A leap into the past

I love hearing stories. Not only tales but any story, about someone’s life or anything that happened someday to someone, I love hearing it and often people are surprised when I remember things that they told me long back. As a child I used to ask my mum to tell me stories from her childhood. She was born shortly after World War II ended and life was very different then. Her stories always amazed me because life was so much simpler then and so many things felt like another world to me.

As I said, they were stories.. but the first time I came to India in 2006, I often felt like a deja-vu (already seen), or better, a deja-entendu (already heard). Several things seemed to have materialized from my mum’s stories. In fact, some things in India function similarly to Europe 50 years ago. Some examples:

My mum told me that when she was a kid often sellers would pass by in the street, shouting what they were selling, and people would just get out of their houses to buy all sorts of things (in particular, I remember she mentioned buying ice from street vendors). I’ve seen a similar situation here: I drank litchi juice bought from a man walking on the street and I saw women balancing massive baskets on their heads carrying fruit or kitchenware. I recently saw men selling candy floss: they have long sticks to which little bags with colourful candy floss are attached.

Corporal punishment at school would be unthinkable of in Europe now. However, only 50 years ago it was totally accepted. Luckily at the school where I’m volunteering here it is forbidden to use corporal punishment (among the several reasons for this, one is that the students of this school often experience violence at home already). However, I’ve been told that teachers find it difficult to keep discipline in class also because in any other school they would be allowed to carry a stick, with which they hit the naughty student’s hands. To me, this is utterly shocking. However, this used to be normality in my country as well.

India is well known for the trains and buses with people hanging outside or for the auto rickshaws carrying 6 people or again for scooters carrying families of 5 members at once. According to my mum’s stories, it was quite normal for her to travel 6 people on a Fiat 500 (and in the 50s, it was a pretty small car)!

As I mentioned in a previous post, I think that everyone should visit India at least once in his/her lifetime. Among the many good reasons for this, one is that you take a leap into the past and you understand where you come from. This makes you re-discover small things that are now given for granted in rich countries, like having food, a roof on your head, a bed. A trip to India made me understand how lucky I am and made me want to deserve the luck I had.

Now the big question is, how will India be in 50 years time?