Three things I‘ve learned whilst travelling in India for one month

Mother and her child going up the mountain to find a new shelter in Srinagar. 

I‘ve been travelling around India for one month. Some would say that 30 days is a lot. I would say it‘s not enough. Encountering disgusting poverty and unexplainable beauty of nature, being two feet away from death and one step closer to peace did change the way I see the world. It sounds incredibly cheesy, but I can’t really do anything about it.

Here are three main things I’ve realised after 29 days of being constantly photographed by Indian people, meditating in front of Himalayas and eating nerve-breaking spicy masalas.

With no epiphany and no great realisations achieved through nirvana. Just three simple things we have somehow managed to stay ignorant about, despite their ridiculous obviousness.

*MATERIALISM

Girl begging for money in Delhi

We live in this consumer-driven society, where having more means being happy. We claim ourselves to be contented and successful if we have a remunerative job, fashionable clothes, a new iPhone and a couple of luxurious cars.

But wait… Does that stuff actually make us happy or have we simply stopped noticing our broken plastic nurture? Do THINGS actually make us appreciate life more? We become obsessed with material stuff money can buy hence we are not able to find joy in little things.

Think about it. We have everything we need. We have home, we have enough of food, we have people we love around us and we have clothes to keep us warm. Most of us are able to get a perfect cup of Starbucks coffee every Sunday.

We have enough.

And yet we don’t appreciate that on a daily basis. Instead, we live with no smile on our faces, eyes pointed to our smartphones, minds engrossed in the paraphernalia of contemporary social media. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat; whatever we’re into.

Indian people are slightly different. A lot of them live in pathetic huts made of garbage. They have to pray for food on a daily basis. In the end of the day, however, they smile all the time. They are happy with what they have. They were lucky enough to be born and see this world as it is.

So give yourself a minute and think whether you actually NEED more.

This brings me to the second thing I’ve discovered when climbing the Himalayan mountains and drinking Kashmiri tea thousands of feet above the sea level.

*HAPPINESS

The happiest man on earth. Monkey Temple, Jaipur.

We can only be happy if we really want to. Smiling to the world, enjoying every single moment is what this life is all about.

One morning I was meditating on a rooftop of our guest house in Leh. It was some sort of a Buddhist celebration in the city, so one monastery would play beautiful mantras out of speakers all day long. I was sitting there covered in Indian sunlight, surrounded by amazing mountains, listening to those songs in complete peace.  I suddenly realised that all the problems I’ve got… they are all in my head. My worries I create are the most insignificant things in the universe, so why on earth do I waste my time thinking about them?

Enjoy the sun, enjoy the rain, notice the beauty that surrounds you and look at all the gorgeous people you spend your precious time with. You were given one chance to exist within this body. It’s totally up to you what you want to do: sit in front of the screen, travel, go trainspotting or cook quality food.

We call today ‘present’ for a reason. Today is a gift. Use it; because one day you will not wake up. One day life will stop giving you gifts.

*DEATH

Tibetan Buddhist monk begging for money in Dharamshala.

Death is inevitable. We will die eventually and it’s one of not many things every single person on this earth has in common. You might die in 2 minutes. You might as well live 100 years more. And… hey, going back to the first thing I’ve learned – you can’t BUY life.

We were again up in Himalayas, on a breath gripping and yet extremely dangerous road from Leh to Manali. As far as I remember it took us 17 hours to get there, however, we wasted some time being stuck in a middle of nowhere, high above any proper civilisation, surrounded by miles and miles of snow. We were going to Manali down these tiny mountain roads, less than one metre away from a dreadful abyss. It wasn’t too bad at first. Until I woke up at 1am, looked through the car window and realised that the whole mountain is covered by a thick fog. And… hey, we were still moving down the mountain with a big ,big NOTHING being maybe 5 centimetres away from the car.

That was the moment I realised that we were all going to die. Inevitably. All we could do was trust our driver, who did not look too fussed about what was happening around the car. I was hoping he can feel the road with his magical Hindu 8^th sense or something like that. Our lives were in the hands of a random Indian chap and we had to accept the fact that after we fall asleep again, we might never wake up.

And to be honest, I had tears in my eyes and I was holding the handle of our car door. But the voice deep inside my head was gently whispering: “Hey, you fucktard, listen, if you die, you die in India.”

And then I’ve realised that I could not do anything about it, indeed. I just had to let it go. Death can come any moment. And the sooner we realise it, the easier it will be for us to go.

Evening enlightenment somewhere in Dharamshala.

These realisations of mine are pretty obvious. Most of you might say, that you have realised everything I’ve just said the day you were born. Some of you might not agree with anything I just wrote at all. But hey, when you stop KNOWING these things and start implementing them into your life philosophy, you will become happy. Or not. At least I guess I did.

So fuck whatever you’re doing. Go and be happy.