Stories and reflections I

Our host father drove us to school this morning. Belina and I sparked some interesting conversation with him, which disproved my assumptions that he was a shallow IT guy. Rather, he sings and dnaces with Anu, and he has some thought-provoking insights about situation that India is in:
"It's too bad when guys go around complaining about India's political and economic situation, and then when you ask, 'Did you pay your income tax?' They say no."
"BRIC, Brazil, Russia, India, and China. Those are the four countries on the forefront of economic development." To me, it seems like all of them are racing towards an imaginary comparision of modernity while forgetting about their past and their people. I can just imagine a cartoon with a decrepid donkey named BRIC racing after an abnoxious carrot waving a US flag.

“Has your opinion of Bangalore changed since Sunday when you arrived?”
“Actually, just yesterday I finally began to feel comfortable walking down the street. I can look around instead of feeling overwhelmed by the stares and sights I would never see in the states.” Or would I notice similar things in the States if I were to look for them? Here, looking into the eyes of a beggar and shaking my head no leads to a cascade of moral rethinking about my role as a privileged person, but how many times have I passed by beggars on the streets in the US? If moral reconsideration is to have any effect other than guilt, it has to lead to action. Our sociologist speaker today said, “Before a societal problem can be fixed, it needs to be accepted and understood.” This means accepting myself as a white westerner in a place that largely still has a ‘colonial mindset,’ as Amy put it.
Vivian constantly reminds us about the domestic and gang violence, depression, and physical disabilities that she comes across in her research of community health in the Bay area, asserting that suffering may differ in kind, but is not nation bound. She also bonded with an incense merchant in the market over a particular aromatic tree-sap that is used in rituals by the indigenous in Guatemala and the Hindu’s here in India. She proceeded to say, “This just affirms: ‘One love, one people.’”

In our first weekly reflection session today, we omed, Colleen told us we were family, we laughed, we felt frustrated, we acknowledged who we were, and that it can sometimes feel uncomfortable, but ultimately that we were glad sharing the individual learning experiences together.
I leave you and myself with the challenge of taking a few moments to look at one or two situations (either something that you see, read about in the news, or in your personal life) from a point of view other that your own, and then again from your own eyes. Does your perspective change? I’m convinced that I can say, “How can it not change?”

Friend's insights:
Helaine commented later today about how the atmosphere inside of a car on the streets of Bangalore is so different that that in a Rickshaw or as a pedestrian.

Gianna started a journal entry with, “There has not been a time in a Rickshaw that I have not felt like I was going to die, or wanted to kill the driver.”