Stories of the Middle Kingdom

India the Anomaly

I have been mulling for days how to describe India, and I cannot do it justice. It's beyond what words can describe. Yet here I will try and fail.

Of course, I had no idea what to expect before I came. I tend to underestimate a place and think it is going to be old and backwards, perhaps with thieves and bandits lurking behind every corner. But, because most places are really more modern than I expect, this time I forced myself to imagine India as a modern place with all the trappings of an international city.

Except for the part about thieves and bandits, I should have stuck with my first idea.

I was not expecting the red DIRT and rubble everywhere. This place has the dirt of a desert, but it also has old huge trees that are as green as a rainforest. I was not expecting to have such intense heat without air-conditioners to balance it out (I am miserably hot and have been for a week). I was not expecting to visit slums. I was not expecting the pollution. Cows, camels, goats and dogs all roam the streets, and my friends here have tales of monkeys breaking into their homes...it's partly wild like Africa. I was not expecting to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe or Taco Bell. (See, this place is an anomaly...you don't expect to see the Hard Rock Cafe amid the rubble.)

I didn't expect the people to be so friendly and charming. I didn't expect them to be wearing traditional clothing -- much of the rest of the world wears western clothing. I didn't know they had flat-roofed houses that look like those in the Middle East. I didn't know everything would be so brightly colored, from the paint on their houses to the clothes on their backs. I found this place to be magical and exciting, truly exotic.

All my time has been in one city. My friends say this city is cooler and cleaner than any other city in India. Really? Oh my.

I can't stay here one more day without an air-conditioner.

I'm leaving here in the morning. After a night in Bangkok, I'm planning to be back in China on Tuesday. I'll go from 97 degrees Fahrenheit to 47 degrees Fahrenheit, and I am looking forward to that. I'm looking forward to clean streets, even if that doggone street cleaning truck does run up and down the street by my apartment all night long every night.

I never wanted to go to India, but unexpectedly, I do like it quite a lot. The world is a fascinating place, full of people created in the image of God, not so different from us. Really.