India in a wheelchair

 

India was always somewhere that I want to visit but being in a wheelchair I didn’t think it was going to be possible. However I met someone who regularly works in India and together we formed a plan. We had two weeks to explore as much of Rajasthan as possible with a little diversion Utter Pradesh to visit the Taj Mahal to round the trip off.

We started off in Jaipur in a lovely family run guest house. It was the Festival of colour while we were there, which is celebrated by people throwing coloured powder all over each other. I was carried up three flights of stairs in my chair so that I was able to join everyone else and try and cover them all while trying to avoid getting covered myself The wheelchair I travelled in still has pink tinged wheels! The only downside to that hostel was that it was right next to the railway and the rooms would shake with the noise every time a train went past.

Next on our hit list was Pushkar, which felt like Glastonbury in the middle of India, lots of people in baggy pants with dreadlocks doing yoga. A weird mix of the peaceful and the commercial. One of the most beautiful places we visited was Udaipur, the lake city probably most famous for featuring in the James Bond film Octopussy. The service pretty much anywhere in India is enough to make anyone feel like a film star temporarily.

One of the main associations with India is the idea that it is a really meditative place. For me that wasn’t what I found, instead I was thrown into things so I didn’t have time to think about the usual barriers as often solutions were found as quickly as problems arose. At the Animal Aid animal shelter in Udaipur there was a large fence to one of the enclosures and I was simply lifted over it so that I could interact with animals. I’m not very good at being in situations where I feel even slightly helpless, but being in a situation where I knew wasn’t going to have the opportunity to have that experience again really helped me and made me overcome some of my inhibitions. I may not have been able to be independent in the traditional sense, but I have always felt like if you are able to ask for the help you need and be given it without any problem then that is as good as being independent

We also visited Bundi, which is only just beginning to make it onto the tourist map as somewhere that has some amazing forts, which may have provided the inspiration for by Rudyard Kipling when he was writing the Jungle book. I may not have been able to see inside these forts but I can see why their crumbling majesty would inspire someone to create a story around them.

People’s attitudes towards me as a wheelchair user felt very different, because everyone was very up front about asking questions and saying exactly what they think. People would just ask “What’s the problem?”. This happened a lot. I didn’t mind. I would much rather that someone asked rather than continue with misconceptions. The extra attention we got also meant that there were always people who were willing to help.

In Ranthambore we went on Safari and I may not have been lucky enough to see any tigers, but I was still given all the help I needed to have the best experience possible. In the UK people would have been reluctant to change things and allow me to sit in the front of the Jeep (the only place I could hold myself upright so that I could see everything) in India there was no problem because people just want to do whatever they can to make sure everyone has the best experience possible. People care about giving good service not in a cheesy American or understated British way they just come across as being really genuine.

We saved visiting the Taj Mahal one of India’s most famous landmarks until the end of our trip. It was built in the 1630s as a mausoleum and memorial for the wife of Shah Jahan and is now a UNESCO world heritage site. It was refreshingly accessible, with ramps all around the building, a good job because we visited on one of the hottest days, ten minutes after we bought some water felt like it had come from a kettle. It felt very odd actually being at the Taj Mahal, the awesomeness of it in the blinding sunshine just made it seem even more surreal, I found it difficult to persuade myself that I wasn’t on a film set.

About the Author: June Craven is a Writer and Study Coach who lives in Manchester, England. She reads too many books and likes to travel whenever possible.

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One response to “India in a wheelchair

  1. June,

    You are unstoppable! Thank you for sharing such a personal experience. Keep posting I am interested in reading more about your travels.

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