India, with a population of 1.2 billion, is one of the most diverse countries in the world. There are 22 official languages and at least another 398 living languages. India is also the birthplace of some of the world’s major religions including Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism. Furthermore, India has the third largest population of Muslims in the world. But what is India in a nutshell? Everyone wants to know. The thing is, India is too vast, too great to depict in words, paintings, or even stories. India doesn’t just fit into a nice neat box, it’s more along the lines of melted crayons on an already graffitied wall. Divine chaos is the closest I can come to an accurate summary, but even this fails to capture sounds, smells, stares, and the sheer number of people I encounter daily.
With my first steps out of the Chenni airport I was greeted with honking horns, smells of human feces, and debilitating smog. My first thoughts were how dirty the country was and how loud car horns were. Everywhere I looked there was dirt, mangy dogs, and homeless people. Driving though the slums took on a whole new meaning, thick tar-like waste stood stagnant just off of roads as nearby women were sweeping in front of their house doors. Images and smells like these are forever ingrained in my memory.
It took me awhile to start noticing the westerners in India for “enlightenment.” These people chant, pray, meditate, and listen to holy men speak day after day. Eventually they start to think they are truly different. What these wanderers don’t realize is that as soon as they return to wherever it is they’re from, a cow will just be a cow, a beggar will just be a drunk, and honking horns will again be noted as an act of aggression rather than communication.
Then there are of course the very dark and deep sides of India. It’s sweltering heat, the bodies that are buried on the beaches because families cannot afford cremation ceremonies, and the rapes in Delhi which are finally being brought into the light. It is the untouchables, the poverty, the absolute stench of the poor, grasping for life. The physically broke, the physically beaten, and the millions searching for food and shelter – only to find there is not enough to go around. But like anything, you get used to it. You start not to acknowledge the beggars and the filth of everything. The slums are gaining territory while India’s largest mall just opened in Kerala.
It’s the little things that I started to realize, are why I think India is so wonderful. The dark eyes of the beautiful women, the way the elderly are so active in society, the sickening amount of chai that is offered—at least three times a day, the shop keepers who excitedly wave you to come into their musky incense filled store, the shoe-maker working carefully with leather, yet barefoot himself, and yes, the smell of the market. I wouldn’t trade my experience in India for anything in the world. I am a firm believer of the importance in seeing globalization first hand from all points of view. See how the other half of the world lives and how lucky you truly are. India fulfills my expectations in more and different ways than I could have ever imagined. This is India. Lessons that can’t come from book, it’s colored divine chaos.