The people of the world seem to know that everything in New York happens quickly. What also happens quickly is the way the tourism enterprise of India gets you tumbling down their snow-covered hill...
It is the dead-middle of the night in the enclosed streets of a Delhi back-alley, and the lights are a faded hue of orange. The sleeplessness of Jebadiah adds an ominous haze and further filters the dull light. The taxi driver insists, without Jeb's disagreement to walk him through the narrow passages to the hostel.
Previously, the driver comforted him as they left the airport with a warm welcome, a warm cup of sweet-ginger-milk tea and a loving description of his family. Without hesitation, though, the security of the moment was lost as he pointed out all the poorly homeless people and said it was very dangerous to go for walks at night.
Now in night's corridor the shawled men did not help to soften the discomfort. Jebadiah felt as though his senses should be on edge but the blur between the men and their shadows gave him a harsh felling of reality. He was in a new world without a clue about anything. He was quickly brought away from this feeling and into his surroundings by a bare-footed woman with a face of folded leather. She walks by and avoids the pile of loose-stool without breaking her nearly momentumless pace. Jeb stood tensely waiting for her to step in it or turn to him. Either would have disturbed him further.
Finally in the hostel, his sleeping room was windowless and dark continued even after the sounds outside became alive.
Jeb has spent the last year living on farms, hiking between seas, and resting at the homes of strangers. All of this with a companion. A companion that was to him as the new moon is to the night sky, always growing brighter, and becoming greater and greater in his eye. Now, Jebadiah woke up unable to leave the room. He was bound by fear and by the images from the night before. With no view of the day outside it was impossible for him to imagine anything but the gloomy arrival into India. What finally set him in motion was acceptance. It is not the first time that Jebadiah would be taking a step forward due to the lightly guiding hand of acceptance, and it is not the first time that he would be accepting that he needed help.
Help lead him to the desk of a travel agency. He signed a contract that bound him to pay, for three weeks, what he had spent in the past four moths! And at that moment it all became clear to him. He thought back to the warnings from the taxi driver the night before. The way the driver stopped and asked for directions 3 or 4 times. The way that he brought Jeb to the very tourist office that he sat at now (and that it was open at 4 in the morning no less). The way the tourist agent just so happened to have lived in Jebadiah's home city (and the home city of all other travelers too)! The way the manager at the hostel told him, "If you want to be a free bird, you must plan, and your best option is to go directly to the (SAME) tourist office, welcome to India. " And he realized that he had fallen perfectly for the formula of fear and confusion that these people created for him.
Even though Jeb knew that he had been bluffed into folding his hand, he was not ready to accept this defeat. He thought back to the freedom he traveled with in the past. He felt that he was the wind and the sail was his adventure. He felt that when the wind had been still, the force that is even more invisible than the wind blew him to the world's edge. However, that force was gone. Not to be seen, heard, or touched and not to be shared. Now Jeb felt weak, helpless and resistant.
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Two thin lines of smoked raised from the dash-bored of the car that was honking and carving along the road. Jeb thought that the incense was a pleasing touch and started to enjoy his comfortably guided tour. His resentment of the situation was decreasing, but it still humored him as he thought that the scented ride was not a luxury but a tool to cover up all the possible foul smells of the street. Either way, Jebadiah still watched the curling smoke flatten across the top of the windshield. His eyes looked higher than the limits of the car into the tree tops, and then everything changed into a jungle.
Giant hawks swooped and soared just behind the tail feathers of lime green parrots. The animals of the floor screamed, blared and hawked between each other. Nothing seemed to belong and everything seemed to fit. The stitching holding each patch of the city together was perpetually tearing and fixing together again, making for a magical quilt of chaos The trail was full of aggression and empty of patience, but there is more to a forest than a trail.
In this part of the world tea-gardens are the watering holes, and near the source of life often lies a place of worship. Jeb did not make this connection as he watched the women, men, elders, mothers, children, fathers, young-boys and girls laugh and talk over their tea. He just enjoyed the colors and walked on to the Hindu temple. His thoughts were now simple and loud like a narrator or a friend. He looked to the carvings on the pale-red outer walls and thought, Interesting, Nazis. No, wait these swastikas do not represent Nazis. Ah and the neighboring triangles interlocked to make a star does not depict the ideas of Judaism either. But what a message they symbolize here, together, on the walls of a temple a place of peace and prayer.
As you enter, the elements of the temple come together to captivate the visitor. Jebadiah's shoes where obligated to be off so his feet could feel the details of the smooth cold marble floor. He slides his feet over each step before reaching for the next as he climbs up the entrance. With each stride up, more of the temple comes into view and a brightness begins to rise from far inside. With another step, the brightness turns into a shining. And another, the shining begins bursting with color. Fixated straight ahead Jebadiah walked to the threshold of the temple and slightly bowed his head; making the less exaggerated movement that others before him had made. This motion brought his eyes down to look to the feet of two statues. He raised his eyes over their sparkling dress and past the eight arms being held out. The excited aesthetics of these figures engaged him in a trance and he look directly into their pale blue eyes. The shrine was like an exploded firework of lights and color and Jeb thought this captivation must be something like prayer.
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Jebadiah, now back in the car with his driver, didn't have to think about where to go or what to do. In fact he didn't have to decide anything at all. With all this mental freedom Jeb was being carried along for the ride and could only think...
