India
I've been thinking it over.... What it is about India that is so mindblowing is its "otherness". Where we expect order, here there is chaos, instead of cleanliness the country just seems to be a very big mess (48% unemplyment and only 15% of the people pay taxes) Yet in the midst of the shit and the garbage there are beautiful women in the most glorious colored bejeweled sharis. No one seems to notice.
On the morning train to Agra everyone is served bottled water, juice, coffee or tea and a breakfast by a gracious fellow in a turban and as you look out the window you see two fellows squatted down taking a crap next to each other while having a morning chat. The reality of all these extremes existing right next to each other turns ones assumptions upside down. There is a unashamed acceptance for humanity in all of its gradations. Something about that is very right even as it is looking very wrong.
On the morning train to Agra everyone is served bottled water, juice, coffee or tea and a breakfast by a gracious fellow in a turban and as you look out the window you see two fellows squatted down taking a crap next to each other while having a morning chat. The reality of all these extremes existing right next to each other turns ones assumptions upside down. There is a unashamed acceptance for humanity in all of its gradations. Something about that is very right even as it is looking very wrong.
Traveling brings many gifts. The most precious is the gift of changed perspectives.
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