Privacy what is privacy?

Day Four

I’ve just read my last post and laughed at my final comment about being ‘ready for bed’…it would have been even funnier had I said ‘sleep’! Because that was the missing ingredient in this hotel….the actual ability to sleep. Aside from feck all privacy….the owner or security guard would simply walk straight in to my room, as if I was in their personal living room! But that aside, as I lay down completely buggered I was immediately stirred by what can only be described as something akin to the Hounds of the Baskerville. Right next to the hotel was a piece of waste land which must have been the meeting place for every wild dog from a 20k radius. They howled, barked, whined, pined….it was a deafening racket the likes of which I’d never heard before. And it was unrelenting. I saw every hour come and go….I think out of exhaustion my body succumbed to sleep around 5:30. What added insult to injury was the hotel manager asking for a High grade review. He was promptly disabused of any possibility of that! Which he took in good form and still insisted on a selfie!

I made my way out of town amidst the usual chaos….funny enough the traffic, while utterly ridiculously chaotic, doesn’t faze me much – I just do my own thing. The buses are however the worst….they I presume have no brakes which explains the stupidity of their attacking stance on the road….I’ve been brushed three times by buses passing me, and pushed off the road the same amount by buses coming towards oncoming traffic forcing anything and anyone off the road! What is so so ironic is that so many trucks, vans and buses have signs plastered across the rear of the vehicle proclaiming the merits of ‘Obey the Rules of the Road’ (of which there are none!) or ‘Use your horn’ which they do on a permanent basis. In other parts of the world a vehicle right-off would be something like a smashed gear box, or vehicular structural damage. A right off here would surely be ‘Horn does not work’!

Todays weather was better but the pollution still sky high and I’m beginning to really feel the impacts – my resting heart rate has gone from 55-60 to 75-80, my lungs are chucking up some pretty revolting gunk and I’m getting headaches and general fatigue. Riding with a mask on is making my already compromised breathing more difficult.

As with other days, tea stops resulted in staring and mass gatherings, but incredible generosity. Like the other day, some guy pulls up a number of times alongside me asking for a selfie to which I ignored. He then pulls up again and this time I indicate I’d like to hang on to his motorbike – I was really struggling with breathing. He politely agreed and then asked for a selfie….duly given. He then took me to not one but two tea shops. I had tea in both plus 7-Up …. And he insisted on paying no matter my protestations. This is the story of India – a place where its people who genuinely care for strangers. Despite clear poverty and lack of means, there is no lack of sharing and hospitality. A bunch of 4 lads on a moped insisted on another tea stop!
By the time I arrived at Purulia I was done. The impacts of the pollution was now becoming overwhelming and it was increasingly clear I had to stop. I have my heart monitored through an app provided by my heart surgeon team (as part of post op follow through) and each day I submit two readings. These were telling their own story which was being analysed back in Adelaide. The advice was unambiguous….leave now!
I’m not sure how I’m gonna do that as I’m truly in the back arse of nowhere but the aim will be to try get to Varanasi by some means and fly out from there. I’ve always wanted to go to Varanasi and being so close I’m not going to miss it. It just won’t be on my bike!

Day Five – rest and recover!

I made the decision last night to extend my stay by one day as I’m simply exhausted from the pollution and besides, this was the first hotel I stayed in where I could do that rarest of things…sleep. The food is good too.
I spent the day with the help of Ashraf from Kolkata trying to find a way to get to Varanasi….without success. Trains are fully booked, buses….forget it! So I’ll have to suck it up (literally!) and try get there through cycling slowly over the next week.

I took the time to also walk around (with mask!) the bustling streets. I found a great tea spot and also some wonderful street food – no meat for me but roti and egg roll is delicious.

I have been constantly moved almost to tears seeing the abject poverty here. I have a choice to be here, to live my best life. There is no choice here. You’re born in to poverty and there you stay. To see the wretchedness of old and young alike eeking out a survival from each day is gut wrenching. Theirs is not a life by any definition – it is survival. And if you’re ‘lucky’ enough to do that today….tomorrow serves up the same grief and pain. People pass these people by as if they were invisible. Cows get more attention and status. I want to scream ‘this person too is a human being’. What I found most disturbing was that people would defecate and urinate literally right next to these people on the street, as if they simply were not there. The streets are open sewers where those who are destitute try to survive. It is truly a humbling and equally distressing experience. India truly is a country of extremes and contradictions.

I spent what was left of the day just resting best I could. Reading, writing, chatting to Niamh, Lu and friends on line, and pondering how I’m going to get to Varanasi!!