I found this journal entry with my old Semester at Sea stuff. It is such a great reflection of the few brief days I spent in India back in 2004, and shocking how insightful someone can be at 21. It's long, but worth reading. I just can't wait to go back...
3-14-04
This is the morning of our last day in India, and I can’t even express what I’m feeling about this country. It was the best experience of my life to see these people and how they live. We stayed with the nicest family in Erode that were so open and welcoming to us that they treated us like family. It is custom in their culture to treat guests like gods. I suppose in the US we do that a little bit, like we always take out the good silver when guests come, but the attitude is so much different. In the US we do it because we want to put our best foot forward and you don’t want to show your guests how you really live or how you really act. In India they treated guests with respect for a different reason. It’s hard to express what that reason is other than to say that they treated us like gods in their house. But they didn’t do it by offering us things and giving us the best facilities and stuff like that, they did it with their attitude. 
Also, Pavihra, our host, told us a lot about the Hindu tradition and how they live their lives. Simone and I kept saying that it felt so right the way that they think and they way that they live. It was just such a drastic change to my attitude about American culture. Crystal and I always have conversations about what’s wrong with our culture and that the way everyone thinks is so messed up. As much as I think Americans have it wrong, I believe Hindus have it right. Every morning they wake up and pray to nature, to the sun for giving them light, to the plants for giving them food, to the animals for helping them do their work. They pray for rain every morning because it hasn’t rained in 4 years and they are in a serious drought. The appreciate everything that they have. They use cows for plowing fields and getting milk and once a year they have a week long festival to honor the cows. 
Pavithra told us about how they paint the horns of the cows, give them oil massages, feed them sugar and all the best foods that they have , and the cows don’t work at all in order to show them how much they appreciate their contribution to their survival. In the US, people who feel this way are automatically labeled a hippy or a tree hugger, and it doesn’t make any sense. These people are happy living the way they do, with little material possession, and still they are thankful for everything they do have. Also, they recycle everything, but not in the manner that we are accustomed to. They literally utilize every part of everything they own. We visited a farm where they use the cow shit and put it in huge tubs where they somehow collect all the methane gas to be used as fuel in their house. It’s used for heating lamps, stoves, and stuff like that. After they’re done taking the gas out, they use it as fertilizer on their fields. They also use cow dung to spread across the dirt because it cools it down. So basically, they take the manure, which is basically given to them for free, and use it to heat and light their home, and grow their crops. AND, they recognize that it would not be possible without that cow, and they praise him for it. Unlike Muslims, they don’t think the cow is sacred or anything like that, they just appreciate them. It’s funny because in school growing up, they taught us about the crazy religions around the world and how they worship cows. It sounded so ridiculous that everyone laughed and didn’t think twice about the fact that it’s a real culture. From the youngest age in America we are taught that our way is the ONLY way to do things, and that if someone is doing something differently it’s because they aren’t as smart or don’t have enough money. Even though I was always much more aware of this I’m just starting to really realize that the people I’ve seen are truly happy and that none of them would trade their life to live in the US. I don’t think I would if I was in their shoes. Anyway, there’s more to this lifestyle. They don’t consider Hinduism a religion. One woman we talked to was almost offended when someone in our group asked about the “Hindu religion.” She clarified that it is merely a way of life. It just makes so much sense. When you follow a religion it is something that is separate from the rest of your life. In the US people go to church on Sundays and then forget it the rest of the week. I remember back to Sunday school when the priest would always tell us to live each day like it was our last and like Jesus would come again tomorrow. The problem with this is that they never showed us how to do that. Religion was completely separate from the rest of your life. Hinduism is an attitude towards life. It’s a holistic way of living that makes so much sense that I can’t put it into words. When we went to the school the first morning the children were all doing prayers to the different gods, thanking them for the day and for the opportunities and good things in their lives. These children were like 10 years old, and they had a better mindset than any American adult I’ve ever met. Another thing about it is that we are also taught that they have hundreds of gods in the shapes of elephants and things with 10 arms and such. Hearing this stuff as a little kid is obviously going to be humorous. I remember just thinking it was a big joke and that these people are idiots for thinking that such things exist that that they actually pray to them. The problem is that no one actually said that these religions are stupid and the people that follow them are stupid, but they presented them in a way that made us not take it seriously. This just perpetrates the notion that the way we do things is so much better, and that these other people are just stupid elephant worshipers. Geetha explained to us on our last night with them that there are so many gods because each person has so many different sides. She was explaining that to her children, she is a mother, and they will never understand her as a wife or a sister just as her husband will never understand the mothering instinct. We all play different roles in life. We act one way around our friends, and must play a different role at school and at work and around your family. You must act like a good sister and a good wife and a good employee and a good student and because there are so many facets of your life, there is a different deity to in charge of each facet. She showed us 5 gods and I don’t remember what all of them were but the first was one that removes obstacles from your life. These obstacles may be physical, emotional, mental, anything. I can’t remember what any of the specific gods did, but it makes a lot of sense to go to different gods with different problems, just as you would go to different people to help you with different problems. I wouldn’t go to my parents to help me with sexual stuff just as I wouldn’t really go to Crystal to help me with money stuff. It just makes sense. I’m not saying that the one god way of doing it doesn’t make sense, this way just does too.
They made an effort to show us the amount of time and energy that they put into relationships. They value family above everything. They treat cousins as brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles as they would their parents. In fact, a lot of the time they call their cousins brothers and Pavithra called her aunt “big mother” in Tamil. They usually have like 20 people living in one house. This stuff wasn’t as striking to me for some reason…maybe because I already knew about that, and it wasn’t surprising.
We visited a school where I was just blown away with the intelligence of these children. Education is so wonderful in India it just blew me away. They start showing children how to use the computer when they’re 5 and they start learning basic programming when they’re 8. We walked into a computer class where they were writing in these little school books. I think these kids were about 11 or maybe 12. They let us look through their papers and honestly, I had no idea what they were learning about…different names of screens that pop up like the F2 screen and stuff like that. Pretty much every kid when we asked them what they wanted to do when they grew up said “computer engineer.” It blew my mind. These kids were learning biology of the body and chemistry and physics at an age when Americans are still learning where the states are. I really had no idea about their or our educational system. In the states when I tell people that I’m a math major people are so surprised, as if it’s like the hardest thing in the world, and here are these 10 year olds who are better at physics, chemistry, and math than I am. It’s just so wild that our system is so dumbed down. Ian, from UK was telling us that when he moved to the US during his freshman year of high school that he was learning the same stuff that he learned in 6th grade in Britain. I think internationally, the Americans are the huge joke. We think we’re all hot shit, but really the rest of the world is laughing at us. I don’t really know what to think about this except that when I have kids, guaranteed, they will not grow up in the US. I really don’t know where I would want to live, and moving away from family and friends would be hard, but the US is so opposite of everything I stand for and believe in. I like nice things and I like money, but it’s just not worth it. We are ignorant, stupid, selfish, and ungrateful…it’s sick. Also, about being ignorant. Some kids from the school met us back at Pavithra’s house and were asking us questions and stuff. I told a 10 year old that I live in Colorado where there are mountains and snow. She replied with “That’s very nice. It hasn’t rained here in 4 years. It’s a very bad drought. We have to use water very carefully so that it can last a long time.” It blew my mind that his child not only understood what a drought was, but how it affected her. These kids are taught the way that the world really works instead of shapes and letters like in the US. We read fantasy books when we’re young about Spot and Nancy Drew. These kids are learning about global climate and policy.
Pavithra was talking with us on the bus about Bush and how hypocritical our government is in the international realm. She was telling us about how when India was fighting Pakistan the US refused to get involved because it was a petty, unnecessary conflict. At that point, the conflict was over Kashmire. Recently, there was news that Bin Laden was hiding out in Kashmire, so the US immediately got involved in order to try and catch him. It was amazing because I didn’t know anything about this. I know that I’m not the most informed person, but I do try to read and know about what is going on. It just made me realize how little I know, and how stupid I felt not knowing the actions of the US government globally. But we were also saying that it’s impossible to know everything that’s going on because our government is so good at covering everything up and sugar coating issues so that no one really knows what’s going on, so no one can really start any trouble. It’s just so sad because I feel uneducated and ignorant, but I know more than most Americans. It just keeps coming back to the fact that Americans are the laughing stock of the world.
I guess I don’t know what to think about it all. I hate feeling this way towards my country especially because I have such a good life. I have food, clothing, shelter, and so much more. I am so lucky to have been born into a good life where I don’t have to worry about how I’m going to eat or how I’m going to survive. I have enough money to go to school and become educated, but the freedom to not do that if I wanted. I just feel like it’s not enough. The attitude towards life isn’t there. I’m not saying that I want to be hindu because I don’t. I wouldn’t be happy, and it wouldn’t be real. But there’s no reason why I can’t apply some of these attitudes towards my life. It’s so hard to recondition yourself, and I know that as soon as I get back, I’m going to be sucked back into American culture, but maybe I can bring back a little of the attitude that I’ve learned here. Hopefully making a difference in the lives of people around me. The children that came and talked to us that one night kept saying “Don’t forget us…don’t be forgetting us.” I can honestly say that I will never forget them or my experience in their country.
3-14-04
This is the morning of our last day in India, and I can’t even express what I’m feeling about this country. It was the best experience of my life to see these people and how they live. We stayed with the nicest family in Erode that were so open and welcoming to us that they treated us like family. It is custom in their culture to treat guests like gods. I suppose in the US we do that a little bit, like we always take out the good silver when guests come, but the attitude is so much different. In the US we do it because we want to put our best foot forward and you don’t want to show your guests how you really live or how you really act. In India they treated guests with respect for a different reason. It’s hard to express what that reason is other than to say that they treated us like gods in their house. But they didn’t do it by offering us things and giving us the best facilities and stuff like that, they did it with their attitude. 
Also, Pavihra, our host, told us a lot about the Hindu tradition and how they live their lives. Simone and I kept saying that it felt so right the way that they think and they way that they live. It was just such a drastic change to my attitude about American culture. Crystal and I always have conversations about what’s wrong with our culture and that the way everyone thinks is so messed up. As much as I think Americans have it wrong, I believe Hindus have it right. Every morning they wake up and pray to nature, to the sun for giving them light, to the plants for giving them food, to the animals for helping them do their work. They pray for rain every morning because it hasn’t rained in 4 years and they are in a serious drought. The appreciate everything that they have. They use cows for plowing fields and getting milk and once a year they have a week long festival to honor the cows. 
Pavithra told us about how they paint the horns of the cows, give them oil massages, feed them sugar and all the best foods that they have , and the cows don’t work at all in order to show them how much they appreciate their contribution to their survival. In the US, people who feel this way are automatically labeled a hippy or a tree hugger, and it doesn’t make any sense. These people are happy living the way they do, with little material possession, and still they are thankful for everything they do have. Also, they recycle everything, but not in the manner that we are accustomed to. They literally utilize every part of everything they own. We visited a farm where they use the cow shit and put it in huge tubs where they somehow collect all the methane gas to be used as fuel in their house. It’s used for heating lamps, stoves, and stuff like that. After they’re done taking the gas out, they use it as fertilizer on their fields. They also use cow dung to spread across the dirt because it cools it down. So basically, they take the manure, which is basically given to them for free, and use it to heat and light their home, and grow their crops. AND, they recognize that it would not be possible without that cow, and they praise him for it. Unlike Muslims, they don’t think the cow is sacred or anything like that, they just appreciate them. It’s funny because in school growing up, they taught us about the crazy religions around the world and how they worship cows. It sounded so ridiculous that everyone laughed and didn’t think twice about the fact that it’s a real culture. From the youngest age in America we are taught that our way is the ONLY way to do things, and that if someone is doing something differently it’s because they aren’t as smart or don’t have enough money. Even though I was always much more aware of this I’m just starting to really realize that the people I’ve seen are truly happy and that none of them would trade their life to live in the US. I don’t think I would if I was in their shoes. Anyway, there’s more to this lifestyle. They don’t consider Hinduism a religion. One woman we talked to was almost offended when someone in our group asked about the “Hindu religion.” She clarified that it is merely a way of life. It just makes so much sense. When you follow a religion it is something that is separate from the rest of your life. In the US people go to church on Sundays and then forget it the rest of the week. I remember back to Sunday school when the priest would always tell us to live each day like it was our last and like Jesus would come again tomorrow. The problem with this is that they never showed us how to do that. Religion was completely separate from the rest of your life. Hinduism is an attitude towards life. It’s a holistic way of living that makes so much sense that I can’t put it into words. When we went to the school the first morning the children were all doing prayers to the different gods, thanking them for the day and for the opportunities and good things in their lives. These children were like 10 years old, and they had a better mindset than any American adult I’ve ever met. Another thing about it is that we are also taught that they have hundreds of gods in the shapes of elephants and things with 10 arms and such. Hearing this stuff as a little kid is obviously going to be humorous. I remember just thinking it was a big joke and that these people are idiots for thinking that such things exist that that they actually pray to them. The problem is that no one actually said that these religions are stupid and the people that follow them are stupid, but they presented them in a way that made us not take it seriously. This just perpetrates the notion that the way we do things is so much better, and that these other people are just stupid elephant worshipers. Geetha explained to us on our last night with them that there are so many gods because each person has so many different sides. She was explaining that to her children, she is a mother, and they will never understand her as a wife or a sister just as her husband will never understand the mothering instinct. We all play different roles in life. We act one way around our friends, and must play a different role at school and at work and around your family. You must act like a good sister and a good wife and a good employee and a good student and because there are so many facets of your life, there is a different deity to in charge of each facet. She showed us 5 gods and I don’t remember what all of them were but the first was one that removes obstacles from your life. These obstacles may be physical, emotional, mental, anything. I can’t remember what any of the specific gods did, but it makes a lot of sense to go to different gods with different problems, just as you would go to different people to help you with different problems. I wouldn’t go to my parents to help me with sexual stuff just as I wouldn’t really go to Crystal to help me with money stuff. It just makes sense. I’m not saying that the one god way of doing it doesn’t make sense, this way just does too.They made an effort to show us the amount of time and energy that they put into relationships. They value family above everything. They treat cousins as brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles as they would their parents. In fact, a lot of the time they call their cousins brothers and Pavithra called her aunt “big mother” in Tamil. They usually have like 20 people living in one house. This stuff wasn’t as striking to me for some reason…maybe because I already knew about that, and it wasn’t surprising.
We visited a school where I was just blown away with the intelligence of these children. Education is so wonderful in India it just blew me away. They start showing children how to use the computer when they’re 5 and they start learning basic programming when they’re 8. We walked into a computer class where they were writing in these little school books. I think these kids were about 11 or maybe 12. They let us look through their papers and honestly, I had no idea what they were learning about…different names of screens that pop up like the F2 screen and stuff like that. Pretty much every kid when we asked them what they wanted to do when they grew up said “computer engineer.” It blew my mind. These kids were learning biology of the body and chemistry and physics at an age when Americans are still learning where the states are. I really had no idea about their or our educational system. In the states when I tell people that I’m a math major people are so surprised, as if it’s like the hardest thing in the world, and here are these 10 year olds who are better at physics, chemistry, and math than I am. It’s just so wild that our system is so dumbed down. Ian, from UK was telling us that when he moved to the US during his freshman year of high school that he was learning the same stuff that he learned in 6th grade in Britain. I think internationally, the Americans are the huge joke. We think we’re all hot shit, but really the rest of the world is laughing at us. I don’t really know what to think about this except that when I have kids, guaranteed, they will not grow up in the US. I really don’t know where I would want to live, and moving away from family and friends would be hard, but the US is so opposite of everything I stand for and believe in. I like nice things and I like money, but it’s just not worth it. We are ignorant, stupid, selfish, and ungrateful…it’s sick. Also, about being ignorant. Some kids from the school met us back at Pavithra’s house and were asking us questions and stuff. I told a 10 year old that I live in Colorado where there are mountains and snow. She replied with “That’s very nice. It hasn’t rained here in 4 years. It’s a very bad drought. We have to use water very carefully so that it can last a long time.” It blew my mind that his child not only understood what a drought was, but how it affected her. These kids are taught the way that the world really works instead of shapes and letters like in the US. We read fantasy books when we’re young about Spot and Nancy Drew. These kids are learning about global climate and policy.Pavithra was talking with us on the bus about Bush and how hypocritical our government is in the international realm. She was telling us about how when India was fighting Pakistan the US refused to get involved because it was a petty, unnecessary conflict. At that point, the conflict was over Kashmire. Recently, there was news that Bin Laden was hiding out in Kashmire, so the US immediately got involved in order to try and catch him. It was amazing because I didn’t know anything about this. I know that I’m not the most informed person, but I do try to read and know about what is going on. It just made me realize how little I know, and how stupid I felt not knowing the actions of the US government globally. But we were also saying that it’s impossible to know everything that’s going on because our government is so good at covering everything up and sugar coating issues so that no one really knows what’s going on, so no one can really start any trouble. It’s just so sad because I feel uneducated and ignorant, but I know more than most Americans. It just keeps coming back to the fact that Americans are the laughing stock of the world.
I guess I don’t know what to think about it all. I hate feeling this way towards my country especially because I have such a good life. I have food, clothing, shelter, and so much more. I am so lucky to have been born into a good life where I don’t have to worry about how I’m going to eat or how I’m going to survive. I have enough money to go to school and become educated, but the freedom to not do that if I wanted. I just feel like it’s not enough. The attitude towards life isn’t there. I’m not saying that I want to be hindu because I don’t. I wouldn’t be happy, and it wouldn’t be real. But there’s no reason why I can’t apply some of these attitudes towards my life. It’s so hard to recondition yourself, and I know that as soon as I get back, I’m going to be sucked back into American culture, but maybe I can bring back a little of the attitude that I’ve learned here. Hopefully making a difference in the lives of people around me. The children that came and talked to us that one night kept saying “Don’t forget us…don’t be forgetting us.” I can honestly say that I will never forget them or my experience in their country.
