Little women here is no place: Novouralsk beaumonde went to India

For the first time in my life, I managed to climb out of my Russian shell and get abroad. It was the end of February, I did not want to work at all, I just lived through the gray everyday life, anticipating these 9 days of heat, beach and extraordinary adventures.

I started my travels abroad from India. “Why India?” my friends and acquaintances asked me and added: “What do you want? This is a terrible, dirty and poor country! My parents told me I was crazy and had nothing more to spend. I really wanted adventure, warmth and sea. In the winter. And I wanted to spend money on it. Impressions and new emotions.

I couldn’t believe it when the plane took off from Koltsovo airport, as if transporting us back in time into summer. Even when I set foot on the Indian soil of Goa, at Dabolim Airport, I thought it was a dream. I guess it was, I just had a dream.

India is full of friends

It was amazing that Indians knew English well, and some could say something in Russian. As soon as we left the airport, we and our luggage were attacked. The Hindus grab your bag and offer to drag you to the bus, and even if you tell them what you will drag and what is not difficult for you, they will still walk next to you, clinging to your luggage, to the bus, and then smile and say: "One hundred rubles." I didn’t know how to behave – give money or send it all away, because the phrase “fuck you” I know perfectly. I just got on the bus and sat by the window. And after us, the Indian shouted, "Hey! Friend!" - they say, come back, pay.

Then it turned out that all the tourists for the locals are friends. They greeted us with a smile and a very friendly greeting: some to squash their goods, and some, which pleased them, just like that. You go outside and you hear, "Hello, my friend!" or "Hello!" All the time. The Hindus could immediately determine if you were Russian or European. They called men friendly - "may friend", and women - "ma'am" or "ma'am". At first I didn’t even respond because I wasn’t used to it. Then I realized I was ma'am.

Looking through the window of the bus that was taking us from the airport to the hotel, I was quietly horrified: around the dump, there is no centimeter where there would not be a fantasy or an empty bottle. Rubbish everywhere! As it turned out later, the population struggles with this problem in a very unfazed way - they simply burn landfills, leaving harmful incense from plastic. And litter everywhere and at any time – it is they who let unnecessary rubbish through the wind. Thank God the sea is not touched, or on land and a clean place can not be found.

The dwellings of some of the poorest Hindus are like ordinary tents covered with palm leaves. It even seemed that our homeless people live more luxuriously than the Indians. The roads are very narrow and are constantly clogged with pedestrians, motorcycles, bicycles, cows, cars. If there is a bus on the road, it is almost a disaster: traffic jams, fuss, endlessly scathing beat of transport are formed. However, here they beat constantly - you gradually begin to get used to it, but at first it is very annoying. And then there is the left-hand drive, which is also difficult to get used to. My first impression of India is, “Horror!” And how people live here!

Walking along the streets of Goa was initially stressful: peddlers, a bunch of pedestrian tourists, an endless number of motorcycles and cars passing by, the enchantment of sacred animals - cows, which you can not even touch a finger - everything incrementally led to some madness. In the early days it was difficult to calm the irritation, so you had to constantly grumble and criticize everything around you.

I will never tire of saying that the Russian people are unusual, emotional, selfish and consumerist. You can see it right away. Therefore, in search of comfort, even in such a paradise place as Goa, I wanted no unnecessary movements and sounds to interfere with the harmony of the holiday. How wrong I was to be distracted by all this and show my anger! I don't advise anyone to behave like that. At least once you should think about the people around you, who can see your dissatisfied tourist grimace and hear moans, saying: “Distant here!”.

Smells also pampered the nervous system: then garbage, then dung, then incense and spices. They say that India is a country of contrasts. Smell contrast was particularly evident, mainly when visiting the local market. But the market later.

Buying soft drugs here was like going for bread. I went to the beach, and you will be approached by a guy who will tie up for you, repeating the words: "Marijuana, hashish, drugs?". Especially killing the fact that weed is often offered to buy tourists very children, kids 6-7 years. Nearby without palev stood their mothers and pointed to whom to approach and make this tempting offer. It was no surprise that drugs were bought in several packages. They are carefully wrapped in a newspaper, as in Russia they usually do with seeds. We refused such offers, but usually the merchants did not stop and continued to talk with us.

Among tourists in India, Russians were not enough. Mostly they spoke English and German, and there were French. My basic school English course sometimes made me happy and sometimes upset: I understood what I was being told, but I spoke with difficulty. My "Thank You" sounded like "sex yo." So I wasn't surprised when Indians just ignored my words, even when I really wanted to talk.

In fact, it was the language barrier that prevented me from meeting someone in India. I decided to start studying English if I wanted to travel the world. But there was something else besides language. Hindu traditions.

Hindus and their culture

When I saw these beautiful black men, I gasped. I also ached when I saw a Negro in Yekaterinburg for the first time in my life. Mostly Hindus are all thin and small in height. I, a Russian woman, could safely carry them in my arms! Same slim and Indian girls. Maybe it's the food. In India, it is very hot, vegetarianism prevails, and you do not want to eat especially in this weather. I was not at all surprised when the Goanese looked at the fatty tourists. Local men are so used to the slender standards of European advertising that the lush forms seem exotic to them. Therefore, rare large Indian women were always accompanied by cavaliers.

Speaking of which. On the streets of Goa, it was impossible to meet Indian couples hugging, holding hands or kissing against the backdrop of sunset. Showing feelings in public is considered indecent in India. So I despaired to make acquaintance with one of the men - still not even by the hand to hold... I also heard that there are no explicit scenes on local television. Meanwhile, in men with men, communication is the most non-verbal – they can go into an embrace and shake hands with each other.

Marriages between Indian women and white women are considered unacceptable. In general, with marriages, it seems, there is some trouble: Indian women of the upper castes are married to Hindus of the same caste, sometimes without even asking the girl’s wishes. Of course, these are marriages for life, and some maintain the tradition of self-immolation of widows after the death of their husband in their own funeral pyres (this procedure is called sati), abolished in 1987. A woman, unlike a man, cannot marry after the death of her husband, and either dies or her later days pass in grayness, imprisonment, sleep on the bare floor, fasting and prayer. A widow in India is considered an outcast. That's the case. But men can safely leave his wife, if she does not give birth to children and marry again to another. After the death of his wife, he must marry another. And yes. There are many early, almost child marriages.

I still don't understand the Indian woman. Whether this is the highest creature, which is revered by men, or a submissive servant. The mix of religions existing in India (Muslimism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity) also left some strange imprint on their upbringing.

Local girls do not bare their bodies even on the beach, while we are used to walking around in swimsuits. Swim in the sea in their clothes. And in general, women on the beach do not even meet: they, apparently, do housework - sit with children. Only some, the most freedom-loving or the poorest, work.

However, motherhood significantly increases the rank of a woman. This speaks of her as the creator and guardian of that energy, without which no man can live. A woman-wife is simply obliged to protect and cherish her husband. Some women do not have passports or names after marriage, but are referred to as “so-so’s wife” or “so-so’s mother.” Super.

The wife takes food only after the husband has eaten, and if the husband is in transport, the wife will not sit down, and when the husband is sick, the wife fasts. She takes care of her man like a jewel, walks after him like some guardian angel - still give her a spear and a shield to protect her husband from the enemy. Weird!

However, my online friend, a 19-year-old Hindu student Shashank, refutes the information about self-immolation of widows, my observations about the peculiarities of expressing emotions in public, and the fact that a woman must be a housewife.

- You can do whatever you want! Some untruth is written in your articles about India! If you want to hug and kiss in public, do it! If you want to get married after your husband dies, no one will stop you. If you don’t want to be a housewife, you can work. We have many women in high positions: The president of India is a woman, the chairman of the ruling party is a woman, the leading officer of the Indian police service is also a woman.

Shashank and I started texting in English as soon as I got back from India. By some miracle, he added to my ace. Shashank is young, but already dreams of a family. Of course, it is exotic to marry a Russian girl, so he insists that I move to his home in India, despite the age difference.

“India is a great country!” he said. The slums you've seen won't tell you much. There is a clean foundation at the heart of India. Family values are more developed here than in Russia. Divorces are very rare here.

In Russia, marriages are a rarity.

Shashank also said that their television shows only Indian news and Indian films with TV series. Everything overseas doesn't reach them. But we go on TV from all over the world and then think about why we have a low level of culture, why we are such perverts, why our demands are constantly growing and why we have such a low birth rate and high mortality.

Strangeness of Russian tourists

Hindus look very friendly and close to each other. I have never seen any aggression in public by locals. Turns out it's not accepted here. It is indecent to be annoyed and shout at someone here, just as it is to point a finger. Once I even saw a picture when the Indians and the Russians did not share something, the Russians broke up immediately, and the Indians simply politely kept silent so as not to incite conflict.

I have another example of inadequacy in Russian behavior. Dabolim Airport is distinguished by the fact that it employs the military. From there, fighter jets take off to train in the open sky, and Dabolim workers are dressed in soldier uniforms. Two Russian boys are waiting for their flight and drinking beer. An airport employee, a man, explains in English at first to a young man that it is not allowed to drink here, urging him to throw a jar into the urn, to which he in Russian resents: “You are, I didn’t finish it!” But the Hindu worker insists that the guy throw a can of beer into the urn. Snorting, the Russian threw away the jar. Then the Indian approached another guy, saying, May friend, throw away the can, you can't drink here. "Where can I go?" suddenly a guy flashed. - Maybe there? Or there?! Get out of here. I won’t throw anything away, he turned away, swallowing beer from a can. But the Indian repeated the request again. Again. Again. The Russian only shrugged off: “Leave me alone!” – he sat on a bench, hiding behind a wall from him, and continued to drink. The Hindu quit the job of persuading some idiot and went to do his job.

This is the kind of humlo, for which I am sincerely ashamed, inhabits our country. What is the cost of these daily shouts from each hotel: "Tagi-i-il!" Travellers to Turkey, Egypt and Thailand may have noticed signs on local hotels saying "Not for Russians." Ever wonder why? Because the Russian people do not know how to behave normally. In India, we have not yet met such hotels, but if we did, it would be a shame for us and our countrymen. This is how we are treated abroad. But not only this is the tragedy of the situation – the Russians themselves, booking a tour abroad, ask the travel agent to choose a hotel with the least number of their compatriots. That's how sick we are of ourselves.

Despite the stupid drunken antics of our tourists, the locals accepted them with a smile and tried not to rush. Oddly enough, they respect all tourists, even the worst. However, every Indian knows how cunning the Russian tourist. Only a Russian tourist will bargain on the market until the seller sighs and gives up his hands in despair: “OK, they say, take it for 500!” I heard that the local people like to bargain, and tested how much they can cheat sloppy tourists: we knocked down the price, inflated 10 times, and then we wondered: “Did they really want to sell us a bracelet for 600 rupees?” We ended up buying it for 50. "Russia..." the saleswoman lamented.

Salesmen and taxi drivers are very intrusive here. Sometimes they follow you to the last, talk about various topics, ask about something, knowing that you are on vacation and you are interested in communicating with foreigners. If you do not want a divorce on cash, it is better to simply ignore and ignore. You can politely say hello in return, but then the conversation can drag on, and the seller will not stop until he sells you his goods for rabid money. By the way, Indians understand the Russian word "grandmothers" better than their normal synonym "money". The guy we rented a moped from said, "Girls, come on!" We laughed a lot.

I wanted to know the religion of India. There are many different temples, both Catholic and Hindu, but I just didn’t have time to delve into the religion, and so I want to learn about the Indian gods: Vishnu, Shiva, Krishna, Rama, Kama, Brahma, Ganesha not from the pages of Wikipedia, but, let’s say, from the original source. There's a bunch of gods out there! I have a reason to return to this sunny country again and for a longer time. For a month, for example.

The Hindus seemed to me wild, simple and frivolous. For example, having no international license (yes, we do not have any driver’s license at all), we rented a bike without naming our names, leaving the owner with no phone or documents. With such success, we could steal it and smash it, and it would be difficult to ask us - there is no evidence that we took the moped from the landlord. And so it happened: we accidentally scratched the bike, had to smear the scratch with nail polish so that the owner did not notice anything, but as it turned out, the owner was completely indifferent to the condition of the motorcycle, just took the keys and everything. Strange attitude...

And why are the wild... Because they talk loudly and emotionally, they fool around, they laugh like little children. Because of this, Hindus seem very cute, attractive, interesting. They do not hide their feelings and do not hesitate to look ridiculous in public. And they do not know how to swim - clumping, swimming closer to the shore, splashing in the waves, which, judging by their choral exclamations, gives them a lot of pleasure. Often, a rescuer watches the locals, but no one seems to worry about the tourists - they swim to the depths, fly on parachutes tied to the boat, and dive, and that only in the Indian Ocean do not do. At sunset, everyone is kicked out of the sea.

Continuation to be...

Evgenia Stepanova