Hey fam, So from now until mid-December I am in Varanasi, India, studying abroad. Some of you said you would enjoy seeing my video blogs. I will be posting them in this thread. This means that I'm officially letting go of my LB anonymity, and I'm okay with that, because if someone really wanted to know who I was, if they tried hard enough they could find me. Anonymity is strange, because it's like hiding from the truth... Anyways, I have no desire to hide from the truth. Quite the opposite, actually. I hope to show some truth of the experience that many people have in this part of the world to bring more global awareness. In these videos you will likely see things you are not used to seeing. Please do not be quick to judge. Instead, please take time to think about what you are seeing and hearing in my videos. If you ever have any questions, post them in this thread, or private message me. I am also very open to suggestions on how to improve my videos, on what to make a video about, or anything else.
Good video. It gives a an accurate sense of a typical Indian city. I've been to India four times, quite a ways south and east of your location. How did you end up there for your studies? I think a video showing the startling contrast in big Indian cities between the richest and the poorest would be interesting. There are rich and poor in every city, but in most places they are in completely different areas of the city. In my experience in India you might see a 5 star hotel and a block away a shanty town.
I was pretty shocked to see that the city and people in these Indian areas seem to be even poorer than most of the Jamaican cities I had went to. That's saying a lot because the culture shock of when I moved to Jamaica and saw how some people were living was disturbing to me
Reminds me of Ecuador. Wasn't unusual to see a family of 5 riding on a moped. Didn't see cows on the side of the road, but stray dogs were everywhere. Great video. Thanks for sharing.
I like that idea! I'll keep it in mind. I ended up in India for a number of reasons.. The first being that my sister came here 2 years ago to study, and it dramatically changed her. India has always seemed interesting for what I had heard about gender roles, religion, caste system, food, and Bollywood. Now that I'm here, all of those interests have been fulfilled. There are very few women on the street, and when they are, they are rarely without the company of a man, unless it's an old woman. The religion, mythology and religious philosophy is very interesting. Definitely worth reading about. Caste system is becoming more fluid, but it's very hard to mobilize your social class. Actually, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the son of a Chai Wallah. The food has been delicious for every single meal - I'm eating pure vegetarian here (no eggs, but I do eat dairy). Healthy, diverse, and delicious. The media has also been interesting. Bollywood is fun but strange. It seems like they just bust out the films with little thought to story development. They are usually 3 hour films with about 5 music videos that help shape the plot. Very over-dramatized. There is an extremely noticeable beauty standard of "fair" skin. All models are light skinned, but the majority of the people I see have skin darker than those models. It's strange. It's been a very good experience so far. I'm still struggling with Hindi, and the language is easily the biggest barrier, but I'll keep at it.
Thanks for sharing. I think it's great at your age to get some real extended cross cultural experience. The gender thing is radically different there. For instance, if you eat in a typical Indian home as an invited guest you will only be sharing your meal with the male head of household and perhaps his sons. The wife and daughters will typically eat apart in the kitchen and only after serving the meal. Hinduism is a fascinating religion which has had a significant subtle influence on western culture in the last generation so it's worth learning a bit about. The only thing I would suggest is to keep in mind the fruit of the tree. In other words, the society you see around you is largely a product of the religion. There is a reason (Karma) that no one who remains true to Hinduism makes any effort to help the tragically poor there. The caste system is now illegal there, but far from dead in actual practice. Almost all of the super rich in India are Brahmin. The Untouchables still suffer unimaginably. Western influences have helped alleviate this to some degree. I enjoy the food there as well, for the most part. A few exceptions like when my host family served me French Toast (what they call Bread Omelet) without butter and syrup but with Ketchup (because Ketchup goes with eggs in their perspective), or when my host treated me to a vendor selling ice cream sandwiches which was a thin slice of cheap ice cream in between two slices of white bread... literally an ice cream sandwich. I applaud you for learning some Hindi. Something I never managed to do.
Yes, this is true of my household. Another interesting gender performance is that about 99% of women still wear sarees (traditional Indian clothing for married women), while almost every man under 50 years old wear a button-up shirt. Yes, it definitely is. I will keep that in mind. Hinduism mythology is very interesting to me for the theology and philosophy, and for the gender roles. Obviously there is much more to learn, though. I am particularly interested in the stories of Ram and Sita. Do you know much about this? Also, the last name of people allow others to know their caste. There is still quite a bit of child labor. Every day on my walk to school, I pass by at least 10 families with about 4 kids each who all sleep outside and it seems like they hang out there all day. Today, I was walking to school when I had an interesting experience with a beggar. I was walking on the left side of the road, and a woman and her daughter on the other side, walking the same direction. The mother saw us light-skinned folks, and nudged her daughter to come beg. She said something to me in Hindi - most likely asking for money - and started walking directly about a foot in front of me, slightly to my side. I tried to outpace her, but she kept up pace. Suddenly, she slipped on cow poop and fell to the ground pretty hard. It happened so fast that I nearly stepped on her. She started crying immediately, so I turned around and picked her up to her feet by her armpits as her mother came over. I then turned around and didn't look back. Interesting experience, I wonder what she and her mother thought of me picking her up. I also wonder what it will be like if I see the girl again. That's really funny. I think that Western food that they want to copy ends up being terrible. I had a donut today, and it was basically bread with chocolate frosting on top. But traditional Indian food is so incredibly good. No bad poops so far! I am not doing so well. Language is a difficult barrier! Today, I got my face shaved by a barber. It ended up taking about 15 minutes to do a simple shave, and he ended up trimming my whole face, including my mustache, even though I tried to communicate through body language that I wanted to keep my mustache. After he trimmed my mustache, I drew a picture of a person with a mustache before he shaved it all of, lol. So @TIME where have you been in India? I have a 5 day Independent travel that I am trying to figure out how to spend.
Good stories! All of my trips have been to the same location. I was visiting an orphanage that my church financially supports and teaching at conferences my host organized. I typically fly into Chennai down south. Then it's a 7 hour train ride up the east coast to Vijayawada in Andra Pradesh. Then about an hour by car to a smaller town Gannavaram. I've never done any extra sight seeing other than what I gained from necessary travel. If you have 5 days then I would recommend a train trip which allows you to see the country. Buy a ticket in the air conditioned car. The seats are decently comfortable, the air is semi-cool and they have food vendors roaming the aisles.
@FreeThePeople, sorry, I'm not familiar with Goa. Cool cow video. Lot's of good karma for you there for feeding such a hungry god.
