Indian Samurai इंडियन सामुराई

"When I think of India, it is with a very particular tenderness. India, the country of all contrasts, I hated it like I adored it. This country saw me grow. I learned patience there, as well as agressivity. But this country I loved it. I loved taking rickshaws and racing with other rickshaws. I loved taking the train in Mumbai. I loved the beauty of the touristic sites, the beauty of the nature. I even learned to appreciate the city’s noise, traffic and beggars. But above all I discovered the Indian culture, its complexity… The marriages, the casts… This country, as difficult as it is, is unique, and can not leave indifferent.”

Clara M., 12/09/2011, Travel in August 2001 (Rajasthan), internship for 4 months in 2010 (Mumbai)

“Rajasthan:

First trip, first discovery… A beautiful entry gate on the continent, The Thousand and One Nights in a Bollywood version? Probably. Tradition too. An India dreamt by and for the Westerners, but when I got back and some years later, she left behind the exquisite souvenirs of her cities a bit magical. Bombay-Jodhpur (by train!! 36 hours) then Jaisalmer, Pushkar, Jaipur and to finish Agra and the Taj Mahal. A first step necessary and easy to take.

Kerala and Hampi:

“India, I got to know it a bit. I travelled there three times. She is repulsing and attracting. She is a mystery. A wave of magic carries this country. The Ganesh statues in the street, the beggars who harass you, the rickshaw drivers who rip you off, the slums at the bottom of big buildings, the children who smile at you and touch you like if you were a star.

I got to know this country in her purest form in the villages, with the softness of their inhabitants full of a breathtaking kindness, and in her ugliest form in the economic capital where everything is only about contrasts. This country is the mirror of the Human being, there is the worse as well as the best.”

Fanny M., 12/09/2011, Travel in August 2001 (Rajasthan), volunteering in 2008 (Pune), internship for 4 months in 2010 (Mumbai)