Highs

Matt

The "rollercoaster of India" is an overused but accurate cliché to describe the emotional landscape that one feels while travelling through this diverse country. Like a rollercoaster there are definite "highs" and "lows", experiences like a 23.5hr bus trip and visiting the helpless community of Brooklyn are all "lows" and they suck to experience. Though in saying that they provide valuable lessons about yourself and the world. "Highs" on the other hand are perhaps much more common in this country for me and they involve a feeling of not wanting to be anywhere else but here. In many of my past blogs I have focused on the negatives and "lows" of this journey so I believe it is time to explore the positives and "highs".

 The sunrise on the Ganges was beautiful. Imagine a red sun slowly rising of the tree line of the far riverbank changing in colour, slowly becoming orange and then yellow, lighting up the brown, stone buildings on the western bank. Hundreds of birds fly low, skimming the water as fires burn on the shoreline, breaking down bodies to be scattered amongst the ripples of the holy river. Though the cremations themselves are hardly an uplifting sight the tranquility and serenity of the surrounds was a truly magical sight to take in and absorb. Mr Tripathi's explanations of the religious significance of Varanasi, the ghats, Aum and of Mother Ganga added to the thought that what we saw on out little boat that morning was truly special. That morning I didn't want to be anywhere else (though I'm not sure anything is worth a 23.5hr bus ride).

Fast forward to Agra where our group was privileged enough to admire the immense beauty of the Taj Mahal. The complex was surprisingly un-touristy as there are no touts inside the gates. It was also less crowded then I anticipated, with 3 million people per year I thought I would be fighting to take photos from the prime locations yet often I could just walk up and admire the view unobstructed by others. And what a view it was. The brilliant white marble stature of the mausoleum built by Shah Jahan for his wife was a stunning building to behold and it has forged some awesome memories in my mind. Later that day we proceeded to the Agra Fort. Perhaps controversially I enjoyed it more then the Taj. I'm still not 100% sure why but there was something about exploring the beautiful marble and sandstone courtyards and finding hidden rooms like the private mosque was an awesome experience making that day one of best of the trip so far.

Yesterday we visited Asha which is a self-help project (geo scholar lingo) empowering women and children in slum communities to raise awareness for the various health issues that can arise from the poor sanitation and cramped living conditions of squatter settlements. One thing that particularly stood out to me when we listened to the women and children of a small slum we visited was the impressive initiative of the children living in the slum. They explained to us the clean up projects and awareness campaigns the run alone as a group of 14yr old's and younger. This initiative really inspired me considering many of us teenagers would never do something like that even though we are more senior in age. A similar thing highlighted was the dedication of the of the older students who are studying to get into university with limited public education at all and they must achieve 98-99% in exams to gain entry which is insane. These children will get far in life and it was inspiring to see and perhaps it taught me a lesson for my own life, I'm yet to find out.

These three moments along with many more have given me an emotional high in the past few weeks. Sure there are lows along the way but life is like that and the environment of India amplifies these lows and throws you more but the highs make it all worth it and I can't wait to see what Jaipur, Mumbai and Goa throw my way.