"Rollercoaster"

Roni Chapman.

When we started the meetings for this trip I slowly started to notice how frequently it was said that this trip would be like a "rollercoaster of emotions". Due to the frequent use of this phrase it became a bit of a game to see how many times it would be repeated during the course of the trip. While I have lost count, It has only now really sunk in how perfectly this describes my time in India. The rollercoaster has quick changing twists and turns but you are too caught up in the moment to see what way the it turns next. Each place and each feeling seems to come with a place and feeling in the opposite direction: the bustling streets of Kolkata opposed to the calmness of Darjeeling, feeling energetic in Jaipur to feeling exhausted 3 days later here in Mumbai.

Then there was the rollercoaster of Mumbai. Probably the sharpest turn for me.

One afternoon we saw a part of Dharavi slum home to the usual smiling faces of India, but I was very surprised to see colourful houses where people proudly showed off their TVs and fridges. I didn't think of this place as a slum like we saw in Brooklyn, Kolkata  and I was very hopeful for the people of this slum because of this image.

The next morning we drove past the most expensive house in the world for the richest man in India, valued at $1 billion USD and standing 27 floors high. Looking up at this building struck me. It struck me about as much as anything had on this trip. Why was seeing a building one of the more emotional parts of the trip for me? I guess it was part of the rollercoaster; from seeing poverty to seeing extreme wealth, something which other cities didn't really offer. For me it was also a rollercoaster of seeing so much hope for the people of the slum to experiencing confusion about how ideal their situation really is. I was reminded of how crowded their 1 room houses are, how one girl had to drop out of school to provide for her family and how high the water must flood in monsoon season. It was a bit of a reality check. I don't know how I feel about this wider view of the world that this experience has captured. I always knew some are rich and some poor but I had never seen such a stark contrast before. I can't describe how I feel about it because I don't know, myself. There were no blogs which I had read that could give this contrast justice and no words my brother could say that could convey its weight. I am still hopeful, the colour of the place and the people are stuck in my mind. I am also still confused about how this world works, how fair it is and how fair it can be.