Life as a transit passenger

For a Latin American young woman like me, raised as a Catholic and under Western worldviews, India had always been a dream place to visit. A huge cultural diversity, a mixture between ancient rituals and the finest technology, a country where exquisite monuments and outstanding landscapes were possible to find.

However, my months in India ended up teaching me so many more things than I expected. Besides the colourfulness of its traditions, the power of its spirituality (so different to my Western concepts), and the stimulating and multiple offer of typical food, music and dances, there were other things that caught my attention.

The economic inequalities, the social contradictions and the problems related to ethnic issues were so present, that it was hard to separate them from the amazing sightseeing spots. The magnificent Taj Mahal and the shocking Mumbai slums. The luxury in Bollywood movies and the poverty in small villages of Andhra Pradesh. The gorgeous beaches and forests and the pollution around the factories. The struggle of women to escalate positions in politics and the violence and discrimination against them in urban and rural areas. Travelling to India, if the traveller is interested in going beyond the "postcard" image, is strongly linked to the feelings provoked by the human landscape. Indignation, impotence, anger against the injustices... These sensations are the ones which became the main result of my journey.

Because they slapped me on the face, along with the beauty and the joy I found in India. Because they made me realize that a real traveller should not close his or her eyes to suffering, but instead, spread the word about the marvels and the flaws of every country visited. Because they made me aware of all the things to be done, not only abroad, but also in my country, where people can learn from successful experiences from nations like India.

And especially, because learning about diversity in India worked as a cultural mirror to reflect my notions and feelings towards my own country's diversity. Peru is such a rich land in cultural and geographical terms, and I learnt to value its wealth even more after my Indian journey. And in the end, I believe that is the purpose of a good trip: to feed your eyes, your soul and your mind by exposing them to different stimulus, and make them grow in so many ways as possible. I once heard that the best trips are the ones you make to your inner self, but now I believe that the real good trips are the ones that never stop flowing between what you see, what you have lived and what you feel towards all that, in a neverending journey that makes you learn every time you travel.