Moving On

Zachary Morrow

(Written on the bus to Varanasi.)

When I left Kolkata I was strangely asking for more, more conversations with strangers, more exhilarating taxi rides, more craziness and more joy. I felt like I was just getting into the groove of Kolkata. On the other hand, Kolkata was a slap in the face every day and there were several moments that were extremely confronting. Future Hope was a refreshing dose of joy and hope for everyone in the group and I especially enjoyed hanging out with eight of the young girls from Future Hope. I felt very privileged to be there and could not help but feel that these were the future leaders of India. I also felt guilt throughout my stay in Kolkata even at Future Hope where the children there are considered lucky. The conditions for learning and living were cramped and much lower than most of New Zealand, yet they were accomplishing so much more than many of us were at their age and they are not sacrificing their childhood for this, they still played and laughed. I felt immense guilt sadness and anger as we were led through Brooklyn, a slum on the outskirts of Kolkata. When walking through this almost post-apocalyptic setting the reality sets in, this is a home for hundreds of families, for hundreds of young children some without parents. I ask myself how anyone can live like this. What hope do they have for the future? What do they have to look forward to? How do they get up every morning? While I cannot presume to know what drives them I can know that whatever situation I find myself in I will still be unable to complain. The world isn’t fair and while that fact is unlikely to change that doesn’t mean it’s right or should continue to be that unfair, there should never be a world where people have to live in those conditions. I feel guilty because the anger I felt after Brooklyn has started to fade, it made me think that I was blocking out the memory that I was forgetting the children but the memory is not fading and I hope it never leaves me.

After a rather uneventful train ride we then took a four wheel drive Tata up into the foothills of the Himalayas, at least that’s what it felt like. The drive in the Tata was much more eventful with plenty of opportunities for the driver to show his skill at the wheel as well as spectacular views of the Indian plains.

Darjeeling felt like a cosy town at the bottom of a ski field, with many boys drawing parallels too Queenstown. One moment that sticks with me is when Miller Hawkesby, a tall white blond haired foreigner hilariously tries to get into the zoo for the 60 rupees, which is the price for locals. His game plan stemmed from two phrases that he was taught by Akash, one of the Jungle Crows who had traveled with us, they were “I am from here” in Hindi and “Doesn’t matter” in Bengali. As you can imagine the conversation did not go as planned partly I imagine because Miller started laughing the moment he opened his mouth and because he may have been stitched up by Akash who was bent over laughing the entirety of the conversation. The tension that I had been feeling since Kolkata oozed away as the group settled in this new town and while I enjoyed staying in Darjeeling and the relaxing atmosphere that it has, I felt that if we stayed in Darjeeling any longer then it would change from a period of reflection and recovery from Kolkata to a distraction to our adventure through India.

Our next destination was Saraswatipur, a small village in the middle of nowhere. What immediately struck me was how generous this village was for hosting us. We were a large group of men who were strangers to the people of this village yet they had meticulously prepared for our arrival and gave us the largest and finest building in the village which was the church. When we arrived we were greeted with a welcome where some of the girls placed a red dot and orange line on our foreheads before placing a necklace of flowers on our necks. While none of us know exactly what this blessing/welcoming was, I found the experience very humbling because these people had spent so much time preparing this welcome for strangers they had never met.  The next day we played sevens rugby with the local teenagers and all of the boys were left gasping for air after our matches. The rugby games gave me a connection with the locals that transcends language and cultural gaps and once again showed me how no matter where you are in the world sport can build bridges between cultures like nothing else can.

I am currently precariously balancing this tablet on my lap as we bus to Varanasi because our train was canceled in true Indian fashion, I am not complaining about this in any way, in fact this adds to our adventure through India and I look forward to all the future surprises we have yet to face.