If there is one thing that I have come to learn during my
time abroad, it is that the sun truly shines on all. The slums of the poor and
the villas of the privileged are all fostered under the same sky, nourished by
the same breath of life, and sustained by the same soil of the earth. The most
remarkable thing about being in India was seeing gleaming smiles among those
living in slums and being able to compare them to the long faces of discontent
that frequently float around New York. I am in no position to discredit the
experiences and feelings of others, but the amount of things I learned about
humanity in the few days of being in India opened my eyes to the flawed
materials we often prioritize.
To talk a little bit more about the content of my trip, I
should probably mention that the trip to Delhi, India was an experiential
learning component of my Modern South Asia class that I am taking here in Abu
Dhabi. The purpose of the trip was to witness first hand, the historical sites
and ruins that we had been discussing in class for the first portion of the
semester. In doing so, we visited monuments that depicted the Moghul reign of
India and ruins of the British imperial period.
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| Ruins in Delhi |
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| Qitab Minar |
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| Ruins of Qitab Minar, Muslim mosque built over Hindu Shrine |
A large part of the
trip was also devoted to visiting shrines, mosques, and churches pertaining to
the Hindu, Sikh, Sufi, Muslim, Jainism, and Christian religions. Another
incredible quality of India is the prevalent religious pluralism that sweeps
the country. While walking down one roads of India, we saw churches, shrines,
mosques and temples, and worshippers of all religions, peacefully offering up
their supplications to their deities. And to think about the conformity of
beliefs across the diversity of religions is truly profound. Each worshipper
prays for essentially the same things; safety, wealth, and nourishment. Each
mother surely prays for the wellbeing of her children and each father prays for
the protection of his family, and yet we divide ourselves and desacralize the
religions of others without understanding that our worship very often holds the
same goals.
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| Men making offerings at Sufi Shrine |
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| Pearl Mosque |
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| Altar of St. John's Church |
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| Women worshiping at Sikh Temple |
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| Caretaker in Hindu Temple |
Winding through the streets of India was another experience all
together. Rickshaws, motorbikes, taxis, and buses yield to no one! We had to be
incredibly cautious while navigating through the streets, while at the same time
being overly stimulated by our new environment. My eyes simply didn’t know
where to look at times, and were occupied by the traffic of the roads, the
monkeys on the streets, the faces of the people and the glittering jewels of
the markets.
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| Wedding market in Delhi |
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| Daily community service offered by Sikh Temple.Mission is to feed every soul that walks through their doors. |
There is probably so much more to say about India, but to
describe in words the genuine curiosity upon the faces of the people, the
hospitality of our hosts, the lush, green gardens groomed to perfection, the
flavors of spice and curry that explode upon the tongue, the pounding heat of
the afternoon and the brisk cool air of the evenings, the bright colors of
saris and the even brighter smiles, the ruins of an imperial civilization and
alleys upon streets upon miles of history and legacy that is preserved in the
pride and hearts of the citizens- to put all of these experiences into words
would be to diminish their value.
India is incredible, and life is incredible, and God is
good.
