A journey to a time past yet still in the present. India is a magical place and once you get used to the people and the crowds then all is possible.

At the beginning I was joined by my son Peter of www.explorelight.com fame and we travelled all over Tamil Nadu and down south into Kerala. The roads are treacherous and the driving is not for the faint hearted. Somehow there were less road wrecks than I had expected and soon one became used to the constant honking of horns and the endless flow of traffic and people. Very different to mother Ireland with a meagre population of just around 4 million as opposed to India’s 1.6 Billion.

I fell in love with India and at times I also wished to be out of the constant noise and the constant attention westerners get from beggars and ever curious children.

In the second week of Peter being with me lady luck decided to play with us. As we drove towards the temple at Madurai the car in which we drove had a blow out. The car careered across the road into a cement mixer and narrowly escaped ploughing down a group of people in the nearby dwelling.

At the time I felt dazed and also felt a slight but not significantly painful twinge in my back. In truth I was more concerned for Peter as he had several cuts and in that climate infection is always a danger.

A crowd gathered around and they seemed to have little concern for our welfare. Their objective was not to make sure that we were alright but instead to seek compensation for the damage caused by the crash. Although the damage to the car was superficial it was driveable but the crowd wanted compensation before they would let us go to a hospital. Our driver was quite afraid and would not touch the wheel to change it as the crowd were by this time quite hostile.

In the end I had enough and began to change the wheel myself and make the car ready to be driven. Some more hostile than others were not too pleased with this but I truly had had enough and just wanted to get out of there and in the end we had to pay so that we could leave and get proper attention.

An interesting perspective on life and it’s value in what would be a minor incident in most countries of the world but not in India.

Some days later the true extent of the crash made itself known and the pain in my lower back was excruciating. I rested up for a week and and saw Peter off home then made my way to Rajastan via Goa.

The pain would not go away and it just kept getting worse until finally it was truly unbearable and I went to a hospital. Even a shot of morphine failed to make an impression on the pain and eventually I moved to Delhi and found a neuro surgeon who diagnosed severely prolapsed discs that needed surgery.

I had a decision to make. Go home or be operated on in India. I decided to have the operation in India and although i still have problems today I would say that they did a good job and the relief from the pain was so welcome.

I must go back to India soon and do all the things I had hoped to do and maybe the Camel fair at Pushkar will be my next trip. Wanna come ???

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