came here without a real agenda, and I feel like I've been floating around for the past month but now I have focus. This will change me and I welcome it.

Shantaram is a giant novel (900+ pages) by Gregory David Roberts about an Australian fugitive's life in Bombay during the 1980s. It's a great read- I gobbled it up in just over a week. I highly recommend it.