India #1: New Delhi, Gurgaon, Lucknow

I’m currently entering the second week of a three-week trip to India.  I hadn’t mentioned it here before and wasn’t planning on it for several different reasons, but some of those reasons have faded.  You’ll understand more if you can translate and read between the lines.

I’m here with friends Eric Zeller, Nathan Gunter, and Siona Savini.  This trip was conceived as an individual trip to see my younger brother in Delhi, and it slowly morphed into a group trip visiting four separate cities and multiple friends.  We’re spending time with the Smith’s in Lucknow, visiting and speaking at several training institutes in Bangalore, and spending most of our time with my brother and the Malakar’s in Delhi along with their NGO and local body.

I met up with Eric and Nathan in Chicago last Thursday for the fourteen-hour flight into New Delhi.  We slept, talked, and studied, since we’re all speaking multiple times.  Halfway into the flight they called for a physician, and a woman got up from a few rows behind us and walked up the aisle to a man a few rows in front of us.  After looking at him for a few minutes, they put a blanket over his head.  Nathan and I began thinking he might be dead, but thought there would be more commotion if that were the case.  We made no emergency landing, but grew increasing suspiciously.  Everyone was calm, and at one point, the male attendant stopped and asked under his breath if we could keep our observations under wraps because some people might get concerned.  Upon arrival it was confirmed to us (though not publicly) that he had died midflight, so they had leaned him up against the window and covered him.

After deplaning we approached the “Health Check” and I inadvertently coughed right in front of the man behind the desk.  He instantly went into action, checking my pulse and asking me about other symptoms.  They had me get out of line and sit down, and they took my temperature.  I told them I’ve had a tickle in my throat since childhood, so small sporadic coughs are normal to me, but that doesn’t hold much weight when everyone’s (rightfully) concerned about H1N1.

We went through customs, grabbed our bags, exchanged money, purchased a SIM card, and hopped in a taxi to Hotel Le Seasons.  The pushy taxi-driver scene outside the airport wasn’t as bracing as I’m sure it is for most, because it reminded me of Egypt and even Uganda a bit.  These feelings of familiarity have been a significant part of the trip.  I’ve been told over and over again, even by seasoned travelers, that “India’s just so different, and you’ll be shocked,” but it hasn’t happened too much yet.  Perhaps I’m not in the right (sensitive) frame of mind, or just haven’t seen much yet.  I certainly know that the latter is true, though that changes the longer we’re here.  This is not to say that we haven’t seen any disturbing things yet.  But the disturbance isn’t entirely foreign.  Right now I’m thoroughly enjoying the experience.  We’ll see how the rest of the trip goes.

We enjoyed a surprisingly restful first night and awoke with a mid-day flight to catch and a few hours free in the morning.  We took a taxi to nearby Gurgaon, a very modern area with more large construction projects than I’ve ever seen in one area (though I wonder how many are on pause due to the economy) along with a peppering of massive malls.  They checked for bombs under the car with a wand sensor and an angled rolling mirror to slide under the vehicle, and we got plenty of looks as a group of white guys carrying oversized hiking packs through the mall before any of the shops were open.  As usual in more third-world countries, I was ashamed and angered by the Western influence in materialism, advertisements, and especially (im)modesty.

After visiting several malls, we headed to the domestic terminal to catch our one-hour flight east to Lucknow.  We met up with Siona there, grabbed Indian-flavored pizzas from Pizza Hut (we didn’t know the more traditional Indian food was around the corner), and hopped on our flight with Kingfisher airlines.  Kingfisher is a prominent beer company in India, and they’ve expanded into other areas such as the airline industry.  They’re distinguished by their solid red color scheme, high-quality service, and “personally selected” stewardesses wearing red skirts and outfits that look strikingly non-Indian (see the end of the previous paragraph).

Mid-flight I read five or six full pages of Friday’s edition of The Times of India.  The top story was the Delhi-area revision of Section 377, a legal decision that decriminalizes homosexual intercourse.  Page after colorful page of The Times touted this decision as a long-awaited stone through the window of antiquated traditional values.  In five or six pages I noted at most two brief columns representing the dissenting view, but these were dwarfed by celebrity quotes, parade pictures, and one-sided articles assuming that this is indisputably a step in the right direction.  The joke was that this ruling was the one thing that could unify Hindu, Muslim, and Christian leaders.

An hour after leaving Delhi we deplaned in Lucknow and walked several hundred yards across the tarmac in the robust North Indian heat.  We had a happy reunion with our old friend who spent several years working in Varanasi and has recently moved to Lucknow with his wife and daughter.  He asked which of us had been to India or a similar country, and put the least-experienced guy on the back of his motorcycle, with the rest of us in a pre-paid taxi.  It’s fun to be with someone that doesn’t just answer questions but actively seeks to give everyone the full experience.  We took off on the left side of the road and enjoyed the thirty-minute ride through typical Indian traffic — small cars, large trucks, pedal bikes, motor bikes, bicycle rickshaws, two-stroke auto rickshaws, and pedestrians of all ages walking along or across the street at all angles and with all manner of belongings and merchandise.

Our friends have been in Lucknow for less than a month, but have been in northern India for almost four years.  They have a good grasp on Hindi language, culture, and religion, which filled our two days with many hours of rich and insightful conversations and made it all the more enjoyable to observe their interactions with the people.  The culture is intertwined with Hinduism, and the religion’s combination of long-standing history, intricate development, philosophical diversity, and metaphysical depth quickly revealed its challenging and fascinating complexities.  As with the 750-foot-deep water table in the south, it takes a deep well of wisdom to draw it out.  We were blessed to be spending time with friends who are thoughtful, insightful, perceptive, well-studied, and articulate.

During our two days we took turns on the back of the motorcycle, ate local mango, took a risk with some sort of roadside betel nut wrap, visited a small leadership training center outside the city, paid the exorbitant ticket price for foreigners (20x) at the site of an Indian revolution for independence (The Residency, 1857), played as much as we could with their almost-three-year-old Indian daughter, and asked incessant questions about life and work in India.  I can’t imagine a more enjoyable or instructive time.  Before leaving on Sunday, we enjoyed a very meaningful time of singing and prayer, reminding us of the preciousness of fellowship.

We departed for Bangalore (southern India) with our hearts and minds full, ready to spend the next few days learning about leadership training methods at Asia Christian Academy, Baptist Seminary of South India, and Maranatha Baptist Bible College & Seminary.  I hope to give an update about this part of the trip in the next few days, pending our schedule.