DECEMBER 1973 - FEBRUARY 1974 : INDIA : Memories of a student

While studying Asian Studies at ANU a friend and I decided to spend our Christmas vacation 1973-4 in India.

I have recreated the trip with the help of the internet and a travel diary. So much has changed in fifty years!

Thai International offered the best flights. Our first stopover was in Singapore. When we fronted up for our connecting flight to New Delhi, we were told that the flight was over-booked and they would put us up at a hotel overnight and fly us the next day. Mark was also off-loaded off the flight - so we met ..and the rest is history!

Singapore. Very exotic for us. We experienced yum cha, spring rolls, food night markets for the first time.

We flew into New Delhi in the middle of the night, sleeping in the small airport until we could catch a taxi in the morning. We found accommodation at a youth hostel in New Delhi’s centre. Delhi. Grand buildings, sprawling gardens, busy, colourful markets.

A train south to Agra. 

Agra was the Mughal capital until the late 17th century 

The Taj Mahal was built by the last Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan as a mausoleum for his wife in 1631. Stunning at any time of the day.

We also visited Akbar’s tomb.

Another train journey, spending time in various stations, to get the right connections to Ujjain.

We arrived in Ujjain with one of our Hindi tutors from ANU. He was friends with a lecturer at Vikram University in Ujjain. Dr and Mrs Johri and daughters, Sruti and Priti, welcomed us into their modest home in the University district.

Ujjain is an ancient city on the Kshipra River and is a pilgrimage site. There is a major temple and extensive ghats along the river for ritual bathing.

There is a large University presence and had a lively commercial centre.

We were treated to delicious home cooking prepared by their cook, Sumayi, and Mrs Johri.

During our time there we were invited to a wedding with the family. A very happy affair with food served for all the community on banana leaves.

Sumayi took a full cooked lunch to the girls’ school every day.

  

Sruti was involved with a traditional dance class and we were invited to an amazing performance. 

We were so grateful to the Johris for all the opportunities they provided for us.

Our next destination was Goa, a very popular meeting point for thousands of travellers for winter. They spent summer in the Himalayas.

We were able to reserve sleepers for the part of the journey.

While passing through Bombay (Mumbai) we had a few hours wait until our connecting train. A local lady invited us to her apartment nearby for tea. I remember her horror when after offering for us to wash our hands, I plunged my hand into her only bucket of water polluting her allotted daily water supply. I quickly learnt about etiquette and realised the value of water in this large crowded city, something I’d always taken for granted.

Goa was party central. Jennine and I joined the thousands of campers in tents along Calangute Beach. Swimming, simple meals, sunsets.



While we were there it was Christmas. I decided to go to the Midnight Service. A packed church at St Alex, a long service, including assistants employed to keep dogs out of the proceedings by goading them with big sticks - it all added to the atmosphere. Very dark and scary walk back to our tent, afterwards. Locals guided me.

In Bangalore we stayed with a missionary family with six children. This was a very happy stay and all the more sweet as the family moved to Canberra in the next few years for the children’s tertiary education.

Joe Mullins, an Englishman, was rector of St John’s Church.

Then we took a long bus trip up winding roads through tea plantations to Ooty in the Nilgri Hills.

A friend in Canberra recommended we stay with her sister. She was headmistress of St Hilda’s, a boarding school in Ooty. We were able to stay as it was school holidays.

We were able to catch a flight from Bangalore to Indore with a student discount. We were relieved that we wouldn’t have to run for seats and get involved in the bunfight as we had on our train and bus journeys.. But when the flight was called everyone started running across the tarmac to grab their seats, we couldn’t believe it.

From Indore we took a bus to Aurangabad to visit the Ajanta and Ellora Caves.

The Ellora Caves are some of the largest carved Hindu temples in the world, dating back to 600 AD.

The Ajanta caves are a series of 30 rock cut cave monuments dating back to the 2nd century BC.

We were very lucky to be part of a tour. From our hostel in Aurangabad we were looking for a public bus to the caves but a tour operator just called us on board and treated us as part of their group.

 From here we headed back to Delhi by train, meeting up with Mark, who had spent time in Srinagar and now was staying with his brother at the Australian High Commission, and then we continued on our journey home via Bangkok and Singapore.

M