Traveling has always been my favorite thing to do with my family. I am lucky enough to have parents who love to take trips all over the world, exploring new places and cultures as often as we can. Traveling with them over the years has made me question what it really means to visit a foreign country. What do we mean when we say we have visited a country? How much of it are we really seeing?
This morning, I landed home after spending two and a half weeks in India with my family. Before I left for the trip, a few people asked me if I was ready for what I was about to experience, and if I was afraid of the culture shock. I even had a friend ask me why I would ever want to visit somewhere as intense as India and tell me that he would never want to go there.
As someone who loves to travel, I couldn’t understand why anyone wouldn’t want to explore somewhere so fascinating and different than their home country. At the same time, I couldn’t help but feel nervous to witness a world so different from my own.
I have to say that my trip to India was definitely intense and a lot to experience. Among the stunning temples and palaces I got to visit, I was also met with images that shocked me, ones that made me want to avert my eyes, and ones that reminded me of how far I was from a culture I knew and understood.
While I could see why some people couldn’t see the appeal of experiencing a world so different, to me, it was the whole point of going to India in the first place.
Even after returning from such a powerful trip, I am still asking myself how much of it I really got to experience. I spent a big portion of my time in India sitting inside cars or rickshaws, watching the world outside like I was watching a movie. Through my window, I saw women fetching water draped in colorful saris, a Hindu monk smoking a cigarette, a group of men in turbans sitting around a fire on the side of the highway, and the most extravagant wedding procession pouring through the streets.
I saw cows, elephants, monkeys, and camels meandering through traffic in the middle of a crowded road.
Though I was in the country, visiting its sites, speaking to locals, and eating local dishes, there was still a sense that I was completely removed from my surroundings. As I looked at miles and miles of villages and towns fly by as we drove past, I realized that being a tourist may have only let me scratch the surface of India and its rich culture.
My travels through India were not about the hotels we slept in and were certainly not about how much rest and relaxation we had during the vacation. But they were not only about the historical sites and opulent monuments we visited as tourists, either. The moments that had the deepest effect on me were the ones when I felt completely out of place.
When I think of my time in India, I think of getting lost in the middle of a bustling crowd, feeling totally overwhelmed by my surroundings, receiving stares from locals and wondering if I was intruding when entering temples, markets or monuments. I think of the moments when I got a glimpse into a world that tourists do not often get to see.
The raw and real side of India, the one that people once warned me about, is what makes me long to return and continue experiencing all of it.
