I <3 India

India was amazing; I honestly don’t know where to start so I guess I will just break down my experiences in chronological order. Making this brief would not be doing India justice so this one will be long. If you read anything, make sure you read my last section (experience #6).

Experience #1 –The roads
I’m pretty sure my life was in persistent danger while anywhere near Indian roads. Lane markers, traffic lights, and street signs are seen as mere suggestions if they exist at all. Drivers navigate traffic more by ear then by sight so everyone just constantly beeps their horn as declaration of their position. Many trucks say “honk or die”on the back of them. Sidewalks clearly were just an abrupt afterthought in city planning so most people have to just walk on the streets with all the crazy traffic. The whole situation is something you would really have to see to believe

Experience #2 –the people
Most people on the ship agree that is the people that made our time in India incredible. Now my experience from traveling tells me that when a random person comes up and introduces themselves, tries to make conversation, or start asking random questions that they are probably trying to rob me, scam me, or sell me something. In India that totally was not the case. People came up with huge smiles on their face and just wanted to shake my hand and know my name. A few even insisted that I get a picture of me and them on my camera. When driving around the city in a rickshaw everyone would wave to me and yell “HI!!”. People who spoke English would make sure I am having a good time in India and recommend places for me to go and shop owners would often give me a gift just for looking around their shop. At restaurants the owners kept bringing out complimentary dishes and really wanted us to enjoy their food. I really can’t say enough about how nice and well intentioned the Indian people were

Experience #3 –The train ride
On my second day in Chennai I found a few people I knew that were taking a train to Bangalore so I decided to go with. They all already had reserved seat tickets and I had nothing. Just figuring out the chaos of Chennai train station and getting a ticket was a whole story in and of itself. I was only able to get the lowest class unreserved ticket ($1.50) but ended up bribing the train steward ($1) to let me at least stay by my friends. It was a 7 hour train ride in an unconditioned car jammed with people. People were hanging off the sides and jumping on and off. The aisle was packed with beggars and people trying to sell stuff. It was impossible to even close my eyes for a second more or less sleep at all. I got off that train feeling so dirty and drained but it was a pretty unique experience and I’m glad I did it. The return trip to Chennai was much more comfortable as Alex and I went big and spent $20 on a ticket. We got executive A/C class on a 5 hour express train and got served a meal or tea seemingly every 15 minutes.
Experience #4 –The food

My food experience after taking the train to Bangalore was perhaps one of the most glorious eating experiences of my life. We found this nice 5 star hotel, showered up and then went down to the attached restaurant. Keep in mind our train left at 1:20 and got in at 8:45 so we were starving. The restaurant was buffet style with a whole wall just lined with every type of Indian food imaginable. I had to lie down for about an hour after I ate so much. I feel like that night was a culmination of all of the Indian food training my parents forced upon me since I can remember, and man it was epic.

Experience #5 –The culture
India was by far the biggest culture shock of the trip so far. Guys walking around with their arms around each other and holding hands was one of the first differences that caught my attention. Another simple thing that really threw many of us off is that when an Indian is listening to you they do this unique head bob from side to side. It doesn’t really mean anything other than acknowledging you but it resembles a mix between a head shake and nod and was hard to get used to.

In Bangalore we got the special experience of being allowed into the inner sanctum of this huge Hindu temple called Iskcon. This guy made sure we followed all the proper procedure and rituals including eating various things, reciting a Hare Krishna verse about 200 times, and paying respects to all the appropriate objects. It’s too bad that cameras were not allowed because the shrines inside the temple were beautiful. That day we also saw the Bangalore Palace which was impressive.

I have made a hobby of searching local newspapers and saving interesting articles about America. The best one i got in India was titled "Don't Cry For Me, America", and it was about how India feels relatively insulated from the current US financial crisis.

Experience #6 –Dalit village overnight
Now I’m about to make a bold statement but I think I can say that my two day/one night experience in a Dalit village was the most amazing experience I have ever had. I know I can’t just go around making claims like that so I will do my best to convey the entire trip, although I think no amount of pictures of words can do it justice; one thing after another just blew my mind the entire time. For those who don’t know, a Dalit is another term for an “untouchable”which is a casteless person; essentially the lowest of the low in Indian society. Now I had always been told back home the caste system in India is pretty much nonexistent these days, well that couldn’t be more wrong. It was a 2.5 hour van ride to get to this poor rural village. We then drove through the village and rice fields for about half a mile to get to the small village of Dalit outcasts. As soon as we got out of the van they paraded us through the streets with the whole village out to see us and try to hold out hands. These people only see Americans, or any white people for that matter, once or twice a year when SAS sends the same trip out. As we walked down the villages main dirt path they gave us a whole series of elaborate ceremonial blessings before sitting us down for a welcoming performance. It was about an hour long festival with many acts including dances with intricate costumes, fire acts, and daring sword acts. The village singer even wrote us a Tamil song; the first verse translated is…

Welcome students of the MV Explorer
A voyage over the seas and countries you have made
To learn the art and sculpture of India
Delta centre invites you jewels of America

We also traveled to a Dalit children’s school and women’s school of nursing. They also put on an hour long performance of song and dance for us. The main goal of these women is to become a nurse in the US. We got to interact with them for a while and teach them some of our songs and dances (they loved the Macarena and hokie pokey) and in return they taught us Tamil and Tamil songs. Interacting with the kids was also really fun, they loved to climb all over me and have pictures taken (I have about a million pictures of kids). That night we headed back to the village and discovered our sleeping arrangements. We stayed in an abandoned concrete building just right on the floor with other homeless village residents, when in Rome I guess. We meditated before bed and then made our attempt at sleeping on concrete in 95 degree weather. Needless to say we woke up pretty groggy, many of us with pretty exotic bug bites and rashes.

The next day we toured through the village. Every person was very eager to show off their home, all of which were just mud huts about the size of my walk in closet at home. I felt pretty weird that I probably was carrying way more net worth on my body (camera, video camera, wallet) then any of these families had seen in years. One person who really affected me was this 60 year old widowed woman who was working hard trying to rebuild her hut which had its roof collapse several days earlier during hard rains. Our guide explained that no one in the village was willing to help her since her son had died and they view widowed women as useless, yet she had a huge smile on her face as she showed me the parts of her house that were still standing and offered me some food. That alone really put a lot into perspective for me, things like bitching to my parents about “needing”a new computer or being in a bad mood all day because I had to wake up early. Our guide said the people in this village were lucky to make 20 rupees a day which is less than 50 cents, yet they all seemed really happy. We left the village with the kids running along the side of van trying to get a last goodbye.

I had a lot of fun in all the previous ports, but India is by far the best experience and I will be surprised if any of my activities in future ports top it. India is definitely no paradise, and I would assume that no one has that impression. A different disgusting smell hits you at every street corner, im pretty sure any clothes I wore will have to be burnt, and the pollution probably took several years off my life, but the reason I loved Chennai and not Salvador was definitely the people. The smiles on everyone's faces made the whole city brighter. I think everyone, especially myself, should take to heart the following quote which was on the wall of the Dalit village community center.

Even with little
You are rich
If you are grateful

Even with plenty
You are poor
If you aren’t grateful