I just returned from another trip to Mumbai which has solidified its spot among my favorite places in the world. This is the one city that is rich with the flavors of traditional India as well as everything you can find in the west. Street dancers, gifted artists, fantastic food of all kinds, bright colors, beautiful views and stately architecture. Bombay boasts some of everything the world has to offer inside its gargantuan boundaries. I know New York has coined "the city that never sleeps" phrase but Mumbai really is about as lively as a city can be day and night. It has everything from a vibrant nightlife in world class nightclubs to casual Sunday cricket games on dirt pitches off of the main roads (that draw hundreds of spectators from around the neighborhood). The Sea-Link bridge, the remarkable coexistence of poverty and wealth, high rises lining 100 kilometers of ocean, trees shading cobble stone streets, beautiful old buildings in Churchgate and home to the people that make up the creative heart of India. I have no doubt that the future of not only India but the world will continue to be influenced by Mumbai. It really is a place to be experienced.
But after what feels like years of experiences my three months are nearly up. As much as I will miss my life in India (nothing more than the loving relationships I've forged with my once distant and unknown relatives) I am ready to come home. Of course I miss my family and friends but more than anything I am ready to start on life's next challenge. As grand an experience as India has been one can only vacation for so long. I feel as ready as I ever have to take the next (and biggest) step in my life and go from school to career.
It's funny to me how this feeling has crept up in the last month. Last Spring leaving college seemed so daunting. I did not feel ready to throw myself into the working world quite yet and I hadn't the slightest idea what graduate program would suit me. I couldn't have imagined having this confidence I have now nine months ago and I can't pinpoint the exact source. Somehow a winter spent in India has helped me find it; find the Alex that is going to take over for the one that just finished college.
What happened for me in India is hard to articulate. I have spent time in Mexico, Sweden and Japan but no culture has fit me like India's has. I have written about nearly everything qualitative that has happened to me from different cities and sights to scams and staring. But all of those things have been what any American might experience and write about. They have all undoubtedly had an impact on me but I think a little something more has happened to me here.
The feeling is hard to describe because it's brand new and it splashes over me in a wave then drains away in seconds. This deep but fleeting connection to India is most powerful when I see someone that reminds me of my mother. It happened to me once over a homemade dinner with welcoming strangers in a Delhi train station and every now and then at home when I see Seema with the girls. This is the first time in my life that I am being reminded of my mom by others. This probably hasn't happened to me in America because it would be near impossible to find a woman that looks, speaks and carries herself quite like my mother (let alone run into one in Fred Meyer). It has taken 22 years and an extended stay in a country on the other side of the world for me to find this feeling. It sounds so simple in writing but I can only say that such a potently welcoming feeling was worth flying around the world to experience.
All my life I have been saturated with white and black culture with pieces of Latino, East Asian and Native American mixed in. India has been a fresh look into an entirely Un-American world of music, movies, languages, traditions, and customs. I have soaked up as much as I can for now and I will use Skype, my i-Pod, Bollywood DVDs, Hindi classes and my mom's cooking to keep everything alive for as long as it takes me to come back.
But after what feels like years of experiences my three months are nearly up. As much as I will miss my life in India (nothing more than the loving relationships I've forged with my once distant and unknown relatives) I am ready to come home. Of course I miss my family and friends but more than anything I am ready to start on life's next challenge. As grand an experience as India has been one can only vacation for so long. I feel as ready as I ever have to take the next (and biggest) step in my life and go from school to career.
It's funny to me how this feeling has crept up in the last month. Last Spring leaving college seemed so daunting. I did not feel ready to throw myself into the working world quite yet and I hadn't the slightest idea what graduate program would suit me. I couldn't have imagined having this confidence I have now nine months ago and I can't pinpoint the exact source. Somehow a winter spent in India has helped me find it; find the Alex that is going to take over for the one that just finished college.
What happened for me in India is hard to articulate. I have spent time in Mexico, Sweden and Japan but no culture has fit me like India's has. I have written about nearly everything qualitative that has happened to me from different cities and sights to scams and staring. But all of those things have been what any American might experience and write about. They have all undoubtedly had an impact on me but I think a little something more has happened to me here.
The feeling is hard to describe because it's brand new and it splashes over me in a wave then drains away in seconds. This deep but fleeting connection to India is most powerful when I see someone that reminds me of my mother. It happened to me once over a homemade dinner with welcoming strangers in a Delhi train station and every now and then at home when I see Seema with the girls. This is the first time in my life that I am being reminded of my mom by others. This probably hasn't happened to me in America because it would be near impossible to find a woman that looks, speaks and carries herself quite like my mother (let alone run into one in Fred Meyer). It has taken 22 years and an extended stay in a country on the other side of the world for me to find this feeling. It sounds so simple in writing but I can only say that such a potently welcoming feeling was worth flying around the world to experience.
All my life I have been saturated with white and black culture with pieces of Latino, East Asian and Native American mixed in. India has been a fresh look into an entirely Un-American world of music, movies, languages, traditions, and customs. I have soaked up as much as I can for now and I will use Skype, my i-Pod, Bollywood DVDs, Hindi classes and my mom's cooking to keep everything alive for as long as it takes me to come back.
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