Time is up. What can I say… I’m absolutely disheartened to leave. India was nothing like I imagined. It was so much more… I am still in awe of everything here: the nature, the people, the traffic, the culture. The Indians I’ve met are kind and warm-hearted. They are always open and smiling, something I wish we could grow more accustomed to in other nations.
I’m amazed by how the wheels keep turning here but they do…somehow. Everything works in this organised chaos.
The truth is…
They say India is like a child – give it some food and shelter and that’s all it knows to want. I find it sad and beautiful at the same time… I’m sad that we live in such an unfair and unbalanced world where people who spend their whole lives doing manual labour from dusk to dawn, just so they can provide for their children, are never going to get a better life because of the caste system. That many of them go to a home that’s made of blue plastic tarp and bamboo shoots and that they can’t afford to send their kids to school.
And then there are people like my buddy here at the shack, who has the kindest spirit and is never without a smile but who works 15 hours a day without a day’s rest for 6 months in a row, every night making himself a bed on the beach out of plastic and beach chairs… And you bring him bars of white chocolate and some homemade strawberry jam from overseas and he starts laughing and jumping out of happiness. He’s been waiting for those for a whole year.
Reevaluation
This kind of pure happiness and joy over such an everyday thing makes me tear up. Because they don’t care about social media or designer clothes or breaking the bank to look like something or someone they’re not. They’re happy that they can get a meal today. We don’t realise how lucky we actually are, until we witness something like this.
This trip has given me a lot to think about and I know I need to come back… Perhaps just with a male companion because I’m still being auctioned off since I’m not married.
There’s a quote by an Indian I’d like to add here – “I wish I lived in a world where everyone did exactly what they were born to do. Where everything was free, and where we’d love and respect each other.”
Be grateful for what you have.
