India - Reflections #1

Reflections After Slumdog Millionaire - When I close my eyes, I immediately see the pictures forever sketched in my mind of a trip I took to India years ago. Over the next month, I will share with you experiences from this once in a life time trip. I say once in a life time because I will never be able to retrace my steps – the steps were designed especially for four of us to travel on a business exchange to India through Rotary International. My boss recommended me and I was given a five week leave to represent the bank as we toured the poorest region of India, Andhra Pradesh. We traveled by plane, car, taxi and train to remote areas of Andhra Pradesh; we stayed with Rotarians in small villages, gave talks at Rotary Meetings almost every night, spoke at schools, toured glass cutting factories (with out mask on), wound our way through poultry farms, attended parades and dance festivals, shared holy time with a famous shawmi, played with the children at an orphanage, learned about ourselves with a visit to a famous astrologist, planted trees and watched the sun rise over the ocean. We didn’t have a day off until the end of the trip when we were in Delhi and traveled by train to see the Tja Mahal. We were weary due to the endless days of morning to night work, the overwhelming sights of poverty, and the constant assault to our senses. Despite the exhaustion, we met lovely people who had nothing but were happy, who lived in shacks but kept them spotless, and who were fascinated with us – for some, we were the first westerners they had ever met.

Join me over the next week few weeks as I recount special memories of this trip.