While writing down my impressions of India, I drink masala tea. This is probably the only way to prolong the aftertaste of the trip. It’s hard to imagine this cold May in Moscow, which until recently was at almost 40 degrees Celsius. By the way, the temperature in India is quite comfortable in our calendar spring. Especially in the evening, when the sun goes down and only the air is warm like fresh milk, and it’s calm outside. Yes– masala. In just a few days in India, I tried several variations. After all, tea with milk and spices is prepared in different ways. And there is no single ritual.: as one Indian told me, whoever got up earlier in the morning cooked masala for everyone.
I especially liked the recipe with fresh ginger. There is a special attitude to this tea in India: there is masala, and there is all the rest of the tea. And this was my first broken stereotype about India, since my dad always drank Three Elephants Indian tea in the 1990s. And this picture from the yellow label has been associated with a mysterious country since childhood. By the way, I never saw elephants, except for the souvenir variety with images of this noble animal (only cats, cows and monkeys), as well as the scattering of tea, which, it seemed to me, should be sold on every corner.
The real bazaars, which I visited both in Mumbai and Delhi, are bursting with a variety of fabrics and iridescences of all kinds of decorations, but it’s not so easy to find good tea. You can spend half a day in the bazaars and not notice the passage of time, many buyers are haggling excitedly, and Indian sellers are not averse to entering into a lively dispute.
Another dispelled stereotype is Indian cuisine, which is not only not completely vegetarian, as it seems to us from the Europeanized version (they don’t eat sacred beef, mutton remains), but also not so incredibly spicy. “No spices, no India” – that’s what they say here. But vegetable dishes are so organically mixed with spices that they do not cause a gastronomic shock: together with basmati rice, pepper seems moderate.
But I was most impressed by street food: I admire the Indians’ ability to create a snack out of everything. I didn’t dare try it, but I watched the cooking process with curiosity. There are a lot of street food shops in Mumbai. And it’s not just coconuts with a straw. It turns out that Indians eat quite a lot of flour (snacks in the form of envelopes and tortillas made of dough), fry eggs, saute potatoes (I met such a seller at the market who sold one fried potato in parts), and cane juice is also made from drinks. The cane is specially grown for sale and the stems are rolled through an automated press, squeezing the juice. Refreshing water is sold with lime slices. And if Indians drink coffee, it’s in very small cups and, in fact, they don’t like it. And they also eat zucchini here, just like we eat apples, they are sliced.
And the external colorfulness, contrast of Indian life, and its structure confirm that the way of life of a nation depends on geographical circumstances. The incessant warmth makes the streets of Indian cities a concentration of life in all its forms: people work, walk, socialize, eat and relax here. At the end of the day, the townspeople go out to the coast of the Arabian Sea, sit on the portico of the embankment and enjoy a quiet evening by the water, which breathes life-giving coolness.
What can I say, Indians know how to relax! I was convinced of this when, walking around the city, I repeatedly observed a siesta in the middle of the day: the format can be any, the main thing is to sit comfortably, even under a tree. The street life of Delhi (though it’s worth mentioning that I stayed in New Delhi) and Mumbai is very different. In Mumbai, despite the more difficult – humid – climate and the hustle and bustle of the streets, I absolutely fell in love. The capital of India is more like a familiar metropolis: large transport interchanges, clean and modern, but it all resembles stylization. Whereas Mumbai in Maharashtra is like the very heart of India. It is worth walking along a cozy narrow street shaded by jungle thickets to get to the Victorian Neo–Gothic architecture of the old districts – from Chhatrapati Shivaji railway station to the historical museum with an art quarter in the very center of the city, and you will already feel its unique mood. The harmony of chaos, because the Indian street is very noisy and even on the pedestrian sidewalk there is no regularity. But the deafening street life (the roar of engines, car horns, bird chatter in the bushy branches) does not prevent Indians from remaining calm, communicating in a friendly southern way and living literally shoulder to shoulder with each other. After all, the philosophy of yoga with its idea of balance in mind and body was born right here.
The charm of the Old World in Mumbai is being organically “restored” today. The famous basalt arch “India Gate” now stands in scaffolding, and the skeleton of the fort, which was once Bombay’s main freshwater mining facility near Juhu Beach, has been landscaped into a park where you can climb the stone ruins and admire the scenery, as well as playgrounds and beautiful alleys.
The Museum of Cinema in Mumbai helped me to immerse myself more into the modern culture of India. It amazed me with the care with which Indians preserve the chronicle of their cinema. The historical museum building has been operating since the 1940s, and there is a new one with many “attractions”: a film studio where you can try out the most film professions (from makeup artist to editor), and a cinema theater, which to this day is a mobile cinema for rural areas in India. According to the staff, in India it used to be considered a real holiday for people to watch a movie and immerse themselves in the world of dreams.
The museum has a rich collection of film posters, the exposition goes back from the first world cinema and photographic experiences (a separate stand is dedicated to Sergei Eisenstein as a classic of editing) through silent films to the emergence of national Bollywood. Among the most popular films, the guide always mentions “The Great Mughal” (1960) about Emperor Akbar, who became a reformer for India, “Ananda” (1971), about a terminally ill man who decides to live happily through the last hours of his life, the romantic melodrama “Courtesan” (1972), the action thriller “Revenge and the Law”, a joint film with the UK “Mirch Masala” (“Red Pepper”, 1986) about the life of an Indian village. Today, unfortunately, fewer and fewer Indian filmmakers are shooting in India itself, working in other countries, albeit with Indian actors.
Since I did not find a wide distribution of Indian cinema in the USSR, it was doubly interesting to understand why the cinema of distant India was so in demand in the Union. And I found the answer. The components of classical Indian cinema have a special charm: the passion of the characters’ love feelings, the vivid melodramatic acting. Indian films are sensual, cheerful. Almost all films are shot in the musical genre, there is a lot of singing and dancing in beautifully embroidered costumes, which became visibly distinguishable with the advent of color in the cinema, and the pronounced melodism gives the viewer a charge of joy and good mood. I think that’s what captivated the Soviet audience so much.
I left India during the days of the outbreak of the military escalation of the conflict with Pakistan, but I did not notice any increased anxiety by that time. In New Delhi, civil defense exercises were held in the most crowded areas, the attention of ordinary citizens was focused on the news, and the breath of war was not felt in the depths of the country. But an interesting fact is that Indians do not like to talk about this conflict, considering it a purely personal relationship with a neighbor, and are not ready to discuss them with foreigners, even when you ask them a direct question.
Shortly before X-Day, on the waterfront in Mumbai, I approached a group that surrounded a young Indian man singing to a guitar in his native language. An ordinary guy, but he sang like he was a pop star, he had a great voice, an infectious smile, and he wasn’t shy about the ever-arriving audience. Without understanding the language, I realized the main thing: in India, they know how to enjoy life here and now, no matter what happens next.
Mumbai – Delhi – Moscow