Well, four months later I’m back home in some cozy 50F
degree weather here in Michigan. And to
wrap up this blog I’d like to share a few of the lessons I brought back with
me:
1. Learn how
to enjoy time with others
When hanging out with friends in the U.S., our “hanging out”
time is usually centered around some sort of activity, be that playing video
games, longboarding, snowboarding, etc… “Hanging
out” in India, on the other hand, usually meant just being with friends. Simply sitting around and conversing with
people over tea was pretty standard. This
change was a bit of a struggle for me because I tend to get antsy if I’m
sitting around for a while. But it
taught me the importance of investing time and effort in getting to know
others.
2. “Patience,
my young padawan”
I may have mentioned this in an earlier blog post, but it
was an important lesson so I’ll share it again.
India is not (at least from my experience) a time-efficient
culture. Routine tasks in the U.S. such
as checking out a book from the university library may take days in India,
because the librarian needs approval from your professor, who in turn needs
approval from the director of your school, but then a wrench gets thrown in
things because your roll number isn’t actually registered with the university. If something is scheduled from 2 to 4 pm,
plan on showing up at 3pm and staying until 6 pm. Yes, it was a little frustrating at first,
but I found that after adjusting my mental definition for “on time” things didn’t
really bother me anymore. I just planned
on doing fewer tasks each day, which in turn allowed me to live much more
deliberately and say in the present moment a little more.
Coming from a place where if it’s written down in black ink,
it’s law, this was a bit of a pleasant surprise. Of course in India you have to barter for an auto-rickshaw
or when you’re buying from the market, but I learned there are many more things
that are negotiable. When I stayed at a
guest house a couple of times with my Indian friends, they would often barter
with the front desk agent for a couple extra hours before check-out time,
without having to pay anything! Similarly,
I was playing ultimate Frisbee with some Afghani friends one night when a
security guard approached us to say that the place where we were playing was
closed. After a few minutes of pleading
the security guard went away and we continued playing! By the end of my time in India I found myself
walking around the Delhi airport seeing which coffee shop would sell me a cup
of coffee for 90 rupees. Turns out none
of them would, I guess I still have some work to do on my negotiation skills.
4. Space is
a luxury
There are countless things that we tend to take for granted
in the U.S., but one of them that really stuck out for me after this trip was
our concept of space, personal or otherwise.
India is 1/3 the size of the U.S. but it holds 4x our population…so our
ideas of “space” tend to differ. I
visited one of my friend’s dorm rooms (they had us Americans staying in a guest
house for the semester) and the first thing I noticed was how cramped the room
seemed to be. With three beds in a dorm room
about half the size of mine at GVSU, floor space was hard to come by. There were many more instances of when my
concept of personal space was turned upside down, but the important thing is
that we in the U.S. need to understand our luxury of space, which most of the
world simply does not have. If someone here
says he or she “needs” his or her own room, backyard, apartment, realize that
that person is utterly lying.
5. You can change
your surroundings, but they won’t necessarily change you
One of my expectations I had going into India was that every
day would be exotic and full of exciting adventure. Truth be told I spent many days (admittedly
more than I probably should have) just sitting in my A/C room watching movies
or surfing the internet. I guess I
assumed that if I put myself in a foreign country like India for 4 months I
would somehow become a yoga-practicing spiritual guru. Looking back, I realize now my mistake, but
it certainly taught me an important lesson.
I suppose one of the downsides to everything being so interconnected nowadays
is that no matter where you are, you can always keep yourself isolated and
plugged into your comfort zone. There
certainly were adventurous days in India and I did experience many new things,
but I don’t believe I put as much effort into India as I should have.
So there you have it, a few of the important lessons that I
learned from my stay in Bhubaneswar. However,
the most important lesson of all is that 4 months is not nearly enough time to
comprehend India, but maybe that’s the beauty of it; it’s complexity will
always leave you wanting to understand a little more if it. And so if you ever find yourself in India my advice
is to engage it as much as you can and assume nothing.
P.S. Eat the street food.
All the guidebooks will tell you not to, but it’s sooooooooo good!
Much love,
Ryan
