Emotion

Each of us has grown from this trip.  We have been challenged, stretched and given a mirror to see ourselves better with.  What I learned about India is that I will never learn enough.  Due to the vast diversity of cultures in India, the more I learn the less I realize I know.  Therefore, I cannot claim to know or understand India but I can recognize matters of the heart.  

  

India has a way of evoking several different emotions within a very short period of time.  In a span of six weeks not only were my senses shocked, but my mind and spirit were given a jolt.  Excitement, curiosity, joy, sorrow, fear, courage, guilt, anger, hope, serenity, appreciation and admiration are only part of the list of feelings I experienced while travelling in India.

I admire the people I met in India for their amazing ability to cope and persist.  I am humbled by their generousity towards visitors, their charming and relentless smiles even in hopeless situations and their work ethic.  Those who I met professionally were extremely passionate and committed to their work.  I admired the youth I met for pursuing their dreams and aspirations and for their appreciation of the opportunities they could get at fulfilling these dreams.  My initial impression of India as being a chaotic mess has now been substituted by the astonishment at their ability to self-organize and ‘love thy nieghbour’.  

                      

As I prepared to leave, I realized how much I had changed.  I had surrendered.  I had come to accept India the way it is and the fact that I will never fully understand it.  My senses have been shaken, my mind has expanded, and my emotions have been stretched.  Most importantly, my life has been touched by all the wonderful people that I met and travelled with and for that, I am grateful.