India Reflections - by Ameya

India Reflections by Ameya 
Monday, March 19, 8:15 pm. 

We made it to Mussoorie. After a 4:45 am wakeup call, a bustling Tuk Tuk ride in the dark to the New Delhi train station, a six-hour train trek through the colorful countryside, and a quite sketchy-feeling bus journey up 90 degree winding streets from the town of Dehradun, we are finally 7000 ft into the Himalaya foothills at the Hanifl Center. Today has been quite the adventure, and the green, echoing, never-ending and natural environment that the Himalayas provides has seemed to push us into reflection as we look back onto how our new environment plays a stark contrast to the colorful, bustling, effervescent encounters and constant culture doses that defined our week in Delhi. We are definitely far from the home we made at the STOPS hostel, and we are even further away from our homes in Portland.

On our last night in Delhi, Dave gathered us around the communal kitchen counter at STOPS and asked us two things: (1) In the short amount of time that we’ve spent in the city, what are some takeaways (even if generalized)? and (2) what are things we are still curious about or frustrated/struggling with? In the past week, for me, I’ve come to realize the value of walking into new experiences in India with absolutely no expectations or presumptions. In short: things are usually not as they seem. The most obvious and materialistic experience being the intricate white marble temple with a four-part Disneyland-like education experience inside. In terms of things I am struggling with, I think the most prevalent issue is the equity divide exemplified within the culture of Delhi itself and between our lifestyles at home and across the spectrum of what life is like in India. On the bus ride back from Agra, Ibrahim and I reflected on how overwhelming our first steps out of the Delhi airport were, it was a senses overload with new colors, sights, sounds, smells, and smog. The first day was the most culturally and socially frustrating. For me, apart from the extremely unnerving wealth divide, the issue of gender and the binary culture of gender overwhelmingly represented throughout Delhi society was what frustrated and fascinated me the most. Gendered security, gendered lines, gendered train cars, gendered dress, and gendered advertisements everywhere.

I brought two books with me on this trip, and one is The Gender Gap. A sociology book, it reflects on how the ideals of “boy” and “girl” came to be and explores the effects of this binary and how our stereotype-ridden culture can be negatively pervasive to the development of children and how even the idea of “raising boys and girls the same way” is flawed because of its establishment of a binary system. As I have gotten older, I have become fascinated with the structure of gender and the binary culture in America. It has been frustrating and fascinating to be in a culture where the idea of “what a man and woman should be” feels omnipresent. Where and how are gender politics developed? Why is it that American sociologists are tackling the gender binary? What is it about society that enables dialogue and debate about gender?

India has been a constant awakening to new experiences and constantly pushes us all outside of our comfort zones in formative ways. However, as new, exciting, and sometimes overwhelming that the trip has been, I have also shocked myself by how fast and easy it has been to naturalize into the very different culture that is Delhi and India in general. Bargaining has become easier, I feel myself becoming desensitized to seeing poverty, and the constant noise has become, almost, comforting.
—Ameya