My final day in India, and as I sit here awaiting my trip to the airport and home, I’m struck by how some of my perceptions have changed since this trip started. When I flew into Bangaluru over a month ago, I was overwhelmed by the traffic, dirt, poverty and intensity of the place. Today, I took a cab to Peter’s old office to return a cell phone and only on the way back did I realize we were passing along many of the same streets I had been on in early June. The sights of poverty etc that had struck me so hard then had blended almost into the background, even though they were the same. Likewise, walking the streets to get breakfast in the morning, I was undaunted by walking in the traffic, and I was nonplussed by beggars and hawkers.
There’s little doubt the trip has changed me in certain ways. For one, I’m a little harder and more selfish…there is just no way to survive over here if you don’t put up a cold wall to some aspects of Indian life. In this respect I’ve become a little Indian-ized. That has seeped into my interactions with people as well—I’m better able to express dissatisfaction with situations, such as contradictions in quoted and actual prices, without getting angry. There are also few situations now when I won’t immediately ask for a lower price. I wonder how this will all translate into life back in Canada? I don’t pretend to have been here long enough for these and other changes to enter strongly into my life back home, but regardless the short duration of the trip I’m not coming back exactly the same. I’m excited by that.
I’m also excited just to be home, and back around family and friends. While this is the first trip where I haven’t been anxious to get home—I’ve found a comfortable stride and like it out here—I am ready to be home. I needed a break and found some time to unplug and gain some perspective after the upheaval of the last 6 months. Through this trip the one truth I’ve figured out (I knew it before but this trip has reinforced it) is that it’s not so much what you do, but how, and with whom you do it. Whatever you do, if it’s done with integrity and with good people, great things happen. I have incredible people in my life, many who have helped me immensely lately (you’re probably one of them if you’ve been reading this blog) and I can’t wait to see you all again. Great things are afoot!
Cheers from India.
