An Update

My life began at the age of eighteen. Two months shy of my nineteenth birthday, I left American soil and crossed the Atlantic ocean to see the world. A world I had prepared to embrace and longed to see through my own eyes, eyes which had seen life through tinted glasses, providing only a narrow and colorless view of human existence. For nineteen years I was pregnant with anticipation, awaiting the moment the glasses could be taken off, awaiting a new definition of perception to be realized. In my home I am almost an adult but here I have become a child once more, encountering senses that had only been previously imagined. I find myself tripping as I learn to walk on foreign land but am constantly inspired by the view standing offers. A view that did not exist in America but could only be visible in the territory of the unfamiliar. And I was immediately prompted to write of the sights to share what many of my fellow Americans can never see. They are stuck with the glasses glued to their faces, unable to take off what has been on for years. Through writing, I can offer a glimpse of the little I have seen. And slowly, through the discourse of culture, the glasses all humans wear can disappear. And then we shall see the world without the shadow of bias and the silhouette of stereotype.

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I have lived in India for about a month now. I’ve met countless of people, Indians and other foreigners alike, I have withstood daily power outages, countless mosquito bites, constant attention
(including random young Indian men whom I never gave my number to sending me borderline stalkerish text messages), overpowering noise and pollution, and innumerable misunderstandings. My apartment is home to not only myself and my roommate but also a lovely population of ants. The bottom of my feet have become so utterly disgusting from all the dirt that I can’t help but laugh as I shudder. And yet, I’ve come to love it all. Perhaps not the details, but the fact that they are occurring. That I am experiencing all of this. Here, every hour is reserved for education. School is twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. I’ve gradually become quite accustomed to the annoyances I initially had and they fail to bother me any longer. I’ve created a happy balance between living with what the familiar and the unknown. I still listen to NPR’s All Songs Considered Podcast, I download my favorite TV show from Itunes after it comes out each week, and I have grilled cheese for dinner every night. I go to bookstores and buy western classics but also novels by Indian authors. I wear my western skirts and Indian dress alike. Many of my peers are struggling with living in India but I’m happy to say that nothing could be further from the truth for me. I truly couldn’t choose to be in another place at this time in my life. I loved College Park with all my heart but what could I write of there? What information would I truly retain? So much of what I learned last year I have already forgotten. There was no choice between the 300 person lecture hall and the classroom of India. And to think, next year I have Japan and South Africa-how utterly unreal.

This Saturday I will be leaving for the northern state of Rajasthan. We will be spending ten days in both Jaipur and Jaisalmer (Jodhpur, where the recent stampede occurred is in Rajasthan but I won’t be going there). Rajasthan is located in the northwestern part of India, and borders Pakistan. It is primarily known for its desert landscape. On our trip, we will be taking a camel safari and sleeping on the sand dunes! In Egypt, I was only on the camel for ten minutes so this will be much better. If anyone reading enjoys Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations, I would highly recommend seeing the Rajasthan show. And recently, I saw a piece Tom Friedman did on Bangalore called “The Other Side of Outsourcing.” I imagine anyone who is reading this is already aware that whenever there is a problem with your computer or phone or whatever, you’re usually on the phone with some one from Bangalore. Most of the people working at the call centers have to work during nights to match the time difference.

Anyway, after Jaipur and Jaisalmer, I have a four day break which will be spent doing independent traveling with friends. The main priority is going to Agra to see the Taj. But there are a couple of other locations we’re going to try to see…ah, I don’t feel like a 9 months in India is enough to see everything! It’s so large!!! There’s so much in southern India that I wish to see….I want to go to Goa, to Kerala, to Chennai (Madras) and Kolkata (Calcutta) and Mumbai (Bombay). And then there’s the rest! I’m highly considering going to do my independent study next semester in Dharamsala…I always wanted to volunteer there. And how different it would be to live at the foot of the Himalayas!