India Reflection

Because I had such a profound experience in India, I figured it's only appropriate to write an actual reflection on the whole thing. I really wasn’t sure about going to India in the first place, and I’d been debating with myself about it for a while, especially after I decided to take my trip around the world. There was even a point where I decided that I wasn’t going to go and it wasn’t going to be part of the trip. Then, after speaking with a few people about it who had been there before and had some interesting views about their experience, I had a change of heart. I think I was in Israel when I made the decision to finally go, and began to plan my entry into Asia via India. I think the main reason why I decided to go was to challenge myself. I heard from people how challenging it can be to travel in India, with the aggressive touts and beggars and overall quality of life there. But I had decided that I was gonna be up for the challenge, and I wanted to further grow from this experience and see if I could do it.

Flying on the Mumbai local trains

Boy was I glad that I decided to go. People honestly told me that “for the first two weeks, you’re going to hate it, but give yourself some time to adjust and you’ll learn to really enjoy it there.” I took this advice to heart without knowing what to expect, and I think I approached it with a mentality that did not allow myself to be unpleasantly surprised by some of the initial sights and sounds of India that slap you across the face when you first arrive. I’m going to be truthful when writing this post because I think it’s more important than just trying to make India seem like a traveler’s paradise, which it is, but in a different way.

When I first arrived in India, like most people, I was pretty overwhelmed. I arrived in Mumbai but I think if you arrive in any big city it’s impossible to ignore all the horns, tuk tuks, litter, people, heat, and just overall life that hits you. You notice a lot of things when walking along the streets that aren’t sanitary at all, and you see and smell things that would be mostly unacceptable in our Western culture, but you take it all in as part of the experience and you just move on. India de-sensitizes you in this way, but these are all external forms of the busy and overpopulated society that exists here. With the right perspective you can look past these things that might initially appear to be negative and begin to see the true essence and beauty of what lies in this country’s culture and lifestyle. That’s how it works and that’s how you have to look at it if you want to get the most out of the experience.

What's an India reflection without a picture of the Taj?

But India is not all about the external material pleasures. I mean when it comes down to it, it’s the people and the internal qualities that you feel when you’re exposed to this kind of environment. As a foreigner, I had never been to a place with people like this. I know that other people have had very different experiences when it comes to this aspect of India, and unfortunately scams and horrible things still happen so I’m not saying this is all fact. But from my experience, I had never seen people so interested in where I was from or what I was doing. I had people coming up to me to ask me where I was from, shake my hand, and then try to continue holding conversation even though they couldn’t speak another word of English. There’s this irresistible urge that they have to meet you and learn about you and what you’re doing even if they can’t properly express their curiosity verbally. It’s still magical. In my opinion, it’s the ultimate place for human connection. The waves, smiles, hellos, and shaking of hands from all ages and walks of life in this country is something special, and I think it was my favorite part about visiting this place.

Happiness

And of course, India challenges you. I think in general you just have to be more vocal and verbally aggressive in trying to get what you want, especially the price you want. I found myself growing quite a bit in this department. Yea, I had been social enough when traveling, but I found myself having to develop a little bit more character when interacting with people in order to get what I wanted, the price that I wanted, or to just have fun with each interaction; because there’s a lot of interaction going on in India with the amount of people saying hello to you or trying to sell you something. It’s very important to try to have fun with each interaction or else you’re gonna lose your patience real quick.

India tests your patience more than any other country I’ve been to, especially when it comes to traveling within the country. As I’ve mentioned before, depending on where you’re going of course, I would say that wherever you go you’re gonna be spending at least 10 hours on average getting there. If it’s a major trip, you can spend up to 30-40 hours on a single train or 50+ hours in transit from one side of the country to the other (if you’re not flying) and you’re going to have people constantly trying to talk to you during and after your exhausting travels. Overall, it’s not a bad thing, your tolerance for travel time increases exponentially and just about any other country you go to will seem like a breeze when it comes to transportation. But again, it’s all part of the experience, and you treat it as such.

Overall, India has allowed me to grow in a way that no other country has. This is of course based on my own personal experience, and there are plenty of people who might think otherwise based on their own individual experience. I can talk for hours about my experience here, but I will always remember it as one of the more memorable and life-changing trips I’ve taken. I would recommend to anyone to come to this country and challenge themselves and see what life is all about. In my mind, this is the holy grail of backpacking and the traveling experience. There’s always more to be seen and explored but for the time being, for me, India is the final frontier.