Hello, my name is Thomas Mendel and I’m 27 years old. I was born in a small town in Germany in the late 1940’s. Although I didn’t make any personal experiences with the war, my childhood was marked by the post-war time and the people’s fight to survive also my family’s one. I grew up in a very strict religious home. My parents teached me to be diligent and to work hard. And so I did what I was told to do until I became older and started to scrutinize the sense of my life. I had  worked hard for the whole time, had succeeded in school but now I realised that I had missed something. It seemed like somebody else lived my life but not me. There were so many questions I couldn’t answer. Who was I and what did I really want? … I wanted to find myself and so I decided to escape the routine day of life. In this time I argued a lot with my parents. I rebeled against their conservative way of life and they couldn’t understand my development. But I knew that I needed a change. And so I chucked up school with 17 and travelled along the ‘hippie trail’ to India from one day to another on the search for spirituality. I hadn’t told my parents anything and just left a short letter in which I explained my decision. On my journey I met a lot of young people who searched for the same. When I arrived in Bombay, I was overwhelmed by India’s colours and the vast diversity of religions and cultures and so I devote myself to this spirituality. We took drugs together and just enjoyed life. This time was marked by a feeling of total liberty and freedom. … But the times changed soon. Most of the young people spent only a few months in India. They had made their experiences but life here was just too different and so they returned into their old lifes and left me behind. Without any money to buy some food and no place to sleep I was soon back in reality. I lived on a low budget, begged for surviving but never really got back into normal life. And today I’m a broken man without any hope. India didn’t give me this life of spirituality and freedom I had guessed to achieve here. I don’t know what to do now. The appearances are deceptive. Life here is just a fight to survive…

Quotation  IV. 2:

„Wherever the English settle, they never leave England.“

-This quotation is probably from an Indian who lives under British colonial rule. I think ‘ they never leave England’ means that the British colonists behave as if they would  still live in their own country and don’t see any reason to adopt the country’s old tradition and its cultural life. But they also don’t accept the Indians’ way of life and force them to adapt the British culture or language.  In my opinion this shows how ignorant but also arrogant the British colonists behaved when they colonised a country.

Heat

1. Who do think Olivia and Douglas are?

- I think the two are a married couple and British (they`ve got British names). Maybe Douglas has a high position. You can guess that because of their lifestyle, for example the servants they have or the dinner parties Olivia goes to.

2. Where are they?

-I guess they are in a British colony in India because of words like ‘Simla’ or ‘Sahib’ they use in the text which sound Indian.

3. What are they arguing about?

-Olivia doesn’t want Douglas to smoke in the heat, but he doesn’t take care of this and continues. He says to her she should go to a town called ‘Simla’. Olivia is very upset about this. It seems as if she is very unhappy with her life/ situation.

4. How is the quarrel resolved?

-Olivia explains that she doesn’t know what’s wrong with her. Douglas thinks that she is so touchy and in a bad mood because of the heat.

5. Do you feel that unpleasant heat can have an effect in emotions? Have you ever experienced anything like that?

-I think yes. Unpleasant heat often makes people very touchy and lazy. When it’s hot outside you don’t feel like doing something. Every single movement is strenuous so you just want to be left alone and really don’t need any quarrel. I know from myself that you are earlier in edge.

Dust

1. What are your feelings when you are confronted with the description of such a landscape?

-The description of the landscape evokes a depressing feeling because of all the dust and the heat which seem to be very unpleasant, but also a feeling of loneliness because there’ s nothing till the next one except flat land.

2. Explain why you would or would not like to travel or live there?

-I would definetely not live there because of the heat and all the dust. I guess that would be a big change for me I couldn’t really get used to. But I think it would be very interesting to trave linto a land with such different live conditions.

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