Through my eyes

I went back to an old blog I used to maintain (and eventually forgot about) and picked out this piece about something close to my heart, travel.

India - an exotic land filled with tradition, culture and not to mention, the second largest population in the world. My recent trip to my native motherland brought about a roller coaster of emotions within me. I was surrounded by wealth, progress, the direct effects of globalisation and modernisation. And at the very same time, poverty, suffering and the absence of basic necessities.Travel through foreign lands leaves a thousand different memories, and true enough, my journey through the southern state of Tamil Nadu has left many vivid images in the mind. The ones that remain closest to my heart revolve around the little children of this vast land.Yes, I was incredibly touched by the faces of the young and innocent little beings who came my way. The culture shock was pretty apparent on my first day in India when I was approached by a young boy selling handmade beaded bags on the busy streets of Pondy Bazaar in Chennai. My first thoughts was, "Why is this young boy peddling on the street when he should be in school, where are his parents, why this, why that?" I was very disturbed. The realisation that this deprivation was the norm in India dawned on me. This was probably his chance at survival and a better life. It made me wonder about how we take for granted the luxuries back home.After visiting a few temples on our pilgrimage, I became accustomed to the many beggars who would crowd us asking for money. Most of them were women carrying their young babies. On one such occasion in Rameshwaram, a gypsy woman came running to us after we had completed our ritual bath in the ocean and wells of the sacred temple. She asked me for my old clothes and something about her sincerity in asking for clothes and not money, touched me, and I told her to wait for me while I showered and changed my clothes. When I did eventually go back to the same spot, she was waiting for me with her baby in her arms and as I handed her my old salwar, her baby gave me the most incrdible smile and reached out to touch me. How can one forget that cute little bubbly face? I was blessed by the woman to come back to Rameshwaram with my own bubbly baby soon. I went away feeling elated at the thought of bringing smiles to a few people. My day was made.It was the rainy season in Tamil Nadu and there was rain and floods everywhere. In the bleakness of the incessant rains, I caught glimpse of a young boy, 12 at most in age, carrying a little puppy and his face was a picture of joy and excitement. Another puppy rescue mission I witnessed in a temple Kanchipuram. This time a little gypsy girl carrying her little puppy away with that exact look of excitement. And I wondered, who rescued whom?Children will always be children, caste, creed, social status and all that BS do not mean anything to them. It was so evident when I caught sight of a little gypsy boy in Chidambaram. He looked absolutely comfortable wearing no clothes at all, playing with a stach of empty match boxes. And what was he doing? Lining them up to form a train and pushing them along the floors of the temple courtyard but careful as well not lose sight of his family close by. And one thought ran through my mind, "My little 3 year old back home does the same thing with anything he lands his hands on, bags, boxes, baskets - they all form little choo choo trains. And here, in a far off land, is this little boy who has the same idea. Children have the most untainted minds and how I wish they could remain that way."Travel makes a person grow, mentally and emotionally. It opens your eyes to the basic fact that we are not alone on earth, we share it with people from many other lands filled with many other cultures. And travel leaves these beautiful mental images in our minds and hearts.