"We spend our lives in anticipations, in determining to be vastly happy at some period or other, when we have the time. But the present time has one advantage over every other – it is our own." - Charles Caleb Colton
Leaving India for the first time after any length or intensity of immersion is something to behold. Its side-effects are strong and difficult to avoid, and for those that escape such feelings I cannot help but feel sorrow. No matter where someone may be on their path of understanding, India's obscurity is overwhelming. Since my own departure from Delhi the lingering "culture shock" has grown to be the most valuable portion of my journey. It is the essential epilogue to my greatest learning experience. I can still remember the day of my arrival as a weary traveler, willing and open to learn from what surrounded my every movement. India is a rift in the world's age of modernity, and such a clash with chaos for my state of being threw me about in every which way. 5 months and 18,500 miles later I sat at Indira Ghandi International Airport enclosed in a gigantic space capsule, waiting to be blasted out of this wrinkle in time. As the plane went full throttle, I let my eyes sink into the world I was leaving behind.
People endlessly ask me to encompass what I saw. I never really know how to put it and in many of these conversations I only have a few moments of someone's attention to describe it, consequentially creating a different answer every time. I can say with certainty that, even with all the time in the world, I could never help you understand the complexity that is India. But for those that have followed me at one point or another through my journey's development, I have found something to encompass my own vision.
Often, my mind wanders to this home I once knew. Each time this happens, this is part of what I see. (try playing the music while exploring the map)
