What is India?

To the realist, it is an economically developing southern Asian nation. To the pessimist, it is a nation riddled with poverty, corruption and disease. To the romanticist, it is a place of enchantment, fine art, religious significance and smiling faces. To me, it is all these things and more.

I was fortunate enough to accompany Balmurli Natrajan, assistant professor of anthropology, his wife Sreevidya Kalaramadam, lecturer of liberal arts and sciences cross-disciplinary studies, and Ricardo Salvador, associate professor of agronomy, on a study abroad opportunity to this complicated, yet surprisingly simple nation during the summer of 2004. I went with the desire to have an enriching cultural experience and, by the time I left, realized I had gained much more.

India cannot be explained in a sentence, a story or a book, though many have tried. A thousand pictures could never do it justice, but the smiles on the faces of children of different religions playing together in an alleyway, where in other parts of the world they would be brought up to hate each other, might say it all. The best I can do is sum up my experience and encourage others to follow Natrajan’s lead to the subcontinent.

No amount of preparation could prime me for what I was to experience when I arrived in India. The drive from the airport to Mysore was harrowing; it was as if there was no concept of speed limits and or even of which side of the road to drive on. The houses were made of concrete, and most had some sort of advertisement painted on the side, hawking things as foreign as “glucose biscuits” and as familiar as Pepsi. English is a very common language in India, despite the fact that it is not one of its 27 official languages. Such is the dichotomy of the nation.

During our trip, we traveled throughout the state of Karnataka, visiting world historic sites and temples, hiking in local foothills, sampling local foods and learning Indian customs.

Our group was especially touched when we heard the plight of victims of the Dec. 26 tsunami from Tamil Nadu state. Just six months earlier, we walked those beaches, ate with those people and visited the fishing villages that were among the hardest hit.

After the study abroad, my girlfriend and I traveled throughout the rest of India, visiting the Holy Ganges river, the Taj Mahal and Dharamsala, home to His Holiness the Dalai Lama who has been living in exile since the Chinese government brutally conquered the sovereign Buddhist nation of Tibet. We visited ancient temple sites that demonstrate the multi-religious nature of India, such as the Buddhist, Jain and Hindu temple complex at Ellora, built by the same people at the same time. Most importantly, though, we experienced the everyday people and places that make India a unique place on our planet.

Of all these things, the most important thing I took away from my experience in India was the realization of how fortunate I am to have access to the resources I do as an American. Most of us truly have no idea how wealthy we are or how fortunate we are to have the opportunities that we do. Nevertheless, as distant as India may seem to us, it is surprisingly close. If you’ve made a call to your credit card customer service, you likely spoke with an Indian, perhaps even one who we met when we visited a call center in one of India’s most progressive cities, Bangalore.

My India experience was one that changed me as a person. In spite of the trials of navigating the realm of a different culture, I forged a new relationship with myself and the world I live in. It was not what I expected and in many ways, was so much more.