First Impressions of India

We've made it to India. Julia and I arrived one week ago. We stayed a few days in New Delhi and then traveled up to McLeod Ganj where we will be staying for the next three months.

In this blog I will make posts about the development of my short documentary film, responses to articles, books, or parts of books I have read, and thoughts about cultural experiences or activities I have participated in.

To kick things off, I would simply like to share some thoughts of my first impressions of India.

1. India is hot
During our time in Delhi the temperature was well above 100 F every day. Now that we're up in the mountains in McLeod Ganj things have cooled off a little, but if we had come straight to McLeod without stopping in Delhi first, it would probably feel just as hot.

2. India is beautiful
Although it may be considered a developing country, the land, architecture, city structure, and parks of India are very beautiful. Some things such as the large temples and political buildings could be considered obviously beautiful whereas the back roads and the stacked puzzle-piece houses are more subtly beautiful like an abstract painting. Everything has some degree of beauty to it, and I hope I continue to see India in this way.

3. India has a lot of people in it
India seems to be packed full of people. Even in the "small" town of McLeod Ganj the streets are full of Tibetans, Indians, and foreigners from all over the world. I think this diversity may be one of my favorite things about McLeod. It makes things complicated at times, with English, Hindi, and Tibetan all being main languages, but I am studying Hindi and Tibetan in hope to be able to communicate with more of the population, and the difficulty just may be worth it to get to experience so much culture in one place.

4. India has a lot of animals in it
Cows, dogs, goats, birds, monkeys, camels, elephants, and more. I have seen all of these since we have arrived (some more than others). What I find most interesting about the animals of India is there relationship with the people. Animals are respected and cared for in India. In return they are mostly very calm and gentle around people. They are not afraid of humans, and then humans are not afraid of them. One day in Delhi, we were riding in a taxi when all of a sudden, the driver pulled over, jumped out of the car, bought some bird food and threw it to a crowd of pigeons. Then, a favorite sight from a few days ago, as we were walking around the Buddhist temple path we saw a cow, a dog, and several monkeys all walking around on the path, with people walking right by them. This relationship between people and animals fascinates me, and is something I would like to learn more about.

There are a lot of other things I could say about India. Already I have had so many wonderful experiences, but I know there are still so many more out there, so I need to get out of this internet cafe and back into the world.