My Research Question & Reflection

Post Travel Reflection

September 2017

Whatever your perspective, I think it's fair to say it's been a hair raising past 10 months in the United States. People have been shocked about the election, and confounded by how much our citizens differ on the definition of who a citizen of the USA is. Where we find the news determines how we view our country. President Trump is known to “binge watch” Fox News (New York Times 2017). This shapes our president's view of the world. His public policy is enacted based on his perspectives formed from it. And this is true around the country. What we read shapes our lives and our vision of the world and our culture.

For my research question, I wanted to understand what are the stories that shape India and it’s people. Would I see the exotic India from my childhood reading of A Secret Garden, Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book and Passage to India? Would the same narratives I had read from Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Padma Venkatraman, and Shilpa Somaya Gowda of the citizens who ventured between India and America and had to reconcile the differences? I knew of the epic texts of India, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, but I had not read them. Were these ancient texts important to India? To the United States?

For a brief time in India, I became one with the story. The very best stories are the ones where I become transported into and a part of the story. As an honored guest I was allowed access into the story of India. Over the years so many stories that I had read showed India as an exotic country viewed through the eyes of an English person. There were also the Indian-American experience or how Indians assimilated to life in the United States. My journey and exploration opened my eyes to an India of six thousand years history and culture. I was able to journey into Indian homes and imaginations. It gave me a sense (almost) as if I was an Indian. My journey began in dreamlike thirty hour flight from Chicago to Bangalore with a group of eleven teachers from around the United States. From Bangalore, three of us moved on to the Parthardi region of the state of Maharashtra and then the group met up again in New Delhi. And as in any story we found that there may be common elements, but very different narratives of what India is.

In Bangalore, Mr. Singh, shared the history of India in an hour and half ...a tall task. It was an aha moment to recognize the difference in my midwestern thinking to India’s. I'm not an expert at India's perspectives, but it gave me a wakeup call. India views the world through three concepts; marga (the way), desi(cultures) and dharma (what holds them together.) India is a subcontinent. The independent country of India of is barely seventy years old. Each state that composes India have diverse perspectives expressing their state’s distinct culture in multiple forms; music, dance, cooking, literature, and movies. Mr. Singh was one of many gurus in India that showed me the inherent and shared wisdom that shape and express the Indian culture.

Our first formal session with Mr. Singh introduced the idea of a country of over 700 languages and dialects. The complexity of telling one story to describe India is hard in a country that doesn't share a common language. He told the story of a frog crossing a river and a scorpion asked the frog to carry him across the river. The frog agreed as long as the scorpion did not sting him. Midway across the scorpion did, and as they were both drowning, the scorpion explained that it was his nature to sting. It is in the nature of India to be one country, but have diverse views. Dharma is the eternal law to sustain the universe and hints at the inherent Indian mystical view. There may not be one concrete answer, as an United States citizen craves. An Indian answering one of my questions would give a story that could be parsed multiple ways as explanation.

Indira Subramanian, from the Teacher Foundation in India, became my “Sutradhar” or storyteller. Indira used the tale of the blind men and the elephant to describe the Indian education system. There are many parts, but it is hard to see the entirety of the elephant if you are blind to the other parts. Mr. Vijay Thriuvady of Bangalore, another Sutradhar, shared the botanical wonders and history of Lalbagh Gardens. It was not just of plants but included Lord Krishna and the English colonization of Bangalore shaped the garden.

One of the most noticeable forms of storytelling was visual. The colors, the dress, the food spoke of traditions binding the states and country and the people together. Lunch at Rasovara in Bangalore was a Rajasthan show...from the application of a chandan teeka mark... to the silent service... to the Pani Puri. The food and service told the story of the amazing royal kitchens of the states of Rajasthan and Gujarat. Special traditions create community, and I started to feel immersed in India.

In Pathardi our group of three was greeted with royal celebrations. Beautiful girls in saris marked us with tiloks, drummers lined the driveways to greet us. A special welcome song and a dancechronicled the history of Shivaji Maharaj, beloved warrior king of Maharashtra. We had arrived at our host school, Shri Tilok, on the full moon of July, and the birthdate of the great Indian poet, Vyasa. Because of his writing, he considered the greatest of teachers, or gurus, and the day was Guru Purnima, a celebration of teachers. There was a belief that literature leads to knowledge and is a great teacher. I become part of the story.

At Shri Tilok Jain Secondary School, our host school, I worked with a group of eleventh standard students. I asked them to write down what they liked to read. Wings of Fire by Abdul Kalam, an inspirational biography of a former Prime Minister of India was most often mentioned. Inspirational texts and informational texts were also mentioned very often. There were some who wrote storybooks and only one mention of a romance novel, Half Girlfriend by Chetan Bhagat. They were serious students and their studies were important, particularly as this was the year they needed to prepare for national exams. When I asked where the students got information about the United States, most mentioned the Internet, which is mainly accessed via mobile phones.

The stories in India are powerful and evident in so many ways. We visited a residential school for the mentally challenged. Performing a dance that was a retelling of an ambush of Indian soldiers by Pakistan at the border, the students brought forth the emotions of the nationalism in the country. The music told the story while the students re-enacted it in an award winning dance. At the Red Fort in New Delhi, we saw the light show that told of the Mughal empire period of rule in India. the tale of Shah Jahan and his visions of beauty in architecture of the fort and the Taj Mahal just up the Yamuna river. And his sons, notably Aurangzeb, imprisoning his father until his death in this beautiful fort. It had all of the elements a classic story of love and beauty destroyed by power and privilege. The Taj Mahal elicited emotions by the sheer beauty of the architecture and the story of love that built it. At the Gandhi Museum Mahatma Gandhi’s words were the central feature. As a man he eschewed material things, but his words are strong story of the legacy of peace that will live on.

The ancient caves at Ellora and Ajanta also told stories. The existence of the four thousand year old caves built over time told the story of the different religions of India. Within each cave were awe inspiring sculptures and pictures. At Ellora at the carvings of temples within temples, our friend Satish, explained the stories carved into the rocks and the stories of the ways the caves were used. At Ajanta, the bright colors of the painting that still exist thousands of years in a moist hot climate were the stories of Siva and Lord Krishna the mythology that shape the people of India.

In New Delhi, St. Mary’s School was an exemplar school in India. In the extensive library, the librarian, Mrs. Malhotra, shared some of the books they read in school. The students are very focused on their classes and do not have enough time for independent reading. She made sure they had time in library to read, but insisted they check out English and Hindi. The focus and interest was on reading in English. Assigned texts seemed mainly of classic British literature; Shakespeare, Robinson Crusoe. The Indian authors she recommended are N.K. Narayan, Satyajit Ray, V.S. Naipaul and Ruskin Bond. These are writers who wrote in English during the mid century. St. Mary’s also had an extensive collection of texts dedicated to studying for exams.

In Delhi the TEA and ILEP alumni Vandana and I conversed about Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni and her book Palace of Illusions. It is the story of the Mahabharata written from the viewpoint of a woman. Southern India is a matriarchal society while northern India is more of a patriarchal society. For Indian woman to have Divakaruni write this epic from an Indian perspective was very welcomed. There are many changes in India and there will be a need to see more diverse perspective.

The country is rich with stories. They may not always be written. There is a strong oral and visual retelling of their subcontinent. They are powerful stories that need to be shared with the rest of the world. I was so impressed with the culture and traditions that we saw in India. The Indians are serious people, serious scholars, a land that is creating engineers and scientists. Yet it was also a country of fun people. They celebrate everything.

As I sit writing this reflection I realize I am still reflecting. I need more time and research and more conversations with my new Indian friends to understand what I saw and heard and read. I need to read more of their history and culture and their classical literature. Yet, I was struck by how their perspectives shape their world and the idea of margi, desi and dharma shape a subcontinent and bring diverse people together. With easier travel and technology the worlds will blend. Ancient stories and traditions as well as Western ideas intermingle in the Indian subcontinent.

Bangalore and New Delhi had some of the elements and conveniences of a Westernized world. Yet in New Delhi, I missed the openness and sense of community I had in Pathardi. In Pathardi the “mobile” (cell phone) was definitely opening up a new world to them. In Delhi I lost my novelty and celebrity that I had in Pathardi. I wanted to stop time and appreciate their sense of community. Pathardi harked of a simpler era, community, tradition, belief in hard work. It could be the simple things; students engaged in the playground game, langdi; to joint family homes; to meals as special events. It could be the song and traditions of welcome. It could be the dances that told stories. It could be in our host teacher, Shrikant, and the men gathered in a plaza dedicated to B. R. Ambedkar, father of the Indian constitution. They believed they could make use his words to create a more equal society in India.

In an information and literature rich world it becomes about what you choose to hear, read, view and participate in. The United States is becoming divided by our perspectives and only focusing on one book, one newspaper, one TV channel, one version of the country and world. We need to remember our stories, find ways to share them and bring multiple perspectives to light. My hair stood on end in India, because of the people. They allowed me to learn and share in their wonderful culture. I hope more literature will be written by and about Maharashtra and Shivaji Maharashtra and the heros and villains. I hope more will read and share these stories. I hope we all read and remember the words of Gandhi. It is in the sharing of literature and culture that we see the goodness we can create.