Have Hope for India

Matt

India. 25 Days. 600 Hours. 36000 Minutes. 2160000 Seconds. It's a long time. It's a short time. Are you a glass half full or half empty person? A pessimist or an optimist? Has this trip taken an eternity or has it gone in the blink of an eye? Do you see hope in the slums or do you see despair? Is it fair for the rich to be rich and the poor to be poor? 

You know I was going to write about what it's like to be 10000km from home but as I sit here on the beach in Goa I stare out to the horizon. Where the blue ocean meets the blue sky. Europe is that way I thought. A land of modern cities, little disease, clean water. It's a long way from my position. I can't see it. But I know that it's out there. But as anyone familiar with a world map would tell you that there is a massive obstacle in the way if one was to try to to swim there. Africa. A land of challenges. Civil wars, famines and poor hygiene among other problems plague the country. It wouldn't be an unfair judgement to say many African countries are in hardship.

I wouldn't be surprised if you have no idea how this all relates to India. I'm not 100% sure yet either so let me try and put it all together, for you and for my thoughts. India is progressing. It's economy is growing by an insane 7% a year and it's not hard to see the development occurring whether it's the metro being built in Mumbai or slum children adding you on Facebook. India is changing for the better (in my opinion). So imagine that India is trying to become like Europe which to an extent it is as it becomes more westernised. To get to Europe it must travel and progress a long way. If India was a swimmer and Europe is the destination. India must swim through vast oceans, grinding it out against the waves, waves of disease, political instability and food shortage. India must overcome obstacles such as Africa, grinding it out against the mountains and plains, mountains like the unfair caste system and inequality must be overcome. But eventually India will reach Europe. It might take years, decades or centuries but it will get to the level of development Europe experiences today.

I will apologise now that this blog may be a little all over the place. It's hard to stick to a theme when so much is running through your head but Goa has been labeled as a place to let your thoughts and questions run free and reflect.

I don't think it's a secret that I hate inauthentic experiences. I have blogged about it before detailing places like the silk emporium in Varanasi for example. But there is an opposite to that too. What happens if something is too authentic? That would be great you might think, and I did think that prior to this trip. I'm a person who wants to see everything that the world has to offer but I have found a limit to that wanderlust. There have been a couple of times on this trip where I felt like I didn't have the right to be there. All the times have occurred when we have gone into slums. One example that stands out to me would be when we entered Dharvi. If we had been invited in by locals then I would have no issue with it like the other squatter communities I have visited like Dhapa. But as we jumped off out huge tourist coach I felt out of place immediately. What gave me the right to go on a tour around a community of 1 million people, peering inside homes and workplaces. The people were the attraction and we naturally looked down on them. To me they were behind an imaginary glass wall and what they did had no impact on us. From my perspective they were meaningless to me, like a diorama at the museum they represented something but the people themselves were just a display. Obviously this is not true in reality, these people have family, friends and dreams. But we walked through like it was a tour of a museum, we walked through to tick it off the list not to appreciate the 'displays'. Many people will disagree with me but if you were to ask me "can you empathise with the lives the inhabitants of Dharvi live?" My answer would be "no, I just wandered through the alley ways being told that they made pottery and recycled plastic." I understand why they do it and how they do it but I also understand how and why people tie their shoe laces. Tom shared with me a rather appropriate quote earlier in the trip:

"Opinion is really the lowest form of human knowledge. It requires no accountability, no understanding. The highest form of knowledge is empathy, for it requires us to suspend out egos and live in another's world. It requires profound purpose larger then the self kind of understanding" - Plato

When we walked through Dharvi we formed opinions. You can't empathise we people behind a glass wall. When I met the locals in Dhapa or the dock works or  in the Asha communities I could empathise because we communicated with them and questioned them in order to gain a deeper understanding of their lives and hardships they face. For small moments on each of those days we interacted with those people we threw away our egos and we lived through their eyes and thus we empathised. 

Those of you who know me well enough will know that sometimes I struggle to convey my feelings and to put labels on what often weak emotion I feel. I tend to call myself insensitive to the stimulus we experience in places like slums and to a certain extent I still think this is true. But sometimes I just feel something. No labels on what it is. Just pure emotion. Emotion for everything and anything in India, again no labels on it. India has so many issues to overcome before it becomes a developed country. Too many issues to list here and I'm sure after reading this many blogs by us boys you have some idea of what I'm referring to. India also needs help to achieve and complete this journey to transformation. It needs people who can empathise with the diverse issues that this diverse country faces and these people will make a difference and an effort in advancing this country. People like the Jungle Crows, Asha volunteers and the Magicians make a difference and eventually I have hope that one day India will not have inequality issues, the caste system won't restrict people's lives and dreams, slums will be a thing of the past and that every issues we have encountered in this country will be solved in some form. All it will take is people with empathy.

Have a little faith in people and for India I tell myself.