99 Problems

I've been thinking a lot about my experience in India so far. I know, it has only been a week, but there still has been lots to reflect on. I think it takes a certain type of person to think to themselves that it would be a great idea to spend an entire semester in an entirely different place. To just say, hey that would be a really cool idea and then go out and do it can seem so incredibly scary and yet so invigorating that it could be hard to describe. Yet to study abroad in India, I am certain that this experience takes an entirely different type of person than just one that studies abroad. So much of the culture in India is undocumented and unfiltered. As much as one can prepare for any experience, coming here has been one that cannot fully be prepared for.

Much of this is because what most people are exposed to in everyday life, a Western developed society, is nowhere close to what you experience in India. Rules seem erratic and bizarre and life seems very dreamlike. All you can do, or I have done really, is jump and hope to land on my feet. So far so good. If you suck in your experiences and your outlook on one country based on one part of your journey, you will never fully get the big picture of your stay. To see the entirety you must see everything, the good and the bad, and chalk what you figure out to what has become of the country through it's hard work.

India has vigorously continued to push forward and open its own senses outward. This is good for a developing nation, yet it is the inward journey that might need some reflection as well. Yesterday, a friend of mine encountered an event that shows India's treatment of women and foreigners. This shocked the individual and started to question the logic behind personal aesthetic. Can a place be beautiful even if part of the culture is ugly?

It has since made me think about my own thoughts on the subject and has lead me to the above argument, that in order to appreciate all that is beautiful about a different environment one must discover and study all of the opposing elements to that beauty. It is that oppression or strife that is behind that thing, that sense that things must be worked for and dawned upon, that to me makes things beautiful. Living without the acknowledgment of ugliness makes things one sided and not full.

Coming to India takes a very particular type of person. Staying in India for an extended period of time takes a person who can see outside themselves. At least that is my belief. There is a big world out there. In order to figure how the pieces come together I must first find all the pieces. I am sure one of them is in India.

Myself in the red and black, walking around Golconda Fort. (Photo credit: Denise)

~The Finn