Exploring India

If I have spoken to you over the last two months you probably would have heard the following short story. I knew that during our trip to India, Kea and I were to visit Ahmedabad to stay with my friend’s extended family who live in the nearby town of Anand. I was also aware of the Narendra Modi Cricket Stadium (named after the current Indian Prime Minister), a stadium built for the Cricket World Cup two years ago, and its mammoth capacity of over 100,000 people. On a whim, I searched to see if any cricket was scheduled during our visit. I thought at the very least a stadium tour would be good, to see some local/regional cricket would be great but an international match of some sort, amazing. To my utter disbelief, I saw that India was scheduled to host England in a one-day international match the day after we planned to arrive. It was as if the stars had aligned. A bowler bowling to a batsman in four stages. India vs England Back to black Ahmedabad was like most large cities we ha...

At the time of writing we are over ten days into our trip and every day we find ourselves learning something new about the people of India, their traditions, customs, religions and way of life. Being such a diverse country, every village, town and city maintains its own cultures whilst most of the time still partaking in the wider regional and national cultures. Having to this point only visited the regions of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat, I cannot confidently comment on the whole of India, just of my experiences to now. As a precursor to what is to follow, I’d like to explain that not once have I consulted Google or other information outlets during my time so far. I have chosen to learn from the people which has allowed me to come to my own conclusions, perspectives and assumptions, some which might be wrong. I apologise if I offend anyone reading this or if I have misjudged something, it is all done out of genuine fascination and total respect. We learn by being vulner...