Have you ever held a minute in a busy train station at rush hours? Let me picture it for the ones who haven't. People run from one point to another. As noisy as it gets. Thanks to mobile phones everyone speaks to someone who is not there and the ones who chat next to them. People grab their sandwiches before they hop in the train, have a long way to go back home. It's Friday evening, there I am standing still at the corner of one of the busiest train stations in the UK, Kings Cross. Yes, the train station that Harry Potter went to Hogwarts Wizard School. In a moment I wish to be in Hogwarts, thinking everything would have been easier then...
Looking at people observing their behaviors, I can smell the stress on the air. The bottles then strike me, plastic bottles. It seems everybody has one. As if it's an accessory of their outfit.
Standing still there, looking at the crowd. Then something caught my attention, a painting as vivid as it gets. Whenever I see that yellow, I intuitively know that is Van Gogh. Only he could use these vibrant colors through his paintings, what a shame that he wasn't appreciated on his time. However, I also remember turmeric through his art. Despite how delicious and healthy spice it is, I amazed by the color of it. A minute later all of this combination brought back memories... Once upon a time in India... Especially realizing how many people running or hurrying around with their sandwiches and plastic bottles filled with water or juice. Which you may see this view almost every train station around Europe, but not in India... I've seen something literally genius in every train stations back there but wait!
My train on due, hop in and find my seat. My neighbors seem like a bit loud and having a long way to go to Cotswolds makes me worry a bit. Luckily, we have the music! My thoughts are as colorful as Leonid Afremov's paintings. I wanted to listen to Indian songs all of a sudden. Perhaps it's the turmeric and Van Gogh combined inside my brain and brought me to this result. I've started reading Berger’s book, Portraits. Could not focus on it though. A minute later, I was thinking of India. Oh dear, such a wonderful country! There is nothing like it.
Holi is coming, perhaps it is its vivid memories that influenced me today. It was one of the most extraordinary experiences of my life, travelling in a country with the sharp glare of a civilization and a unique culture, especially after Holi ... From the Indian cuisine to its cinema, its traditions, nature, this country has an identity and is never like any other. If a competition were to be held, there would be no equal competitive for any country against India. Holi, which is organized to welcome spring at the end of March, is perhaps the only festival where you can see all the colors on earth in their most vivid form. An ancient celebration that symbolizes respect for nature. Underlying the idea of appreciating everything that nature gives to man and using it properly. I am talking about subtle values that many of us today do not even consider, let alone question. This virtue that tries to be kept alive in India, even if the effect of having more than the need on human beings and consequently overconsumption of the modern era, which tears us from our origins and transformed us into a mere consumer society, seems to be an activity that people living in Europe like me should witness every year. The only thing that comes to my mind after this festival, -where we laughed and had fun like an Afremov painting, covered in hundreds of shades of colors all day- I thought that if Van Gogh had lived he would have been a regular of this festival.
After this spring welcome festival held on March 28-29, I set out to see South India as I had planned where Amir Khan shot those films. My plan was to use only trains in the country, I had already damaged the nature on my plane trip to India, even though I made a small donation on the carbon footprint title for compensation, I wanted to be in this living organism instead of being alone and isolated from the society. The train I took from New Delhi would take me to Mumbai city and then to a relatively small city called Panchgani with various connections. As the Indians never let me feel hungry on the train journey that came like years, I would probably have to wake up in the hospital if I had arrived a little later. The city of Panchgani was an extraordinarily beautiful settlement where Amir Khan’s only one of his hit movies, Taare Zamen Paar, was filming. After spending a few days here, I would continue from the West Indian coast to the far end and then return to London immediately after a friend visit in Chennai.
Since the main idea of this article is not to describe the natural beauty of India, I would like to talk about the train stations, leaving aside my travel details or my memories for now. Yes, you did not read wrong, train stations. At these stops, I met an incredible machine that could be considered as a miracle, which I had never seen before. Cansu International Solutions, that was its name. I could not believe it when I saw this completely free service that turns air into the safe, clean drinking water! Then I started watching people like I just did in the King Cross. Surprisingly, I noticed people carrying thermos or glass water bottles in their hands or in the side pockets of their bags, waiting in line in front of these water-producing machines and filling their bottles with it. Of course, it came to my mind that if these machines were in all countries of the world, the water problem and many diseases related to it could be solved. After an incredible excitement within a minute, I was in the line as I got my bottle. While I was impatient to see how the air tastes, it didn't take me two minutes for my turn to come to me, fill my bottle, and finish all the water - a little from the temperature of the air. At the next stops of my trip, I saw that Cansu International Solutions were actually located in all train stations, schools, government institutions and shopping centers. Apart from the dramatic decline in plastic consumption, I don't know what could be done but admire and respect this energy-efficient and sustainable solution that does not harm the environment in any way.
While swimming in these memories and thoughts, I had to get out of this sea when a 7-8-year-old child touched my arm. He apologized for touching my arm, and then he put the plastic bottle into the bin just next to my seat. The scene where Indian children of the same age waited in line in front of this miracle device to fill water and steel thermos in their hands came to my mind. How would these two children of the same generation live a sustainable life in this world, consciously or unconsciously, as they grow up, will this blue-eyed blonde British boy struggle with a relatively clean waterborne disease when he grows up? Like thousands and hundreds of thousands of people… Or could that dark-skinned little boy even realize the advantages of growing up in sustainable life on his life…
