Day 1 - Arrival in Delhi

Sarah Goes to India...again!

Note to the Reader: I've been in India three days now, traveling with a group of 11 people from a Cambridge yoga studio. It was supposed to be 12 people, my sister being the 12th, but the Indian Consulate had other plans for her. Right now I'm in Rishikesh, which is our main destination. This is the first day I've found internet access, but I wanted to give my fullest account of Delhi, so I'm rewinding back in time for my first two posts...Enjoy!

Day 1 in Delhi

The last time I was in Delhi was when I received a grant to travel to India and study the impact of globalization. We spent most of our time in a region of the Himalayas, in a beautiful land called Ladakh. I went with two other teachers from my school, Lindsay and Aurora, and we started and our trip in Delhi (mostly because of the Indira Gandhi Airport). Returning to Delhi now, two two years later, I realize Delhi is just not the same without Lindsay and Aurora by my side. Well, that's not entirely true: it smells the same. When I exited the airport, all I could smell was INDIA. As we got closer and closer to Delhi, the scent became more distinct, and I could tease it apart into the unique interplay of urine, poori, spices, cow shit, and IBO (Indian Body Odor). I'm not sure if the severity of the smell is simply less offensive with each trip, or if it's merely because I was expecting it to be worse than it was (or remember it being worse than it was), but it's actually tolerable this time around.

As we drive towards our hotel, Tara Palace, (not quite as nice as the second hotel Aurora and I found in Pahagranj) in the dark, I'm reminded of when I came two years prior, and it's interesting to note the things I've remembered and the things I've forgotten. I remembered the yellow and green rickshaws; I had forgotten about the men sleeping in their carts on the side of the road. I remembered the garbage on the street, but forgot just how much of it there was. I remembered the stray cows on the road, but forgot about the rabid-looking dogs.

Realizing that you sometimes need to return to something to fully appreciate it, and reminding myself how quickly the human brain will romanticize the past and block out what's uncomfortable, I feel so grateful and lucky to be back in India -- for this lesson alone. India makes you confront who you are on a very deep level -- it's hard to squat in a dirt outhouse with a bout of diarrhea and not feel incredibly, unbearably, vulnerably human.

Even though so much has stayed exactly the same -- the colors, the humidity, the obsessive and unnecessary HONKING -- so much is also different; namely, me. Two years ago, I was still caught up too much in myself -- in my health (or lack thereof), my emotions, my whims, my past, my stories -- in a way that didn't allow me to disappear into my surroundings, meld with the energy around me, and feel true empathy and compassion and the bliss that ensues from letting go. I think I've grown so much since then, and I feel like a different person now.