India

India has been the biggest culture shock to me yet. As I stepped off the ship, I was captivated by a feeling foreign to me, an overwhelming sense of confusion as I became witness to a world of extreme poverty. We ported into Chennai, in Southern India, and after our landing cards and passports were checked, we proceeded through the gate into a country as far away from home as we could get, and let me tell you, it was more than the physical location that made me feel far away from home. We were first approached by taxi bicycle cart drivers offering rides to the main street, as our port was located in an industrial section. I walked down the red dirt road, that was lined with all types of warehouses and storage facilities. I noticed many people sleeping on the sidewalks, under the few trees around, and even along side the road. Out of the first twenty or thirty people I saw, maybe five had shoes. I spent the first day with a driver who took me to an ATM, and later to the post office where I mailed off some gifts and a letter to my cousin in boot camp. I had my driver write him an Indian good luck sentence in Hindi at the bottom of the letter. We'll see if it gets to him though, because the only physicality that differentiated the office from a prison cell was a few fans mounted on the ceiling. That night, we caught our flight to Delhi. We paid 180 USD for the two and a half hour flight through an airline by the name of Kingfisher. The plane was the nicest I had ever seen. TV’s in every head rest, head cushions, novelty bag on entering, and the best service by beautiful Indian girls. Maybe the greedy corporate heads of US Airways should take a lesson from Kingfisher, as I am sure they get many repeat customers. (One of the channels on the T.V. was doing a special about the stampede horse racing in Omak, Washington, small world eh?).
While on the boat, my friends and I have become good friends with an Indian girl named Neha. She is from Lake Washington, but her family is originally from Delhi. A few days before our arrival, we complied were her invitation to stay with some of her remaining family in Delhi. We took a taxi from the airport in Delhi to her aunt and uncle's town home style residence in a gated community in South Delhi. We were greeted by the family's personal driver, a few servants, and the cutest ugliest little pug I had ever seen. We gave our thanks to Surish and Renu before we sat down for a traditional Indian dinner. We ate, had a few drinks in conversation, and went to bed. The next day, we ere driven all around Delhi by Raji, the family's driver, who didn't speak much English, but turned out to be an absolute stud. We visited many markets, and a temple, where in the courtyard was some of the most poverished people I have ever seen. I have seen poverty before, built homes for families in rural villages deep in Mexico, and have traveled much, but I had never seen anything like this before. My first sighting was of a two or three year old child passed out on a tinted red blanket, he was caked with dust, and his body had become home to over fifty flies that we conquering every crevice of his face. The next few hours were hard. There were people everywhere, few with shoes and the fixed look on their face said a thousand words. We were advised not to give them money, for reasons in which I will not go into, so we played with the kids and allowed them to video tape each other with Mike's camera. I could tell this period of joy was more meaningful to them than a few dollars, which would just be stolen from them anyway. You can see them in the picture above.

The next day, we met our tour bus at a nearby hotel and took the three and a half hour ride to Agra, the home of the Taj Mahal. About three hours into the ride, we began to see people marching along side of the street in rows of about eight or so, parading signs in Hindi, which went on for about five miles. Thousands and thousand of people were marching. Our driver informed me that these people were walking to the President’s house in Delhi, to protest a recent repossession of land in their village by the government. They had been walking for a month. We arrive in the city of Agra shortly after. Agra is one of the most poverished places in India, and is also one of the oldest. Garbage, dusty clay building covered with torn cloth, monkeys, and sidewalk dwellers lined the street, then, out of no where, a magnificent 232 foot marble palace appeared from no where. The Taj Mahal, meaning ''Crystal Palace'' was completed in 1620 something, and is a tomb for the late King Akbaar the Great's third wife. She was the only wife to give him children, and on the ninth birth, she passed away. Akbaar was devastated, so he ordered the twenty two year construction of the most beautiful, and tallest structure of India, even to this day, as her final resting place. It eventually would become his own as well. Like the Great Wall of China, the Taj was a surreal experience. It was absolutely massive, and incredibly beautiful. The inside consisted of nothing more than the tombs of Akbaar the Great and his wife. On the way home, we saw the marchers sleeping on the sidewalks.

The next day was much like the first, except we visited the park and tomb of Gandhi, which was a tranquil and peaceful place. Raji had us try some traditional Indian paan which we bought from a street vendor. It is a type of tobacco, rolled up in a leaf, and layered with a sauce. You are supposed to shove it in your mouth, chew it, stuff it in your lip, and wait for the buzz. I don’t know if my buzz ever came, because I was too worried about not throwing up. Later that day we went and had lunch with a cousin of Neha’s, at Delhi’s best vegetarian restaurant. The place was great, even though I can’t pronounce half of the things I ate. Being our last night in Delhi, we decided to pick up two bouquets of flowers for the family that had shown us so much humble kindness and hospitality. We had our last dinner with them, and got up early for our flight back to Chennai. I am so grateful to have met Surish and Renu, they are a kind and gentle people. We had a long conversation with them one night and learned much about India, it’s internal conflicts, and proposed solutions. Surish is a constitutional lawyer, so he had much to say during this conversation.

India was an incredible experience, probably the best educational experience I have had to date. I learned much about the country and it’s people, for example, it has 43 national languages, and according to Surish, if he travels to Chennai, he feels like a foreigner. The intense poverty was hard to see, especially in such masses. It was cool to see the cows roam the streets freely in cities as big as Delhi. I really loved our time with the family and Raji. He introduced me to some Hindi and Punjab music, which I have been listening to religiously. I would like to return to India in about ten years or so, as it will be interesting to see that results of the direction that India has begun to take.