FAREWELL TO INDIA

Well, our time in India is quickly drawing to a close, even though it is only now starting to hit us that, ‘wow, we’re really in India.’

Above all, we had a great visit with Ben & Maria. For all Hazelgleners out there, know that they are doing awesome! Ben seems absolutely in his element here; both he and Maria bring so much joy and love to nearly everyone they meet here. You should see them chatting up a storm with people on the beach or store clerks or taxi drivers, etc. Their love for their families and the people of this country is so evident. They are shining!

As for our final impressions of this place, I think Dominique Lapierre, in his novel The City of Joy (a great book to get a hold of), described what we’ve experienced best:

“India! a subcontinent with exceptional potential wealth—yet where areas and social groups of overwhelming poverty survived. A land of intense spirituality and of savage racial, political, and religious conflicts. A land of saints like Gandhi, Aurobindo, Ramakrishna, and Vivekananda, and of political leaders who were sometimes odiously corrupt. A land that manufactured rockets and satellites but where eight out of ten of its inhabitants had never traveled faster than their oxen could pull their carts. A land of incomparable beauty and variety, and of hideous prospects like the slums of Bombay and Calcutta. A land where the sublime often stood side by side with the very worst this world can offer, but where both elements were always more vibrant, more human, and ultimately more attracting than anywhere else.”

And with that, we say good-bye to India, and move onto Cambodia.