It has been only three days since I have arrived home from India and I still haven’t grasped the experience. Maybe I will never truly embrace it at all? For India I believe is a mystical place where as in my childhood adventure books of sultans and tigers, it is filled with dreams of old and adventures yet to come.
A constant grasp of the past and future awaits every corner you turn. As the streets afford oxen pull carts gently coaxed by barefoot boys next to speeding crotch rockets driven by gel haired yuppies negotiating traffic to a Dell computer call center. It is a land where the past dances next to the future in harmony.
And yet there are dreams in the eyes and voices of the children as they wade through the tight alleys of the slums strewn with garbage, animals, and open sewage. They laugh, play, and tell stories of becoming famous and royalty. I truly am a stranger in a strange land.
Upon arrival, I was told by my dean and professor, that when one reads a book on India, one thinks they know a little about India. Then one day, one visits India and believes they know a lot. Then, one comes back and stays in India for a few years and one believes they are an expert! Only to realize after twenty years of living in India, what they know of India, they know nothing at all.
The hiddeness of God never may have been as revealed as in the land where future meets the present and begrudgingly lives next to the past. The past living so peaceful and simple in God’s creation with no mind to the present neighbor who strives to create faster microchips and advanced medical procedures. Yes, God may be truly revealed in all of these experiences; however, I have not yet found the treasure. As in my childhood stories, the telling of the adventure may be the treasure in itself.
A constant grasp of the past and future awaits every corner you turn. As the streets afford oxen pull carts gently coaxed by barefoot boys next to speeding crotch rockets driven by gel haired yuppies negotiating traffic to a Dell computer call center. It is a land where the past dances next to the future in harmony.
And yet there are dreams in the eyes and voices of the children as they wade through the tight alleys of the slums strewn with garbage, animals, and open sewage. They laugh, play, and tell stories of becoming famous and royalty. I truly am a stranger in a strange land.
Upon arrival, I was told by my dean and professor, that when one reads a book on India, one thinks they know a little about India. Then one day, one visits India and believes they know a lot. Then, one comes back and stays in India for a few years and one believes they are an expert! Only to realize after twenty years of living in India, what they know of India, they know nothing at all.
The hiddeness of God never may have been as revealed as in the land where future meets the present and begrudgingly lives next to the past. The past living so peaceful and simple in God’s creation with no mind to the present neighbor who strives to create faster microchips and advanced medical procedures. Yes, God may be truly revealed in all of these experiences; however, I have not yet found the treasure. As in my childhood stories, the telling of the adventure may be the treasure in itself.
Scott
