SERENDIPITY
I will give one example of something that can happen on a trip when you are clueless about what is going on but jump right in. It happened in Virampur where my friend Hasmukh Patel has organized a Gandhian village developement program for tribal people, the people who were in South Asia before the Aryans arrived thousands of years ago. His ashram is a comfortable place and I always felt secure because I would tag along on his activities and take photographs.
But at one point when I was there on a visit Hasmukh had a meeting in Ahmedabad and was away for three days and I was on my own. Shilpa and others I knew had their own activities.
But I was told that a new Hindu temple was being dedicated nearby so I decided, uninvited, to photograph the events.
Virampur is a little village, but the dedication of the temple was an enormous event with thousands of people attending the ceremonies. There was a giant parade from Virampur to the temple with everyone dressed up in colorful costumes. And the dedication ceremony was an all day affair with fifteen altars and fire pits and Brahmin priests from the outside to officiate.
I had no idea what was going on and didn’t understand how or why the rituals were being conducted in Sanskrit. I didn’t know a soul there. And of course as an old whitebeared Don Quixote I stuck out and was completely out of place. I guess some of the people knew I was connected with Hasmukh Patel who was well known and this may have helped people to accept me. But I think the main reason I was accepted was that I was an old white man with a camera that no one knew how to respond to so they simply ignored me even as I wandered into the space where sacred ceremonies were going on and inserted myself into the parade and photographed people worshipping or being sprayed with pink powder or riding in a chariot with golden horses in front.
There I was, in the middle of everything firing away with my camera. I had a marvelous time and don’t think I offended anyone else very much. But the reason that I did have such a good time was because I forgot about my own Don Quixote presence and let go and smiled and laughed and joined in. But it was one of the high points of my years of travel in India. And it is an example of the kind of serendipitous adventure that travel offers.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 