Life in India

Life in India is not easy. Things don’t arrive quickly when you ask for them, it takes time to travel, life is harder for some than others, some don’t eat. It’s crowded, it’s dirty, and when you live in a shanty town by the tracks it is even dirtier and even harder. But people do survive. They scratch out an existence, they squeeze water from the desert sands, many even flourish. One billion people get along everyday living far from the American maxim of “Give me convenience or give me death.”

And while it may seem cutthroat here, seeing the poor ignored, being pushed out of the way in line, being stared at for way too long or being crammed into a train car, I think that it is exactly this crowded and difficult way of life that makes people actually more connected to those around them, they are comfortable to stare, they’re interested in others because in India you can’t cut yourself off from those around you, humanity is always right in your face. You have no choice but to embrace the magnitudes of people... otherwise you’ll go crazy. Indians care about those around them and are interested in them. They say hello, they ask questions. When you are at all times three inches from another person this connection may come easier, but I think it is both something more complex yet less complicated happening together at the same time. It helps them survive. This street level humanitarianism is just the way the culture is, it is a paradigm that has been working for these people for thousands of years and one that helps them to get through the daily battle of survival every day. It is necessary here more than anywhere else.

This is, at the simplest level, why I travel, to find these new perspectives and ways of life that I can perhaps imagine but would never imagine that I could actually see. I think the concern and interest in others here is definitely a good thing, but would I want to live as the Indians do? Could I if I even wanted to? It’s hard to say and I’ll probably lean towards probably not, but I have definitely learned something from the connection between individuals in the masses of India. It is something that I take and will hopefully make a part of who I am.