Wednesday, March 25, 2009

India

Oh, India. Those campaigns that say “Incredible India” sure did get that first word wrong. It really should be “Indescribable India,” because I can assure you that this is one place that has left me without words.

People from America say they know poverty. They say they know sadness. They say they know dirty. They claim to know and have been thorough hard times. They declare they know overcrowded places, and can name a few instances or locations off the top of their heads. But, no. They do not know. They can’t even start to know; they don’t even understand the beginning. The homeless in the streets of the U.S. may as well be in a three-star hotel that provides a continental breakfast compared to those who are homeless in India. Americans turn their eyes from the beggars holding up signs on the street corners, while their hand quickly locks their car door. Indian beggars are so in need that they come up right to you with tears in their eyes smudging away the dirt from their face. Their hands, layered in dirt and dust with stained fingernails, grip your shirt with a grasp that not only claws at your shirt, but wrenches your heart as well. Their clothes are ripped and scraps of potato bags cover their swollen stomachs. No, you cannot understand pain, poverty, hunger, needs, or sadness until you have looked into a begging six year old Indian child’s eyes, because those big brown marbles give away everything. And it doesn’t go into your mind; it painfully stabs your heart.

India is hard to talk about. And I’ve had several days to discuss and process what I witnessed and experienced in the country, but I am still clouded by it all, and it even affects my mood. For you all, I will do a quick run-down of my five days there so you are in the loop of what I did there.

The first day, I stayed on the ship to watch a yoga demonstration that was required of me for my psychology of stress course. It was barely an hour long and we saw Indian yoga students perform a lot of positions that I couldn’t even dream of contorting my body into. They also did several breathing exercises and taught us some positions to try to feel more rested. Next, I quickly packed and crammed on a bus for a service project. First, they took us to an Engineering College where we were given dots on our foreheads, a free drink and some Indian cookies before heading off with students from the school to go to a local elementary school in the slums. We walked through a gateway and could hear children screaming in joy that we had arrived. They were still in class and weren’t allowed to come out and greet us. While they were in the rooms, we painted the walls in other class rooms with the other students from the Engineering College. We talked to them and asked them questions about India, while they asked us questions about the United States. Indian students are so much more educated than those in the US! They know five languages and learn things that I haven’t even heard of. Soon, the children were released and they bombarded us! We played and laughed with them, and most of the girls brought out their notebooks so for us to sign with our names. I was surrounded by kids shoving scraps of paper and hands out at me for me to sign. They sang an Indian song for us and we left after two hours of spending time with them.



The next day, Caitlin (my room mate) and I got up early and caught the bus to go to Kancheepuram and Mamalapuram. The day was filled with Hindu temple after Hindu temple and intermixed with monuments built by people way before Jesus. It was really a good learning experience, and the religion is such a beautiful one. They believe in one god, named Ohm, and he has several different personalities and those are all known by different names. Ganesh is an elephant deity that represents peace and good luck (obviously my favorite), then Vishnu is the highest and most important deity of preserving and maintaining , and then another is Shiva destroys and transforms. There are tons of them, but those are the three that are most widely represented throughout India. During the day, we went to a silk factory and watched a man make a silk saree (piece of 6 meter long cloth that all Indian women wear) and how difficult and time consuming the process is. It takes 2 weeks to make one saree. We all bought vibrantly colored scarves there and they are currently hanging up in my room.

The next day, I woke myself up at 3:00am and met with some girls (Marisa, Dana, and Jess) and took a flight to Delhi. The plane was nice with comfortable seats and personal TVs for us to watch for the duration of our 2 ½ hour plane ride. I slept almost the entire way. Once there, we looked for a sign and found our names on a piece of paper held by a man in a grey uniform. He asked us to come with him and he drove us to our hotel: The Radison New Delhi. Beautiful place with fountains and nice plush couches and everyone spoke English and it was extremely elegant. We hurried and changed for our day tour of India with our own personal diver for 8 hours (only $20!). After eating some lamb in spicy sauce at one of the hotels restaurants, we headed out and saw the sights of New Delhi. New Delhi and Delhi are the same place, except New Delhi is just a newer part of the city. After seeing the Lotus Temple, a tomb that looked like the Taj (but way smaller), and a few more monuments, we stopped and went shopping at a market. There, I bought two skirts, a purse, a statue of Ganesh, a silk shirt, three silk scarves, and a dress all for less than $50 US. It was definitely a steal! Bartering should be my second major. For dinner we went to a traditional Indian restaurant and got skewered chicken and lamb with lentils and flat bread, and it was SO good! They tied aprons around us before we ate and we drank out of copper goblets. After eating, they brought us finger bowls for us to wash our hands in, and then a tray of three plates. The first had anise seeds, the next had coconut powder, and the third contained rock sugar. The host described that we were to mix them together in our right hand (the left hand is the “unclean” one) and the anise stood for long life, the coconut for health, and the sugar for overall success. It was a sweet way to end our meal, and to clear our palettes from the strong flavors of the meal. Once back to our hotel, we received a free drink and went to sleep.

The next day, we woke ourselves up early, had a delicious continental breakfast made up of freshly squeezed fruits, handmade sugar doughnuts, apple crepes, and decadent pastries. It was the best I’ve ever had! The girls and I paid a driver through our hotel to drive us to Agra to see the Taj, be our chauffeur for the day there, and then drive us back that night. It takes four hours driving from New Delhi to Agra one way, so you can imagine the job. We were also given a government qualified tour guide for the Taj Mahal, all this for only $80 US. Quite the deal and completely worth it, let me tell you! Once arriving in Agra, we had lunch a small restaurant and had some Indian and Chinese food (Chinese food is very popular and delicious in India, so we had our fair share. We then went to some textile stores, handmade paper and tea shops to see the handmade goods and tasted the cloves and spices of Indian tea. It was delicious, and tasted very similar to Moroccan tea. It started to get later so we decided to head to the Taj. Our tour guide was required to take us to a marble shop where we learn about how the Taj Mahal was made. It’s really fascinating! They had to hand carve every little piece of the flowers (if you didn’t know, there are flowers made out of rubies and emeralds and sapphires inlaid in the marble of the Taj) and then lay them into the white marble. We got to see a man working on a table carry out the procedure, and it’s incredible how much patience these people had. Especially with the Taj being a perfectly symmetrical building, can you imagine how much time that took? Well, it took only 8 years actually with 20,000 workers, all of which who got their hands cut off after it was completed so they could not duplicate it. I’m not sure how you would go about cutting off that many people’s hands. I mean did they line up single-file for this? Anyway, I digress. Finally we got to the Taj Mahal at the perfect time. We walked with our heads down like our tour guide told us until we reached a place where we could see it in all of its glory, and take it in all at once. He told us all to open our eyes, and I looked up. There it was; the Taj Mahal. And not only that, but the Taj at sunset. What a spectacular structure! It was enormous, and so bold and prominent but yet the most gentle and stunning thing I have ever seen. Chills ran down my arms – I was there. The orange beams from the sunlight bounced off of the white marble and shone through women’s hair and tanned their faces. It was astounding. We all took off our shoes and walked inside, feeling the cool marble on our bare feet.

After spending plenty of time there, we left after the sun went down and found ourselves bartering with street salesman once more. I bought three pairs of shoes for $6 US. I am getting really good at this bartering thing, let me tell you! Then found our driver and took off to go back to New Delhi and sleep.

The next morning was a blur of waking up too late, rushing around the airport, and barely making it to our flight in time. We were so glad that we were all women because women don’t have to wait in line with men; we can just cut right into the security check and go on our way. “Ladies first” came to life right then and there. Maybe they should implement that in America? We took off and found ourselves back in Chennai and walked through oil that splashed up onto my purse and my skirt and it coated my feet quite nicely. Finally we were back to the port, and decided to call it good. India had been experienced to its fullest extent, and we were all very happy for the experience. However, that is one place that I wouldn’t consider living. :)

2 comments:

  1. Wow Teresa! Thank you for painting such a vivid mental image of the streets of India. Glad you could experience it.

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  2. WOW! Sounds like you had an amazing experience. From reading your post I feel like I was there. You are a great writer! You are so lucky to be experiencing all of this. I bet you will be sad when it is all over!

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