adventures off the beaten path.
India
You know not of your wonder, your incredible power and the beauty of the beast.
If I had to describe India in one word, I literally couldn't. Perhaps "technicolor" describes it best, which by dictionary definitions means a process of color cinematography using synchronized monochrome films, each of a different color, to produce a movie in color. Because that was what my trip felt like, a cinematic journey in vivid colors.
Prior to this trip I knew little of the many veneers of the subcontinent.
My only experience was through snippets in American and British pop culture: Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Ravi Shankar, yoga, Chicken Tikka Masala, the Taj Mahal and British films that knit a colonial narrative that didn’t do justice to the hypnotic many-faced-goddess that is India.
What looks like chaos to the untrained eye is in fact a very complex and ancient social dynamic that intuitively works.
In a country of 1 billion people, where people drive with their ears rather than their eyes, traffic moves at a frenetic pace, intricately bobbing and weaving.
You need not try to fully understand it, just make peace and go with the rhythm.
Accept the vibrant colors, the constant sounds and the delicious smells of this nation in order to fully appreciate its splendor.
In the late 17th century India commanded almost a quarter of the world’s economy. Today, that is still manifested in many ways. I can see how the Maharajas’ opulent jewels attracted the greedy eyes of the British East India Trading Company. I understand how this mesmerizing landmass, held at gunpoint literally, was so enchanting that at one point it became England’s most prized cash cow. One that they did not easily let go.
After spending three weeks in India, first visiting Delhi, Agra, Varanasi and Sarnath in the north, then the desert cities of Rajasthan: Jaipur, Jodhpur and Udaipur, afterwards moving south to Kerala and Mumbai, I feel like I hardly scratched the surface of this ancient Vedic civilization whose rich culture has influenced the world, from Asia to Africa to Europe to The Americas. You could spend more than a year traveling across her and still have depths to explore.
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