Already blogging badly!
I made it to Srinigar in Kashmir after a long, hectic journey by share jeep. I’ll fill in some details on that soon but for now the internet is a little too slow to upload all my photos, etc. so this is just an update post to say that I’m here and I’m safe. I’m headed out for an eight day hike in the Himalayas tomorrow so I’ll be out of commission for a while.
This is probably the hardest part of my trip and I decided to do it at the very beginning. So, I haven’t been able to get too much content here. My phone doesn’t work because they don’t allow pre-paid SIM cards in the area for security reasons. And the internet is pretty slow and much more expensive than in other parts of the country.
It’s still beautiful though and the things that they make: Kashmiri carpets, pashmina shawls, Kashmiri boxes, etc. are all really incredible. I’ll have some time to write in the hills, so I’ll fill in the missing entries on Red Fort in Delhi, the crazy trip through the mountains to Srinigar, the lakes and crafts of Kashmir and my hiking trip, hopefully when I get back.
Remember Leo’s advice: Stay out of prison!!! Meanwhile, I’m looking forward to the next installments…to the himalayas and beyond.
Love the fallen tree story. I started to think that American’s wouldn’t do that…but I stopped myself…it’s such a cliche. I’ve seen neighbors clear a fallen tree from the road during a Thanksgiving dinner. I’ve seen us lift and pull and drag one another along to stay out of harm’s way. There is a transcultural unity in the humanity we CAN display to fellow human beings when the worst is in our face….the doing-for-one-another that simply rises from within and joins with others. These acts redeem us all from our lesser selves.
But that we can do this within sight of enduring filth and poverty (that you describe in your first day in Delhi) suggests that it is a knee-jerk humanity we display in an emergency. What stops us from acting the hero in the face of social tragedy?
Hey mom! Thanks for reading. I agree with you that this could happen in America. I guess my point was that it happened on a 6 lane road in a major city. I dunno. Imagine a telephone pole blocking fifth avenue in New York. Do you think people would pull out a saw and cut it apart before the fire department arrived? Maybe… I was trying to make a point about how when services are readily available and reliable we start to expect them and refrain from doing on our own. But I may have chosen a bad example.