Friends in High Places

I've been in India over two weeks, and the culture shock has faded. I spent the last leg of my tour of India in a city called Mangalore (not Bangalore, but close), spending one night with a Catholic family and one night with a Hindu family, and visiting temples and churches and various other monuments. The Catholic family took me to this Hindu temple-the largest in Mangalore, and I felt like I was at Disney World on steroids. All of the buildings were painted in gold, and huge statues of different gods and goddesses stood in different temples. There was a lagoon area with fake animals all around, and did I mention lots and lots of gold? Apparently a wedding was ready to take place, and there must have been 2000 plastic chairs set up facing a huge stage decorated in lights and with flowers. Everything was bright colors and gold, and I was quite overwhelmed. Loud music was playing as families strolled through the temple buildings, bowing to gods that looked part animal and part human. That was a bit of culture shock for me, as I've never seen anything like it before :-)

Back in Delhi I feel like an absolute VIP, and this week I have met with Ministers including an aid to the Prime Minister, I've meet with Members of Parliament, the Archbishop of Delhi, the Director of the National Art Museum, and yesterday Sandeep and I got a tour of the history museum from the Director of the museum, and got to see a Faberge egg collection on tour from Russia! I've been exhausted but it's incredible the insight I've gotten for my case study. The media really has gotten much of this topic completely wrong or just surface level, and it makes me really question a lot of what the media says in general.

India is such a complex place, and it is amazing that such diverse and passionate people can live together more or less harmoniously. Everyone I meet is quick to point out that wonderful piece of Indian culture.

Tomorrow I go to Jaipur and Agra to visit some famous sites there, including the Taj Mahal. This week has been very busy and my brain is starting to hurt, but fortunately I think next week will be a bit more relaxed. I am so thankful to my gracious friends here who have gone completely out of their way to set up some incredible opportunities for me. My thoughts and prayers are with everyone back home!