Complexity

India is a complex place.  It is a place so large that we needed to learn new numbers like crore (10 million) and lakh (100,000).  It is a place where each state has its own language and each town has its own god.  It is a place where food can be vegetarian, non-vegetarian, pure vegetarian, halal and even hygienic.  It is a place where restaurants are called hotels and hotels are called inns.

India is a complex place.  If you are feeling the call of nature don’t be bashful.  The side of the road, street or alley is a perfectly acceptable place to relieve yourself.  No one will bat an eyelash.  But please don’t cross you legs in church or show the soles of your feet to an elder for that action could be considered impolite.

India is a complex place.  You will see women in the most fabulous saris with colors beyond the rainbow, bangles on their arms and jasmine in their hair.  You will see these women in temples, in shops, in offices and leading cows down dirt paths.

India is a complex place.  You will be welcomed into the temple and led past the throngs into the holiest of holy.  You will be told of the importance of uniting all people and joining in spirit to do good for humanity.  Then you will read about someone getting murdered in the name of god because they had beef in their freezer.

India is a complex place.  You will meet aerospace engineers who are designing the most modern aircraft navigation systems in the world.  You will marvel in the sophistication and brilliance of the science behind the technology.  You will be impressed with the raw ingenuity and dedication to advancement.  And then the power will go out.  Again.  And again.  And again.

India is a complex place.  You will see the joy in the young men playing cricket on makeshift fields with happy cows wandering through the outfield.  You can imagine their dreams of hitting a towering “sixer” to defeat Bangladesh in World Cup play.  You will see this scenario play out in the biggest cities and the smallest villages.  And you will wonder why field hockey is the national sport.

India is a complex place.  You will see sweeping.  Lots and lots of sweeping.  There are armies of men and women with bundles of sticks sweeping roads and porches.  Sidewalks and shop entries.  Even the lawns and bare dirt patches are swept of every leaf, twig, dropping and piece of litter.  All of these sweepings (and most trash for that matter) are carefully gathered and dumped, in a big pile, next to the stream, where it will sit and sit and sit representing a nasty contradiction to all of the sweeping.

India is a complex place.  This is a place where dishes, cars, children and cows are all lovingly washed, with putrid grey water that runs alongside the garbage pile.  This is home for 1.3 billion people, thirty thousand wild elephants and 2200 tigers.  This is a place where the extravagantly prepared dishes of rice and curry, lentils and paneer are carefully served piping hot intended to be eaten without silverware.

But isn’t everyplace complex?  Isn’t there always a hidden agenda or dark underbelly just below the surface?  In the US our garbage is neatly packaged and carefully trucked in clean- fuel vehicles to far off landfills where no one will witness the vastness of our waste.  We enjoy the safety and polite order of US roads with clear signs and signals, easy to understand and navigate for those who have enough wealth, language skills and documentation to access this privilege.  Perhaps the reason Indian complexity is so outwardly challenging is that everything is exposed and literally coming at all of your senses all of the time.  But the same could also be true in the US but the complexity is masked, hidden behind fresh paint and under well-maintained streets.  It is not until the unsuspecting “tourist” steps off the curb and into the path of the oncoming garbage truck do we see the true complexity of our society bubble to the surface.