[AYUSH guest opinion] Gin from Hungeri at Waghadi

By Regina Botos [27th Sep 2010]



As far as I experienced, my opinion, or we can say that foreigner`s opinion is important for the Indian people. I don`t know India, I just visited a small part of it, and I have had just a few weeks here. So what I have seen from this country maybe not watertight in all case, but I still hope my opinion gives you some idea, let you to see more opportunities, or at least you will see what I have felt here.


Incredible India – you can see this slogan everywhere. For me India is an other word. Colorful. The first I have recognized here are the beautiful colours, the colorful women. I like that women here still wants to be real women, even if they also have their job, and live their life as modern women. But they wear their saris, which show their beauty. I know that it`s not like this everywhere. Many of Indian women started to wear jeans and T-shirts, but I still feel, that sari is still the most important part of an Indian woman`s cloakroom.


Later I experienced the colours of the nature. I spent a few days in Chikhaldara, Ellora and Ajanta, where I could see some nice example from India`s cultural heritages, and after Hyderabad I could breath some fresh air. J But what I was really waiting for was my journey to Dahanu.


Before I came to India, many of my friends asked me, why I want to visit a small village instead of for example Agra. What do I want to do there? And so on. When I saw the warli paintings, of course that time just on the Internet, I felt something. It`s not easy to describe what exactly. I had a feeling that these people still have something what disappeared from the European countries. These people still live in communities, we don`t even know the names of our neighbours. These people still enjoys the normal weekdays, while in Europe we tread out each other for our carrier, and we live our days in stress. I saw the pictures about the festivals, and I just wanted to hear the music and laughing, see the people dancing around, breath the atmosphere inside me.


Of course I was worrying. What will I do, if they are different from what I imagined? What will I do, if I just want to escape from there. But I didn`t have to get disappointed. On the way from Thane I already felt, that everything will be fine. The nature was so friendly, the gurgling streams, the thousand kind of green, the mountains in the background.


And finally Waghadi. In the first few days I felt that everything was okey. People were nice to me, I got many information about the Warli art and its cultural background, I visited many beautiful places, and everything was perfectly organized. I learnt some important words and expressions, and I think the most useful were the followings: Tu(mi) kup chan ahe and Bes ahe.


But after a while something started to change. I just felt, that I started to get involved into that atmosphere as I just so the people around me, how they behave with each other, how they are kidding, how they are laughing, the children playing around me. Even if I couldn`t understand the words, I could understand the feelings behind them.


When I was a child, in my grandparents` village we could do the same. The children assembled, were playing together, and our parents didn`t have to worry about us, because not an adult was standing next to us, but we could turn to any adult there for help, if we needed. It seemed that everybody in the village was my cousin, aunty or uncle. The doors were always open for us.


Nowadays these things disappeared. The children spend their time in their room with their computer, with their virtual friends they may have never met. We make a phone call before we visit someone, because the doors are locked, and not everyone can enter.


In Waghadi I felt what I could feel in my childhood. I loved that friendliness and care what was around everyone. I liked that in every minute somebody can pop in, and it`s so natural that he will stay for lunch or dinner.


And after a while I just felt that I would like to spend more time with these people. I would like to live their life. These people are so natural, moderate, and sometimes even shy. I knew they worried about me, how I feel, do I like the food or not, is my room enough good or not, whether are they enough kind to me? Well, yes, everything was enough good for me, much more than enough good. I enjoyed every minute there, but not just because of the delicious food or my nice room. I enjoyed the company of these people.


I`m really grateful that they showed me their culture, their way of life, shared their days with me and their feelings or even secrets. I`m really grateful, because they accepted me, and I have never felt that I`m different, I`m a foreigner. Of course I got bigger attention. But here it wasn`t disturbing, like sometimes it is in Indonesia, in the country where I live nowadays. Here everything was just so natural.


These people are really simple – define this on the best way. They are like beautiful flowers, which don`t want to attract anyone, but still do it without doing anything special, just exist. This was the biggest present I have ever got, and what I will never forget.


And I really hope that this village, this area and the adivasis don`t choose the way what most of the European people chose. Of course the world is changing. But what we call development, that is sometimes just destroying. Destroying our culture, nature, relationships and personality. And when we realize what we lost, there is no backway anymore. The way we should go on towards the future starts by our roots. We have to know where are we coming from, and where are we going to. Without these we are getting lost.


Please, be proud of who you were, who you are, who are you going to be. Respect the others, cultivate your culture, preserve the nature. And show it to the other people, how you can live a beautiful, peaceful life