Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
computer to play some pre-recorded Krishna hymns, and then some archival recordings of
Shri Baba himself, his halting baritone resounding over the Indo-Gangetic Plain. Then we
would pass through a village, and Jai would get excited again, and take up the mic, and the
cycle would repeat.
At breakfast, eaten off leaf plates set on the ground by the side of the road, Sunil sug-
gested that Mansi and I might prefer to ride in the pickup truck, or even in his jeep. It took
some effort to convince him that we had come to the march with marching in mind.
The modest procession began again. A squat sadhu with a gray beard and a potbelly
ranged to the side of the road, handing out handbills to onlookers, who gathered in small
groups to read the news. Creepy Baba had his camera out. For every picture he took of the
marchers or the countryside, though, he seemed to take two of Mansi.
Oh god, she said. He is so
creepy.
Mansi wandered off to take some pictures of her own, and I found myself overtaking
a trim man of sixty-some years, who was pushing a bicycle. He had been at the previous
evening's teach-in.
“What is your country?” he asked, in cautious English.
“USA,” I said, and he nodded and smiled. For his benefit, I decided to rock out my very
best Hindi.
“Kya yatra acha hai?”
Is the yatra good?
He nodded again. “The sleeping Indians must awake,” he said, employing somewhat
more English than I had expected. “Natural resources provide so many things to humanity,
without which life cannot exist. The people in high power are interested only in a life of
luxury. They must be dethroned.”
His name was M.P. and he was a retired schoolteacher from a nearby village. His shirt
pocket was weighted down with pens. He told me he was only joining the yatra for the day.
I asked him if he thought the yatra would have any effect.
“If the task is great and the desire is good, it must have success,” he said.
We walked a little farther.
“Do you believe in God?” he asked.
“No,” I said.
He looked at me in smiling disbelief.
“But God gives air, water, so many things! To not respect him and believe in him is in-
gratitude.”
I couldn't disagree. But I couldn't agree, either.
