Contradictions

If you read anything about India you’ll undoubtedly hear a few things regarding the contradictions that find themselves within its culture.  Immense wealth side by side with destitution.  Cows crossing a street packed full of cars.  Saris and Dhotis in the same shop as blue jeans and t-shirts.  It’s where the East meets the West.  I often find myself completely stumped by the many things that are simply taken for granted as a fact of life here.

One of the ways I’ve seen these contradictions manifest themselves is in the conversations with my Indian friends here.  For example, I’m awed by the way they talk about relationships.  They speak of things seldom brought up in American dating culture.  My friends will speak of the heartbreak of losing a lover of five years, or how they’re only staying in university because their girlfriends know what’s best for them.  When I speak with them, they skip the small talk and are keen to know what inspires me, or to which philosophy I ascribe myself.  The conversations we have require real thought and are full of human emotion.

At the same Western ideology seems to invade their values.  We talk of how incredible someone is because of the salary he or she earns.  Bragging rights are bestowed upon the people who can drink or smoke the most.  If I go shopping with them, they insist that I only buy the “name brand” clothes.

I’m often bewildered when we talk about these things in the same conversation.  The founder of my university is seen as practically a god for his endeavor to educate 25,000 of India’s most poverty stricken children completely free of charge.  In the next sentence a celebrity is praised for the amount of women he’s been with.  To me these sentences represent mutually exclusive values; nonetheless I hear them uttered almost daily by my friends.

India is a complex place, and four months seems to be nowhere near the amount required to really understand what makes it tick.