Delhi, Chennai and the premature end of the India trip

Hello everyone,

it's been a while and as the title suggests, this will be the last post for this year.

In the last post, I mentioned that I had booked tickets for Amritsar in advance. With this plan, I traveled to Delhi and received the news there that my train tickets were canceled. Various route issues were given as the reason. Rescheduling was no longer possible, as all tickets were sold out for the next 7 days. Thus, my third attempt to travel to Amritsar failed. This frustrated me a bit, as I was now in Delhi and did not know how and where to continue my journey. Additionally, Delhi is not a city where one wants to stay longer than necessary. Many Indians also try to avoid the city because it embodies chaos, and air pollution in November reaches record levels. This is partly due to the fact that all fields in Punjab, the neighboring state, are being burned, and the smoke lingers in the greater Delhi area. All construction work in Delhi has been halted, traffic is subject to many restrictions, students are returning to distance learning, and it is recommended to stay outside as little as possible.

At that time, I already had initial difficulties, which manifested in an underlying nervousness and an irrational sense of insecurity. Nevertheless, I took advantage of the forced pause in Delhi to visit the National Museum and other attractions and tried to make the best of it. After two days, I decided to leave Delhi and travel south, booking a flight to Chennai. At the beginning of my trip, I had loosely arranged to meet Jan in December in Chennai. Jan is the chairman of a yoga association in Germany and has been volunteering for over 30 years for projects for children with physical and mental disabilities in and around Chennai.

When I arrived in Chennai, the weather surprised me with heavy downpours, and I realized that I had just arrived at the moment the cyclone Fengal was gearing up off the coast of Chennai. I quickly had to learn that my mobility was once again severely restricted. The main problem is the amount of water that the rain brings. The streets are flooded, and the water mixes with sewage, which means you can't get anywhere and should only move in this mix in an emergency. In the morning, when it was clear that the cyclone was now hitting the coast, I quickly dashed to the supermarket with a Canadian from the hostel; the streets were already partly underwater, but we needed to stock up on food and water for at least two days. The result was fruits, cookies, bread, and peanut butter. We spent the next two days with other travelers and sporadic power outages in the hostel's common room. Fortunately, after two days, the ordeal was indeed over, and countless tank trucks pumped the sewage out in record time so that the rainwater could drain away.

In the following days, I met with Jan multiple times; he showed me the city, and we visited the largest Hindu temple in Chennai and two children’s projects. One project cares for deaf, mute, and blind children, while a second project focuses on children with spastic disabilities. The children are therapeutically attended to with simple means and find a place to come together and receive activities, which is often not possible in a normal environment because both parents usually have to work hard just to get by. The commitment of the volunteers and employees impressed me greatly.

Alongside these experiences, I was mentally breaking down further. A feeling of irrational insecurity and nervousness brought my motivation to continue traveling to a standstill. Being alone contributed to this, and I had to admit to myself that I could not continue like this. I spent more nights thinking than sleeping. At first, I considered changing to another travel country, but that quickly became mentally impossible too. So, a few days ago, I booked a flight ticket home.

Today I have arrived back in Germany and know it was the right decision. At the end of December, I will resume the trip with Sonja as planned. In the meantime, I will have to process the experiences, insights, and events that the past 8 weeks in India have brought me. I did not expect 'India' to overwhelm me so much. I had many and also intense conversations with other travelers on-site, and I was not alone in this feeling. This incredible diversity, all the contradictions, the functioning chaos, a completely different understanding of values, the noise, and the sheer number of people that fascinated me before the trip overwhelmed me during the trip to the point that I decided to end my journey in India. I have only seen a fraction of what I actually wanted to see, but that's okay, and that's how it feels.

I say goodbye for December and wish you all a wonderful Christmas and a good time. In January, it continues.