On the way / Monsoon / Visa

It seems that the weather is changing again. Actually monsoon is until the end of the month of September. Though it seems, that it is becoming dryer already? I can feel at my feet. They need cream…. Monsoon is a great time for my feet. They like it more humid. No cuts from dryness at my hills. And anyway, its just so beautiful to walk on a wet street for the feet.
Also somehow, walking beside the road, dust is there. More dry, more dust. Indians dont clean there streets (only rarely) so the sand and dust collects themself at the side of the road, sometimes for month and years. So when it gets more dry, everyone is suffering from ’not taking care‘ in time. Also in the towns, mostly there is an normal pavement at the street. The shopkeeper also take care of the area in front of there shops. But between shops and street- there are some meters of sand, dirt… whatever. Shopkeepers broom there dust away from the shops towards this sand/dirt area/street and street traffic moves by making wind the dust away from the street. Because no one is sealing the dust area between shops and street and no one cleans regularly the street, its a ‚wonderful‘ circle of sand/dust circulation anoying and making anyone uncomfortable. Sometimes its just 1 or two meters of this dirt area.
Often people just move all the rubbish towards the no-mens-land. Because often there is no rubbish service by the town, that the area you find all kind of not-anymore-belongings. Delicious.
And on top of that, people like to spit on the street, especially together with there chewing tabaca leaves.

Again I am fortunate to find myself partly on small roads again. On a big road, government cuts all the trees away, so I feel so disconnected from nature. Also no shade to find on a big road. On the small roads, still the pavement and the presence of that smaller street has there own consciousness, but nature is closer and reachable and my heart and nature can easier interconnect.

I reach the town ‚Barpeta Road‘ after 2 days. I am getting already quick exhausted. Its because I often have to walk around 30 km, to reach the next hotel, but also because I have a basic level of exhaustion in me, which is not really taken care of.
And my body/mind system dont let me sleep all night long. Already at least one month now, I always wake up in the night and cant sleep for some hours. Sometimes I meditate, sometimes I can’t, because for sitting I need more rest…..
Anyway, I have to take care for my Visa again. Its running out in one day. After sleeping into the next day and having a Pizza, yummy, at lunch, I have to do something. Ok, to the police station. They sent me from ‚Barpeta Road‘ to the Superintendent of Police in the district town Barpeta. Its a 20km ride by rickshaw. There, at the Superintendent’s office, they sent me to a side office , which has a sign ‚FRRO‘ (Foreign RegistrationOffice), but the people in there dont have a clue, what to do. They even suggested me to drive back to the first villige, entering Assam…. But I have been there, even at the police station, but its a small police station, it would be so stupid to go there. FRRO is actually the right place to go, but because everything is online to do now, offices at the ground of the district towns don’t know what to do anymore.
After speaking personally to the Superintendent, he orders me to another officer, actually a whole group of officers. They look at my paper ‚ok, exit Visa for the 6th of September‘ ‚You have to leave immediately the country until tomorrow‘. Oh no, I came here to prolong my Visa at least for another 7 days, until the online FRRO gives me a following certificate. I know from several police stations, that the Superintendent can do that.
Finally one officer calls the FRRO online office in Colcatta/Kalkutta. With a surprising result. Because I did already the next online application and it is not answered by the FRRO, my Visa will stay valid. (I think in the Corona circumstances the FRRO online office is only allowed to give other documents than certificate exit-visas) So this officer on the phone tells me, I can stay in India, and he knows me from one month earlier, when I phoned him too, as long as I want. My eVisa is good until 2024 and I only have to inform him 15 days before I want to leave the country for Myanmar, so that he can issue me a final exit-Visa, so that I dont have to pay a penalty fee by leaving the country.
But… I don’t have a whatever kind of paper now, to show at the police station or at any hotel, that anything is valid…. (therefore the FRRO officer has no solution…. but since then I show only my eVisa document… until now it works)
One problem less in my journey….?!!!!

Monsoon is back. Heavily rain all night long. It comes down, when i have to leave my place, feet are happy again.

People are friendly in Assam. But conversation is real limited to the minimum for most of them. Assamese don’t have a rich English.
Usually they just ask ‚where are you from, where is your home‘. Very mostly they are very happy with the answer ‚Germany‘. And satisfied.
If the coversation is longer: where do you go – Myanmar.
Ok. You can go, is sometimes the last comment. It always is for my ears a command sound ‚You can go!!!‘ and feels often uncomfortable. But, this is just, what people learnd at school, or to follow other orders… ?!?!!
Sometimes I get an unasked advise, that the way I have chosen, is the wrong path. They always tell me, to get to the main road. Mostly I stop the conversation, turn around and go without any comment.
Strange I found it sometimes, when people just approach for a selfie. Today a few people came, just by saying no word, and I did not too. Making a photo and disappear without a word. After being surprised, I am just so grateful, I even have not to communicate. Beautiful. Thankful. Grateful!!!