I was admiring the beauty of Croatia when an old guy of around 60-65 came up to me and asked if I am Indian. To my "yes", he asked me "which city" and when I replied "Bombay", he had a twinkle in his eye and he did not leave my side for the next hour or so. I asked him about Croatia and his beautiful home town Split. He described his city so well - in his words, "Split is protected by the mountains and the sea who adopt the roles of a mother and father in protecting their child."
He started out by saying he is retired and now, he is experiencing life while traveling to different places - and then we bonded and how ! He had been visiting India on a yearly basis for more than 20 years. He worked in the Immigration office in Delhi for a few years and after leaving that job, he started his own business by sourcing different products (mostly stones and jewelry products) from Mumbai, Jaipur & Jaisalmer, among other cities. He stayed in India for months at a time and when he returned home to Croatia, his longing for India grew. In his own words, "I could not resist as India kept calling me back - I am in love with the soul of the country." The "soul" was the recurring theme in our conversation.
He loves Rajasthan and its deserts, he used to walk alone for 3-4 hrs from Jaisalmer to enjoy the peace and stillness. He also loved to dance naked in the desert sands without any music when he was happy with life - of course, he made sure no one was around ! Inspite of all the fond memories in Rajasthan, he wanted me to know that Mumbai is his favorite city. One of his favorite memories of India is traveling in the double decker bus in Mumbai. He always took a seat on the top floor so that he could watch the streets full of people, who were always moving with purpose. I informed him that Mumbai is what I like to call "organized chaos".
When he said, "Indian people are mostly sweet and when they are not sweet, they give me sweets", I laughed and said "Too bad, I don't have sweets but I do have cookies". He was happy with the cookies too! The topic changed from sweet to sour in an instant when he informed me that he could not handle the pollution and the unclean nature of Indians. But, he compared India to Switzerland in a unique take on things. His logic - even though Switzerland is a clean country, it has less love amongst its people whereas India is dirty but has more love, which is what one would want in life. He then gave the example of a clean river in Croatia, where you don't find many fishes but in a dirty river in India, one can find a lot of fishes which proves that true life exists and finds a way to survive in India.
He feels that Indians used to work, slog and save earlier but now, they like to spend and travel as more money has entered the economy. But he has a grouse with the young Indians who travel abroad. He opines that the Indian children get too much love at home from their parents and when they travel alone, they are not used to being without that support and face issues abroad. He likes to see strength and bonds wihin families and felt with the father being a dominant figure in India, there is more respect and love within an Indian family, when compared to the western countries.
According to him, the poor or middle class in India experience life in a holistic way, not like the rich who buy things for money but don't live their life. His friends often counter his view and argue that he is trying to be very positive, which doesn't reflect the reality. Anyway, he tries to conclude the argument by saying "Eventually, when you are my age, you will know what is more important in life and how to have a soul." Of course, the discussion had to move towards corruption when we were discussing matters of money and greed. He said that corruption in Croatia or other European countries is only at the top level, but in India it is at all levels, which ensures that everyone gets a slice of the pie. At this point of time, I felt that his love for India is clouding his judgement on all things Indian. There was some twisted logic to his argument, but his unabashed defense of all things Indian (even when they are wrong) was making me laugh and I had to try my best to keep a straight face.
He has not been to India for the last 5 years and wants to go there again to meet his friends in Rajasthan. He feels that India, for him, will be eternally beautiful because of the people and the culture. He has not given up hopes of settling and dying in India.
When it was time for us to leave and go our separate ways, he gave me a bunch of delicious local grapes and bid goodbye by saying "you are my son !". I was speechless and to this day, I don't remember what I replied. I wish I had taken his contact number so I could have remained in touch with him and who knows, even meet him when he traveled to India in future. The joys of traveling and the bonds or connections you make on the road is something that makes my heart go gaga every single time.
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