First impressions, revolution and ipad.

I walk off the plane and warm hits me like a wall. Not the familiar are at Ben Gurion but something else entirely. That the first thing, the heat that wraps around me like a blanket, all encompassing.

I find arrival to a new land in always an amazing experience, you walk into a world that is unfamiliar to you and immediately start comparing it to the other places you've been. Your mind tries to see something familiar in all the unfamiliarity, maybe a reaction to a sudden transport that doesn't let you see the changing landscape and cultures on your journey. Flight is teleportation of a sort.

India is calmer than I expected, apart from the roads, though most people I talk to tell me this is just what kerela is like. Kerela is the most educated and economically well of state, with a democratically elected Communist government the state has thrived and tourism is now bringing in even more money.

India makes me think of what England would have been like during the industrial revolution (but set in the 21st century) - there is a mixture of an older culture being thrust forward by industry and new technology. There are buildings being build left right and centre in Enarkulam, the city next to fort kochi, where I am staying. Giant shopping malls sit next to old contreet buildings. Where the rubbish of the industrial age rusted or broke to dust the plastic left my this post industrial revolution litters the street and rivers. One person sells coconuts and bannasa out of a corrigated iron shack while the shack nextdoor sells mobile phone credit. A man sits on the floor outside a building, in the street, banging at an old engine piece with a hammer, recycling. 10 Small girls in formal english school uniforms pile into an autorickshaw to go to school. I see some elephants being washed and an india boy takes photoes with an ipad.

Some people have lots, others not so much but everyone here seems relatively happy and laid back. People seem contented with their lot.

All the men wear shirts, even those who wear the traditional lungi - a skirt like sarong. This tradition is something left over by the english, for why someone would wear an ungodly shirt in a climate like this I do not know.

The roads are like rivers, lines and lights being barely even an indication of how things should be. The cars, trucks, buses, motor bikes, richshaws, auto rickshaws and more flow in and out of each other. Occasionally this flow and ebb is disturbed by a person crossing the road or a cow sitting in the middle of it like a rock in the centre of the stream.

India is a mixture of modern and old. Colonial and native. Energetic and peaceful.
It is that and a lot more.