Follow the Journey

It’s been too long since our last post… So sorry friends.

Since the last posts, we’ve been in Jaipur and Varanasi – two very different {amazing} experiences.

A quick list of highlights:

First of all, our contacts Rekha-ji and Rishi-ji were wonderful teachers and hosts. They truly made every day chock full of Jaipur’s finest. From Hindi lessons to yoga and ancient architecture, our experiences were almost too much to keep up with! One of the group’s favorite activities was visiting a local artist colony – a slum. The thing about India is that guests are treated like royalty… We were paraded in by men in colorful costumes beating on huge drums. Children swarmed us asking for names and a specialized handshake – index and pinky finger touch the strangers, then the thumb, and next is a smooth transition to a handshake. They invited us to dance with them and put on a puppet show… Overwhelming to say the least and yet undescribable unless you experience it. The three words I used were vulnerable, vivacious and thought-provoking… Thought-provoking in that some of the group felt extremely wrong being glorified by the artists. At some points, it did seem like an act. Not all slums are happy, happy, happy and poverty is alive. Are we forming an unrealistic expectation of what slums will be like?

Then again, there’s nothing quite like the satisfaction of performing {and thoroughly delighting} and audience. Recognizing that people all over the world appreciate what you do can be liberating I think…

Admitting both sides exist creates the best environment to experience the world that is India. There’s too much resistance if you deny any feelings that arise.

Jaipur was jam-packed with other cool stuff too – like homestays {homemade chai, anyone?}, a Bollywood flick, and lots of shopping.

Cue the overnight train to…

We.love.this.place.

SO MUCH.

Hannah managed to eat apple pie every day {that’s seven days people}, Anoop-ji taught us Hindi and we taught him the meaning of “man-crush” and “earlobe,” and we learned that the random people you meet in hostels and on the street can enhance an experience ten-fold. Our internships were amazing opportunities to explore disciplines such as stone-carving, sitar, tabla, jewelry-making and Ayurveda. Where else could you be a part of such specialized instruction? We all loved it.

One common theme these two weeks has been one very pressing and extremely profound question.

WHO’S COW IS THAT?!

If you haven’t ever been in India, this won’t make much sense and I apologize for excluding you. There are street cows everywhere. No, really. Who’s cow is that?

One particular situation was a cow in an alleyway. This cow was bathed in flies laying on its side in garbage and its own waste. It made us sad that this cow was dying – but what’s a street cow going to do?

At one point, we walked home from dinner and mourned the loss – it was surely dead.

However, the next morning it was still breathing its shallow breaths. We were informed that people were feeding it and cleaning its area, which only made me more sad. That cow was going to die, why let it suffer?

The universe and modern medicine works in strange ways everyone.

The next morning, the cow was sitting up with a transparent piece of plastic protecting it from the rain. The cow had a raincoat. I didn’t even have a rain coat on!

I was a little ashamed to have given up so gravely on that emaciated, seemingly hopeless animal. If the heart is beating, something can be done. I suppose it was a good parallel to the Indian experience. There are some points when you want to just yell “I quit!” and retreat into a cave of chai and curl up into fetal position… But then a kind stranger goes out of their way to help you, or a dying cow is wearing a raincoat.

This is the amazement that India has brought me thus far, and I can’t wait to experience all else that comes.

Until next time…

Namaste!.