After travelling quickly from city to city in lands where the sun hardly shows during the day, it is our great pleasure to be able to do our laundry and be sure it will dry and have the lovely smell of the sunlight. People keep on offering us to do it, and smile as we refuse and say that we really want to make it ourselves. On the road here, we don’t have an everyday routine. We don’t cook as we don’t have access to any equipment; we don’t have a working rhythm but wander around; most we miss a feeling of home as we change surroundings so often. To do our laundry equals finding back this simplicity of the everyday. The little man working in the hostel understands it very well and our relationship to him changes with this decision. He starts to open up, and we clearly make him laugh by our behaviours. By the evening the laundry has dried and we are delighted as we put fresh clothes on after taking our second hot shower. A bit of comfort doesn’t harm and sure hot showers and warm houses will be greatly appreciated when we get back to Finland. We can always get used to small hardship like cold shower and cold nights, but there is no need to always fight what feels good.
Mostly, what we had missed was our jeans that we had to take away. They were so incredibly dirty (as the colour of the washing water showed it) that we spent few days in cotton short pants. Putting back the jeans on feels like finding back our own skin and a form of presence. We have a sense of strength, that we had lost with holiday pants. Jeans is the key of our trip. Thank you mister Levis Strauss.
We also discover an old time pleasure of life in Orchha: the way to communicate without mobile phones. We have met in Varansi two French girls, but didn’t have time to really exchange. We actually had planned our trip in a similar way and followed each other in every city before going as much as possible out of the touristic routes. We knew we would all go to Orchha but on different days. We actually met in the train from Allahabad to Jhansi. Then bumped into each other in Orchha. We wanted to meet them for dinner to really spend some time to discuss about life and India. We were very curious to meet them and to know what they were doing here, why India, what is their life about… But we had no contact number, no email, none of the normal ways to make an appointment. But we knew which guesthouse they stayed in. so we went to the guesthouse to leave a note. Said like this, it seems like nothing. But really it is a great pleasure to leave this note. You don’t know if the note will be read, if they can come or not, if we will manage to find each other. It is quite exciting but also it means that we take time for the meeting, time to communicate also. And of course, they come. The evening is spent talking and enjoying each other views, exchanging experiences, finding out that we have gone through similar happenings and feelings. A true moment of sharing that we have quite missed here until now. It is warm. With Indians, there is of course (as many previous stories have shown till now) the unavoidable aspect that those who come to us usually want to sell something. But this is only a side of our problem getting to know Indians. Communication is blocked very often by a language barrier. We see that some people would like to talk to us, as they see we want to talk to them, but we don’t manage to understand what is told. It is very simple problem, but it creates a feeling of loneliness and powerlessness after a while. How to discuss without words is not solved easily, and good will is not always enough. So this meeting of Claire and Amélie is a bubble of oxygen. Maybe we will meet again in Bundi. Not sure, but hopefully. We will be looking out for a note they might leave us somewhere. Little pleasures of life.
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