India

My experience in India can be summed up by "sensory overload." Specifically, the overload comes when 2000BC is juxtaposed with 2000AD in the same moment (1st Picture: elephant & tour bus sharing the same road in front of the ancient Wind Palace), when chaos is order (2nd & 3rd Pictures: Old Delhi business people pushing through limited space & youth trying to get on a free ride home), with extreme contrast in color (4th Picture: Delhi souks - the city has a taint of brown filth contrasted with the women's brilliant, vibrant colors), and with incredible, literally I'm incredulous, arts (5th & 6th Pictures: the art of snake charming & the Taj Mahal).



As a prelude to the India travels I spent a few days in Dubai. In true Emirati fashion I took up camel and desert dune racing (I forgot to get my free house and 75,000 Dirhams after getting married, but I figure I'll make it up through my earnings on the track).

Of course the Arabian desert needs the balance of an indoor ski slope. In the same day one can ski three different terrains: snow, water, and sand.

With just over 2 million, Jaipur is a smaller town when compared with Delhi or Mumbai (~20 million), yet the ordered chaos is still evident in a clip I took of a random, pun intended, traffic circle. The second clip is of elephants on parade up to the Amer fort in Jaipur.

My last stop was Mumbai. I loved riding the train into town! New and fun! Thank you Tushar (my tour guide/fellow Duke student who is from Bombay as he still calls it). A confluence of thoughts met their apex in this city.

The trains were the most humane of the inhumane scenes I witnessed, and heard about, in Mumbai. These scenes struck me with such strength that it jarred loose a myriad of refelctions. I've seen scenes like this before . . . before I had children. The effect is different when you consider your child or spouse could be in the picture. Although relatively young, my sensitivity to what I experience has exponentially deepened having become a husband and father. Witnessing the disregard for human life that occurs in a city like Mumbai distressed me. In many cases, there is nothing to be done. It's a choice between fulfilling your responsibility of the day or looking after another's. You can't always be doing the latter. The one dynamic I witnessed again and again was the simple gestures of respect and recognition that changed the value of an individual, at least in that individual's eyes (which is all that matters). In the traffic circle, the honking is to let you know the vehicle is coming, it is not an angry gesture. In fact, there is little road rage until vehicles collide. And then it seemed to be anger less focused on the individual and more on the circumstance. Still, there is an understanding among people that everyone is getting where they need to go as fast as they can. That is accepted. If there is space, someone needs to fill it. There is little frustration shown when that space happens to be in front of your vehicle. Anyway, a phenomenon of human respect found in a very unlikely scene (and rarely found on Western roads).

Another illustrative experience occured in Fatehpur Sikri, the Victory City. Here local peddlers tried to convince me to enter a Hindu shrine. Knowing not to trust anyone that had approached me with favors (remember that if you ever travel abroad!!) I asked my tour guide. He simply answered my query of permission with, "Yes." Turning to a friend of mine he suggested my friend call me. My friend did so. Thankfully I responded to his beckon. Without a word we strolled away from the temple and into a taxi. I was then informed that the tour guide could not disrespect the locals by prohibiting me to enter a temple. Such disrespect could be turned on him and future tours, ultimately killing his business to that temple. Yet, the guide knew they would require large sums of money from me for having ushered me in the temple and thus asked my friend to call me back. I was impressed with this man's ability to respect the locals 'business' and his own business simultaneously.

Later, we were with an aquaintance of our tour guide who was peddling souvenirs (another thing to remember when travelling: you are the outsider and apparently everyone else is in on getting some kickback from your expenditures!). But this experience will close the thoughts for tonight . . . there is much more written, available upon request and in paperback only . . . but as I inquired further into the relationship between the guide and the peddler my guide gave very matter-of-fact responses. I found out they played cricket together in the local town. I asked why our guide gave this fellow our business rather than another. The guide looked up, knowing what his response would do, he very clearly stated, "Becuase this man is an expert cricket player." The pride on that man's face when he heard our guide's compliment cannot be overstated. He beamed! And he beamed in silent revelry the rest of the time we were there. The simple respect shown to this man had easily made his day. I would not be surprised if he tells his children (I also learned he was recently married) of the compliment given him by our guide to a Western audience that day. As an indelible addition to this man's self worth, under the right circumstances I believe that compliment will be remembered throughout the rest of his life. Six years ago, this experience in a country where human life is often devalued would have been lost on me. Two children and five years of marriage later my mind savored the love, respect, and influence for good this simple expression had on a single human life.