Journeys Across India: Unveiling the Heartwarming Character of Laypeople amidst Modern Challenges

One such article described that when someone wanted to pick up some colorful stone, he was dissuaded to do so, and advised to buy one from the counter instead. The citizen, maybe the guide explained that if everyone does this,the beauty and the natural treasure would be lost. This delighted the writer very much. It made him feel how they care about such things minutely.

Many of us travel extensively in our country and share our experiences.

Their experiences are very interesting and motivating. They reflect the character of laypeople. In a way the character of our society.

Here is an example -

Mr Girish and Mrs Rajashree Shende from Pune decided to complete the pilgrimage to Saptashrigi temple near Nasik on foot. Rajashree shared many of her unimaginable experiences,many unknown people helped them to suggest some good hotels for the night stay,a manager who requested some other customers to adjust a little and made some space available for the two. When he realized that they were on foot to the Saptashrigi temple, he declined to charge money. A simple family offered tea and milk out of respect for their pilgrimage. Some offered a lift and many such experiences.

When we visited Rajasthan, a car and its driver were with us for a week. He took us to some not-so-famous but very interesting places. Showed us the local eateries where wonderful local food was available. When we requested him to take some sweet and popular food home, he always asked for a very reasonable quantity, on the last day when my husband wanted to give him money for a pleasant experience and guidance, he accepted some amount and returned the rest. He said ,' sahab adat nmat bigadiye ,itnahi kafi hai. ' The person who ran his house with a meagre income did not want to get spoiled. To this day I wonder how could he not be tempted to make a little more money when the customer offered willingly.

We had been to the picturesque land of Arunachal Pradesh, visited Tawang, and enjoyed visiting the Boom la border. The temperature in October gave us a chilling experience. The layers of clothes could not help. Jawans were preparing tea and welcoming all the visitors. One could see snow all around, but the jawans were happily doing their duty. We felt they might not like the duty of preparing tea and noodles for the visitors. When we talked to one of them, he said that they always like to receive the people,' time accha katana hai, jab koi nahi aa sakta, to accha nahi lagata ', his simple words warmed our hearts. Then he showed us five peaks around, where jawans are deployed in pairs. Till the next pair reaches the post, they cannot leave. Sometimes due to difficult weather conditions, they cannot be relieved. Sometimes suddenly snowstorm picks up and they just disappear. ' voh kabhi nahi laut pate '. It sent shivers down our spines. We were speechless, but no one was disgruntled. They keep vigilance so that we are safe in our homes. Has no one experienced this? Long back, maybe some decades ago, an officer was interviewed about the situation at such posts in the non-combat period. Why does no one feel this shows the character of our country?

Later when we were about to leave Tawang, we saw a beautiful building in front of our hotel, thinking that it might be another hotel and we must enquire about the tariff so that when we visit again, the stay would be even more beautiful.

We walked straight to the building, and found cute children playing, as we crossed one building, came a voice,' Mataji kya chahiye? ', the address surprised me. An elderly lady appeared on the scene, we talked to her, and she clarified that it is her house with three small bungalows. Then she enquired about us, and when found that we were from Maharashtra, she spoke about the caves of Ajanta and Ellora which she visited twice. ( Buddhism is followed by the majority of people in Arunachal Pradesh.)

She asked us to wait for a little, got tea for ur in the chilly morning, her approach was so warm,we could not refuse,then a man brought three cups and local biscuits. Her hospitality made us feel that we belonged to the same nation, culture, and shared a similar set of traditions and values.

If we travel the length and breadth of our country, we come across many such incidents.

The unforgettable is the experience we had 30 years ago, I see it in front of me whenever we travel to Jejuri. On the ninth day of the Navaratri festival, on the way to Jejuri, we purchased Marigold flowers for the next day Pooja, paid for the flowers, and asked the person to keep them with him, as on our return we would pick up the flowers. We decided to go to Jejuri, and after climbing the Jejuri gad, we planned to climb up to the Kadepatthar, for which one has to climb up and down some hillocks. When we reached the mid-point, it started raining heavily. We completed the climb, had the darshan at Kadepatthar, and climbed down to the gad. Started our journey to Pune on two-wheelers, it was still raining, and as we reached the school where we purchased flowers, saw the two people waiting for us to hand over the parcels in the dark and rain. He said that we had paid the amount, so it was his duty to hand over the flowers for the next day Pooja. This was unbelievable, the honesty of someone who did not even know us. I still cannot forget their gesture, and feel this is the character of lay people.

Somehow I feel we don't perceive this, ignore it, as probably we have been for a long time that whatever is Indian or indigenous is all to be renounced and adopt all Western set of values. They are wonderful and modern. Arun Shourie in his famous book has described the process of British and missionaries that always denounced whatever our society had. Now they seem to have succeeded. One cannot be called as an intellectual unless one finds fault with everything that is a part of our ethos.