Lessons from India.

‘Let’s go to India!’ Trudi said. The idea was a spur of the moment whim which received an equally immediate response.‘YES!’ I replied.

It was love at first sight! The soft vibrancy of everyday life versus the hard edged reality of the downtrodden. The messy glorious chaos of it all. India is massive and the intricate difficulties of travelling there are vast. After days of traveling through winding hairpin turns on unfinished roads high above a gleaming silver river, drinking tea taking in the breathtaking view of Kanchenjunga, sitting on a toy train as it smoked it’s way up and around bends and down through valleys, we finally arrived at the Makaibari tea plantation.

Stepping into an empty office in the late afternoon word of our arrival spread fast. A man approached introducing himself as Passan. He described the rich history of Makaibari, entertaining us with his deep knowledge of tea. Showing us to our humble room looking out onto the rolling hills and the flat bengali plains, he invited us to dinner with his family. We chatted politely as we ate. These people had very little compared to us. When asked if there was hot water for a bath, Passan excused himself to make a fire to heat our water. Humbled, I understood the difference in our lives. Yet, here was a man, generous enough to open his home with the little he had, to make strangers feel welcomed. That night as Trudi and I sat together, we felt so far away from everything we knew, yet so close to the core of things as they are.

The next day was New years day. We were invited to join the celebrations. Our timing couldn’t have been better!
Travel has a strange way of warming the heart, of bringing people together for a moment of their lives, to bask in the joy of living. We happily joined the villagers, eating hot curry, drinking copious amounts of homemade rice wine, listening to the same over-repeating playlist and danced in the dust and dirt until the sun went down.

I couldn't help but think as we danced with the old women smiling and laughing, while doing handstands and cartwheels with the children, while Trudi walked with the teenage girls, that even though we were a complete oddity in the village, we were accepted for our joy and readiness to be included. This was all because of a crazy thought, or maybe because in our need to live, we must be ready to take a chance. To risk discomfort in order to discover the complete freedom of the now…and of coarse, some rice wine doesn't hurt either.