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From: "Angie Eng" <angie_eng@hotmail.com>
To: mailing list
Subject: "Mind Your Head"
Date: Thu, 01 Mar 2001 10:55:25 -0500

MIND YOUR HEAD

"Ughhh" Brian whimpered when he bumped his head on the low stone fort ceiling while descending the darkened staircase. He was behind me and couldn't hear our guide reminding us, ‘Mind your head!’ You will hear this phrase over and over when you wander through the mazes of Mughal palaces, marble Jain temples, monumental forts and underground passageways. This is the phrase you hear while sightseeing. These words also echo in your head when visiting town to town attempting a ‘happy-go-lucky’ pace despite the fact you are being inundated by India through every sensory nerve.

Traffic jam in Varanasi

‘Slowly, slowly’ or dily-dily – the Indian way. We also witness dily-dily when riding wide gauge trains at 20mph, waiting one hour for our meals of vegetable korma and butter nan, queuing up for train tickets, but the line in front of you gradually becomes longer and longer as locals push their way to the front from all sides, leaving you further and further from the counter. Lastly you will remind yourself to be "dily-dily" when filling out multiple forms and entries in oversized ledgers upon arrival. By the way, I spotted 2 cows having a feast with a mound of that leather, weather-torn ledgers if you ever wondered what they did with all that tourist information.

Saddhu as Shiva, Khumb Mela

In order to "Mind your head" you must also remind yourself that for every 100 obnoxious relentless touts you are confronted by, you meet the kindest most generous Indian to balance it out. This also goes for every stinky, rotten, sewer, rank surface which contrasts with the most amazing historical, magical structure located right in front of your nose.

Making dinner with family at the Mahansar castle

It’s a bit surreal looking right in front of your old haveli (mansion) guesthouse out of your bay window and seeing 400 year old city palaces in the middle of the lake. Or looking right in front of your bus, you stare out at the desert and see a flock of giant vultures waiting for another wild cow to bite it. Or right in front of a motorbike with a rajasthani in a fluorescent pink turban in front of a lounging cow with a gray jungle crow on its back in front of a beggar child who looks like a charcoal burnt ‘Chuckie the doll’, in front of a Hanuman temple with orange paint slapped all over it as if a blind leper with no fingers did the job, in front of a temple where The Buddha happened to preach his sermons, in front of a dung mud hut village, right in front of a harijan(untouchable) boy sweeping the garbage under your feet, as you sit in front of a Dr. Ambedkar(leader of the untouchables) statue, in front of an Escher-like marble carved Jain temple, in front of those fluorescent lighting tubes which create a green glow when the electricity goes out. Even a Japanese rock garden sits before you, in front of a camel cart loaded with lanky sun-withered women in red veiled mirrored saris, in front of the dancing gypsy girl carrying a metal hoop balancing on a rope above a monkey on a chain, all of it right in front of you. As you walk through the streets, you will remind yourself to ‘Mind your head!’ or else suffer a cultural concussion tripping over India- the best high you will ever encounter on the road.

Extras for a Lawrence of Arabia remake, Khumb Mela

Boy dressed as Hanuman, the monkey god, at the 12 anniversary of the Khumb Mela, Ahmendabad


A sweeper/shoe shine boy of the Harijan class. Regardless of class they are amazingly beautiful children you can hardly believe that the upper class treats them like stray dogs.