All this is interesting to think about – in a country like India it is probably best to sketch out a plan before traveling on your own. For me, in any destination I go to, I can’t escape that part of me that has always been a planner. But I love the spontaneity that comes with travel and I try not to let the schedule to get in the way of the adventure. It’s kind of like the Mark Twain adage “don’t let school interfere with your education.” In this case, don’t let planning ahead interfere with (as Dilip would say) having a damn good time.
While all this is interesting, what really struck me about the letter is the description of India, in all its contrasts, explaining very well in my opinion why many are fascinated—obsessed even—with India.
I had been prepared for Hinduism’s holiest city, Varanasi, to be extreme – the Ganges, cremations, cows, crowds-but not for the old wooden boat I sat in as darkness fell; the giant water bugs skittering over my shoes; the monsoon downpour; the corpses laid out on the burning ghats, in plain view mere yards away, awaiting their turn in the fires that the rain did nothing to extinguish; the saffron robes of the pilgrims on the narrow streets awash in excrement (of cows, monkeys, and the gods only know what else); and, in the midst of it all-people joyfully swimming.
…it was filthy and fantastic and unforgettable: great beauty alongside the squalor, life and death entwined in a macabre yet natural embrace-as they always are, but it took that night on the Ganges for me to really feel it.- Klara Glowczewska, Editor in Chief, Conde Nast Traveler, October 2009 issue
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