Farewell India

(Navyn) Over the month of March, we have traveled from the capital city of New Delhi, to Agra, the home of the Taj Mahal, to Ramathra to celebrate Holi in the villages, to the jungles of Ranthambhore to search for the great Bengal tigers, to the bejeweled pink city of Jaihpur, to the blue city of Jodhpur (pictured above), to Hyderabad, the city of prosperity and high-tech to Coorg, the land of coffee and rainforests, and to finish, the backwaters of Kochi, overlooking the Arabian Sea. We have explored forts, palaces, markets, cities, villages, waterways and the remote rural areas. We have seen how people live, farm, meditate, recycle, drive, sing, work, eat, travel, pray, shop, cook, do laundry and go to school. None of it resembles home.

One night we slept in a small, eight-room sandcastle hotel in the desert under the stars, the next night, a celestial palace overlooking the bright lights of the city below. It now seems normal to see a herd of camels pass by our bedroom window, or to scoot past a cow seated happily in the middle of the highway, to hear a chorus of imams calling for early morning prayer, or for our driver to drive on the wrong side of the road simply because he thinks there are less cars on that side.

Our guide Alka immediately became part of the family (maybe because she looks and speaks just like my sweet cousin Navyn Naran). Uncle Kevin and Auntie Penny were our guests for an amazing week. The girls were all so happy to have some family visit from the homeland. The Rosensweig’s, our neighbors in Nantucket crossed our path every now and then joining us for Holi and Jodphur. Seeing other children has been rare so being with their four children was great fun for all – giving them all a break from parental supervision and vice versa.

Looking back over the last month I was most struck by how much progress has been made here and how much potential is to come in the future. It will be interesting to compare it to China when we get there next week.

Schools + concrete = development.

Across this country you see the signs of progress everywhere. More roads are being constructed, economic activity is everywhere and at so many levels, from the single entrepreneurs selling goods in the streets to the headquarters of the giant tech companies. Most of the billboards in the cities are advertising education – IT and engineering fields top the list. Electricity and water has reached nearly everyone, even those most rural. This access to basic infrastructure over the past twenty years has laid the groundwork for growth and advancement. This is what an emerging economy looks like.

We visited a school one morning in Hyderabad. On the way, our guide asked my girls what they wanted to be when they grew up. They all answered meekly with an “I don’t know.” Not a proud parenting moment. We entered a 10^th grade classroom just before they were about to take their math exam. We asked the students the usual questions, what is your favorite subject, etc., and then asked them what they wanted to be when they grew up. Each student stood up and announced proudly and optimistically, “I want to be a software engineer” or “I want to be a doctor.” I was in awe of their determination and certainty and left feeling impressed and hopeful for India.

Across town in the “Cyberabad” part of Hyderabad are Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and TATA, interspersed between the construction sites of dozens of high-rise apartment buildings. In the shadows of the looming unfinished concrete structures are the temporary slums of the construction workers helping to build this tech center into one of the fastest growing cities in India. Outside of these monstrous, glass, high-tech offices, a man presses sugar cane into juice with a rudimentary hand cranked grinder. The polar opposites working side by side all doing their part to move this city forward.

The main reason my writing has nearly ceased for the past few weeks is because our friend Brett Quigley gave me the book Shantaram a few years ago and told me it was his favorite book. At nearly 1,000 pages, it took me all month to finish, but to read a book about India while traveling through the many experiences the author describes, makes this incredible story even more vibrant (aside from the prisons which I hope to avoid). I hear the movie is coming soon too, so you should all start reading.

India was warm, welcoming and worth the wait. I have put together a mini summary in photos. The music comes from a little impromptu concert I stumbled on while wandering through a palace in Hyderabad. You can see them performing at the end of the slideshow. Also to be noted, please look for: Paul hijacking a bicycle rickshaw, Paul infiltrating the local cricket team, Paul joining an Indian musical group. He keeps me laughing and the girl’s thoroughly horrified as all good dads should.

Goodbye India from Salem Explorers on Vimeo.