7 days in India - Dehli - Agra - Mathura&Garravkendra(HOLI harassment- why females shouldn't go to the holi)

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A crazy one-week trip to India: traveller's diary



(1) Sonday: Lotus Temple (of Bahai), Humayun's Tomb, Lodhi Garden

(2) Monday: Minarette, New Delhi Central Station, Old Delhi Market at night

(3) Tuesday: Red Ford (outside), Raj Ghat, Indian Gate, Sikh Temple

(4) Wednesday: 2nd time Lotus Temple, New Delhi Market, Akshadam Temple

(5) Thursday: Agra (Taj Mahal), Bus to Mathura

(6) Friday: Holy Festival in Mathura (birthplace of Krishna)&Garravkendra, trip back to Delhi

(7) Saturday: New Delhi Street Market, Flight back



(1) Just one hour after my arrival, I met some nice Australian and British girls and we first went to the Lotus Temple by a tuktuk and experienced the caotic and very noisy traffic and saw lots of almost-accidents. The traveller's discriptions that I found online previously are true: the bigger and louder one on the street wins. After bargaining with the tuktuk driver, we payed 120 Rupies for the way from South Delhi to the Lotus Temple, South-East Delhi.
When I walked through the garden, I felt the positiveness, spirit and purity of that place. Inside, I felt the freedom that I shared with people from every religion around the world, such as from Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, etc. Bahai is a very impressive religion, which content is composed of the pure and uniting belief as itself. After Lotus, we visited the Humayun's Tomb, a smaller Taj Mahal, and the Lodhi garden, a park, in that I could end the first day well.



(2) The Minarette is a high tower in the middle of a park where many other monuments from the time of islamic occupation remain. It is a nice place for a walk through the sunshine. After that, another German who I met and I went to New Delhi Central Station in order to buy a train ticket to Agra on Thursday. At the parking lot, a well english-speaking Indian man told us that we were not allowed to go strait to the station, but rather to buy a ticket at a "Tourist Office" - Bullshit! This office (DTTDC) wants you to buy a privat drive to Agra for 16.000 Rb. We went back to the Central Station by a Ricksha which dropped us right in front of the intrance. The central station really is an experience for Europeans: the locals at the counter line stand VERY close to each other and are continuously pushing themselves. So we had to push ourselves as well if we wanted to buy a ticket before midnight. Probably, many counters tell you that you have to go to the next counter. Don't hesitate, we asked the police about a tourist counter and after an about 1 hour search, we finally found it and got 2 tickets for just 900 Rb. I needed a bathroom and just found a poop hole at the publc washroom. Better don't wash your hands after! We just walked around, followed the crowd that left the central station and accidently found the old Delhi market at night. It is a beautiful, chaotic but save place, which is rather visited by locals. There, we could buy bracelets, spice and food from the people who sell it on the street- but the rule is: only go where many buy food and we didn't get any issues. But I've never bought ice, ice cream or anything that contains milk (it's just creamer in the -they have only coffeinfree 😞 - coffee). There, we were looking for beer or alcohol in general but the sale is only allowed in few licor stores. However, I saw goats that were standing and eating at the shop. After an about 2 miles walk (we left by a sideway because it's very widespread), we took the metro and got a beer at a restaurant (It's about 350 Rb. for a Heineken).



(3) Red Fort is a very big building but the counter area was crowded and the counter line very long. So we went to the Raj Ghat, a peaceful park with a Ghandi monument, and to the Indian Gate. The Sikh Temple that we visited after, was impressive and looks like 1001 nights. The Sikhs welcome everyone from every religion (even people without any).



(4) I went with 3 other Europeans to the Lotus Temple for the 2nd time and gained more information about the Bahai. I became more fascinated by the peaceful openness towards every religion. After, we went to the Delhi market which is a modern street market. The Akshadam temple is an impressively big Hindu temple but very commercial! It is possible to buy tickets for a water show and to eat at an american-style food court. I am impressed by the diversity of religions in Delhi, that I learned by now, especially because India is famous for its conservativeness. Additionally, an Indian told me that the "untouchables" are most probably implemented by the Brits (not implemented in Hinduism, therefore is it not a religious component) and rather a spiritual and social matter, than a legal. Consequently, the people are treated as untouchable and not seriously seen as untouchable. But there is a huge difference between (modern and by the west effected) city of Delhi and the smaller town/villages- that's what I experienced the next 2 days.



(5) The other (male) German and I took the train to Agra and arrived at about 3 pm. We sat at a sleeping compartement which was more comfortable than expected. We arrived at Taj Mahal through the small center by a tuktuk and it looks Mediterranean and I saw cows on the street for the first time- and they are seriously not touched by human! Taj Mahal is huge and impressive but honestly not as breathtaking as I expected. The sunset was close and we went to a bus station that was labelled on the city map, but the counter employees told us that there is no bus leaving anymore, neither today, nor tomorrow. We thought that it was not a far walk to the tourist office and walked through the darkness. We realized that we were in the poverty area or even in the slum (we passed a huge trash spot) and an old man pushed me. I got terrified and he looked at me scary but I just moved on, hoping that he wouldn't make any trouble. The people started the holi festival, got drunk and harassing. Some guys just shouted harassing things. I didn't feel save and we took a tuktuk to the city center. There, a police officer told the driver were the office and the right station exactly are. The office was closed and the driver brought us to the "right" bus station which was exactly the one before where everyone told us that there was no bus leaving anymore! Suddenly, there was the last bus to Mathura, the birth place of Krishna. We first asked 3 Indians in the bus if this is the bus to Mathura and they shaked their heads. Second, we asked if it's the one to Delhi- they nodded. Then we asked if it stopps in Mathura- they nodded. All right. Arrived in Mathura, we didn't feel save. The men were drunk and bothering. But there were some officers and one of them guided us to a hotel. Later, I gained the information that most Indians additionally get high during holi by Haschisch tea. The next day was horrible!



(6) We left the hotel at 10 am and immidiately met some children that roughly smeared color and color water everywhere at us (eyes, ears, nose and mouth). It wasn't funny for us. The Indian men were staring at me although I covered my head with a scarf. Even one Indian told me that I am a "problem" and should stay in a room (and that he can offer a room for 500 Rb.). I was often surrounded by 5-6 guys and who touched or embraced my very tightly. We met 3 Americans who asked us if we wanted to join them to go to another place were a party is going on. It took about 20 minutes to the village Garravkendra, outside Mathura, where no police was. I was surrounded by men groups all the time and I even got my breast pinched. Later I realized that it was the holi party place for the locals who went to from even smaller villages and probably have never seen a white woman before. Additionally, I was the only jounger woman in that group. The high and drunk men were seriously freaking out and a crowd of 30 or more appeared around me, embracing and touchung me like fresh food. I've even heard one Indian saying "I want to fuck her". I shouted and the American and German guys shouted at them and guided me through. The American women clung my back and we went back to Mathura. At the tuktuk, I was close of crying because we couldn't leave that whole rural area immidiately and I was really scared of rape. We went to the train station (we didn't walk again in that area because guys were always stopping and harassing). We met a white couple at the train station who felt similarly. Again, we had to go from counter to counterand, pushing and shouting for 2 tickets. After I finally received it, I wanted to cancel my original return ticket for the evening, but the guy was just counting his money at the other side of the counter glass without answering my polite inquiry. When I started to ask louder, another man told me after a while that it is lunch time. We took a very deep breath and went to the platform. I felt better at the train and I got back my self-confidence towards the men who were looking at us. At the horrible village, I tried to make myself as small and invisible as possible.

Back in Delhi, I somehow felt like home and save at first. But my friend has to drop off the tuktuk at a Delhi Bus station because we went to Jaipur and I had to go to the accomodation by my own in that tuktuk (after 9pm). Previously, when we were bargaining with the driver, a guy joined us and annoyingly asked us where we wanted to go, as usual in India. We ignored him but he wispered, refering to the Hindi-speaking drivers, "don't belief a word, seriously" and left. When my friend dropped off, I told him loudly in english that I'll give him a call after my arrival. I was still paraniod, wrapped my scarf around my head and held my pepperspray in one hand and my selfphone in the other. Thankfully, I arrived save. American girls told me that they have badly been harassed in the metro. On my trip, I learned about Indian women's feeling (or a woman in that place) who can't feel save on the streets. Usually, I am a freedom embracing woman but due to that experience I would never go out in Dehli and in India in general after sunset by my own.

Now I konow how it feels to be a not respectfully and not equally (down to the physics) treated human being or even to loose my human status because of my sex and, as a consequence, to be seen as a piece of flesh. I experienced a different way of comprehension of human being that includes social status which in turn contains equality and respect towars the relative interpretation of human being that effects the physical equality (distinction) which is finally expressed by harassment and suppression of females.

Even more I experienced the necessity of adaption of behavoir to that cultural conditions. Concerning that, one social male-female behavior became omnipresent to me: at the bus to Mathura, there were 2 Indian couples, very polite and we started a conversation. They invited us to join them to a guest house. Sadly, only Indians were allowed to stay and they gave us the address of the hotel. In that guest house, I had to ask for a restroom. So, the employee went upstairs with one of the Indian men and after a few seconds, he called his Indian wife to come upstairs and she guided me the way upstairs to the toilet. I think this is an example of conservative male-femal behavoir: the husband checks (for protection) wether there really is a toilet and then, foreign girls are guided by local girls. I understand that women are forced to behave that way because they need physical protection in that area. I would never have imagined that I would never go to the Himalaya (I had thought about it several days before) without at leat one man who is constantly with me. I feel restricted in doing things in that conservative country, I lost my social status among Indian men because of my sex and I had to adapt in order to return save.



(7) After an uneasy night, I went to the Rawij Chowk New Delhi Street Market at noon and met a British girl. She studies social sciences at Delhi University and is writing her thesis on the effect of sexual differences and treatment in Indian society on women's usage of sustainable public transport. She told me that the campus is strictly seperated into boys and girls areas and that most girls, especially from smaller Indian towns, never leave the campus. It was interesting to me how normally white girls, who not even know each other, can stick together and experience things similarly due to their common western backround.

I left Delhi at night and caught myself in pushing me through the check-in airport counter roughly in the way that I have learned in Delhi. Back to Europe, I feel the first wave of a kind of reverse culture shock. The weather is different (cold) but familiar and calmative, too. Everything works straightly, planned and totally unchaotic, as known. Home sweet home.

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