What is India? In all honesty, I had no idea what to expect going there. None at all. The stories and ideas I’ve heard were from one end of the spectrum to the other. I was excited, nervous and anxious, but before I could even think of finding an answer to my questions, I had to get there.
“A 14 hour flight isn’t so bad,” I told myself when buying the plane ticket. I’ve done 9 before, what is a few more hours. Then I realized that the 14 hour flight wasn’t even half of the journey. From 8 a.m. leaving Washington, it took a total of 26 hours of traveling. Well, 5 in-flight movies, 4 bad airplane meals, 3 different flights from 3 separate airports, 2 different baggage claims, 1 stiff back and countless crying babies later, I made it at 7:30 p.m the following day. Truthfully though, it wasn’t that bad.
Sure, it was long, super long, especially when you can’t sleep because a) my internal clock was (is) 9 1/2 hours behind (the 14 hour flight to Delhi arrived at 5 a.m. EST) and b) I have never had to sit more upright in a chair before. And sure, airplane food is bad, especially when two of your flights are Air India, where they serve, well, bad Indian food that I didn’t know what any of it was. But other than that, there wasn’t much to complain about.
I mean the Indira Gandhi Airport in Delhi was nicer than any airport i have been to. Seriously, it was big, clean, and modern. Unfortunately, after clearing customs I did not have much time to explore, but countless nice restaurants, easy to follow signs, wide, comfy waiting terminals, clean bathrooms (with toilets), and people willing to help. Compared to JFK, this place was night and day. And the same goes for the Airport in Bangalore. Modern, clean, and organized. The flights, too, were pretty standard, with In-flight entertainment with new movies, Foxcatcher and the Imitation Game were good, plus the plane from Delhi to Bangalore seemed brand new. I thought, If this is what the rest of India was like, this trip shouldn’t be too bad. Unfortunately, from what I know about India and my quick night in Bangalore, it’s not the case.
Unlike the US, where almost everyone has or will be on a plane in their lifetime, flying in India is a privilege reserved for the rich. The images we’ve all seen of largely overcrowded trains traveling the Indian countryside is a more realistic view of Indian transportation. Yeah, the airports are nice and clean, but only because planes are expensive. The rest of India, the 1.2 billion people, they’d be lucky to ever step foot in an airport. What the airports confirmed for me was what I’ve known all along and what makes India an interesting country, disparity.
A country that is both extremely modern and extremely poor at the same time. It was apparent as soon as I left the airport in Bangalore. The long road into the city flanked on both sides by, from what I could tell, slums. This is a theme I’m sure I’ll be seeing more of over the next 8 weeks. But by the time I got to where I’ll be living, I was tired, jet-lagged, and needed sleep bad. I mustered up enough energy to grab my first Indian meal with two volunteers from Daya named Rijo and Nikhil. They took me to a local place just down to street. I ate some flat flaky bread (some type of naan) to dip in a delicious sauce, and fried chicken which I recently learned it’s referred to as a kebab, very unlike what we know a kebab as, and a local Bangalorean treat (I was too tired to take pictures or remember the names).
I have yet to grasp India, which I’m sure I never will. For now, sleep.
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