Oh, East is East and West is West , and never the twain shall meet, Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God’s great Judgment Seat.
---from Rudyard Kipling’s The Ballad of East and West.
Born in Mumbai and raised with Hindi as his first language, Kipling was a credible judge of the relationship between the Eastern and Western ends of the earth. To be sure, there are more divisions in the world than East and West, but in the crossing of one such line, I hope to gain a much greater understanding of why separation exists and how to bridge it. There is just something so….magical about India that appealed to me in first hearing about this study abroad opportunity. After having fallen in love with sociology in my Intro class, I knew that studying this country under Dr. Stepnck was a once in a lifetime chance. This class combines sociology with photography, which is an art form that I have always dreamed of exploring. In fact, I always promised myself that I would take a photography course once I got to college, but I never dreamed that it would look anything like this! I expect my experiences on this trip to be another huge step in the personal growth that has been taking place since my time at Belmont University. Since transferring to Belmont, God has revealed to me my heart for human rights and social justice, as well as the career path by which I can best thrive in His will. In the same way that I had no idea what I was in for in August of 2007, I cannot even dream what to anticipate from this time in India.
In India, I look forward to having my mind BLOWN. I expect to see and learn things that I have never even imagined with my own upbringing. I hope to gain a deeper appreciation for different cultures and paradigms. I want to understand more deeply how the components of culture, such as food and dance and dress and religion, all interact to form different worldviews.
In anticipation of this trip, Marti and I have visited Sitar Indian Restaurant an unacceptable number of times. We learned to prepare an Indian feast of our own, which is not complete without some outrageous dessert such as Gulab Jamuns or Petha Halwa (a Northern delicacy…a pudding made with white pumpkin that would stun you). I have also tried very hard to adjust my body clock to India time, knowing that my body does not adjust well to such changes. And we will not think about how much money spent on my camera!
This trip is very telling about who I am. It directly parallels my passion for discovering other cultures which has brought me so much joy over the past year. Since my eyes have been opened to the colorful, diverse world that exists around what I have always been shown, my hunger is growing to proportions that I expect will never be satiated.