What I didn't see in India

My Photo scholarship 2010 entry

Worldwide | Sunday, October 17, 2010 | 3 photos

Place is always with me no matter where I go. I go to India and I see this place that looks different than what my eyes usually see and my ears hear this place that sounds different and my nose smells something like incense and smoke. And I’m in this mental place where I’m different and shocked; an outlook that keeps one of my feet grounded in my homeland and the other foot toe-deep in New Delhi and Chandigarh and the Himalayas. I am straddling two countries because some places and mindsets go with me no matter how far I fly. Other places stay locked behind locks of culture and color and language that I can’t penetrate even when I’m there because I hold none of the keys. I am always in two places at once and always peering through the curtain, trying to see this new place without the old place in my peripheral.