Indian

" Are you kidding me? I won't pay more than Rs20. Before going on, we negotiated the price."

"But the price of gasoline is going up. O.K., give me only Rs40."
"It's you who said to me that the fare is one and a half the meter. Let's see, the meter points at 12. Keep your promise."
"Pay more, Japani, Pay more. You have a lot of money."
"Do you really believe all the Japanese pay more if you make threats? Don't look down on Japanese people. I'll never give in to you. Hey, Even Rs20 is too much. Or don't you wanna get any?"

This is the quarrel I made with a rickshaw driver on my way from the Main Bazaar (west side of the New Delhi station) to Delhi Fort (around Old Delhi). I made so many quarrels like this while I was in India, but this was the worst one. Most Indian people easily surrender when foreigners are very firm. However, this Indian kept threatening, even though his insistence was quite unreasonable. Many Indians gathered around, watching interestedly.

There is a reason I made lots of quarrels. Before flying to India, I dropped in at Bangkok, and I asked for information on India from many backpackers who'd visited there. Although I was used to traveling alone because I had traveled Korea, Indochina and so on by myself, I was feeling somewhat fearful about India. And almost all the people who had been to India said to me, "India is a pretty cool country, but I hate the people there." I met a girl who'd had her luggage stolen. I saw a guy who'd happened to been slipped sleeping pills, and had everything stolen. And a man said alarmingly to me, "Be careful of the 'Mineral Water' in India. Quite a few bottles of water are not purified tap water. The more I got information, the more I got frightened of India.

While waiting for the flight (SU54) to Delhi, I found that most of the people who didn't make a line and jumped the queue at the boarding ticket counter were Indian. And while on board, I was disappointed with Indian people wandering restlessly regardless of stewardesses' request to sit down. If I had thought, "They are different from us" as a presupposition, I could have watched them generously. But the word "I hate people in India", which many people told me, made me think "I also hate Indians!!" On a cab from the airport I was thinking that "I'm heading for a terrible place", and getting to the city center I found every bottle of water holds different amount...

My caution against Indians gradually changed to the temper "I'll never be deceived. I'll never surrender to them" and I got into many quarrels in every place in India. When I was forced to enter a phony government tourist information and surrounded by many giant Indians, I was about to cry out, "I also hate Indian people!"

I was tired of and fed up with getting into arguments. In order to calm down and feel relaxed, I went up north from Varanasi and headed for Nepal.

Sunrise from the "Deep river"

After 15 days' stay in Nepal, I went to Darjeeling by way of Kakarbhitta. The town has no rickshaw and most people were originally from Tibet or Bhutan. The face resembles to the Japanese face, so it felt familiar. And this town lying at about 2000m above sea level, I came to know that the idea that "India is a very hot country" is not always correct. I felt it's true that India has a variety of regions and I knew that it is silly to have a prejudice like "I hate all the Indians." Wherever I go, the more a people's way of thinking is different from mine, the more prejudice I have. People tend to believe what others say as a matter of course without confirming by their own eyes. I also made such a mistake. It is natural that there are incomprehensible things even if one tries to make every effort to understand them. So it is very important to exchange ideas and thoughts about culture with others who have the same experiences. But the more important thing is to have one's own idea by feeling other cultures and to interpret others' opinion from one's own point of view. The first theme of traveling for me is to meet and get to know others. Yeah, I have a very good chance to meet various people. I don't have to act big, seriously. Just relax and have a look at Indian people!

Immediately after I made up my mind in this way, I rushed into Calcutta. Calcutta...,which has the largest population in India, and which many travelers find shocking... I felt like I was being called by Calcutta.

After arriving in Calcutta, I tried to communicate with as many Indians as possible. I visited slum areas alone and talked with people lying in the street. I was taught by street vendors how to cheat Japanese, played cricket with children, swam in the Ganges river, had a pleasant chai(tea) with Indians along the street...and I talked with a person who tried to cheat me and take somewhere. "The responsibility of being tricked does not belong to the trickster, but belongs to the person deceived." Though we Japanese would never think of this, I got to think the idea may not be wrong. Beggars, rickshaw drivers, street vendors...everyone lives as hard as possible and does his best. Everybody has vitality and looks so cool. They are really interesting and attractive.

"Rs50 is not enough. Give me one hundred." The rickshaw driver told me again on the last day when I flew to Bangkok.
"You said Rs50 before getting on. I don't have any more than that because I'm leaving here, India." I said to him with smile. To my surprise, the rickshaw driver smiled back to me. I had never expected his smile at that time, but it may be a Indian's empty words, or a marketing play, to tell us the higher price than the negotiating price, something like how the Japanese say "Please drop in when you come near..," even when they don't mean it.

"Bye bye," I cried out to him. "I shall come back to India even though nobody expects me to come..."