Travelogue: Goodbye to India
I said my farewells to India today. Riding in the taxi on the way to the airport, the kaleidoscope of scenes that make up the last two weeks rushes through my mind. In it I see the sun-baked earth and rice paddied fields. The endless sky and colors so vibrant.
I want to avoid the tragic descriptions of the children with exposed and bloated bellies that bathe in the streets of a city as large and metropolitan as Calcutta. I also want to avoid the florid descriptions of women both young and old with vermillion in their parts that balance their grocery bags on their heads as gracefully as they make their way through throngs of people, animal cars, and rickshaws. But I can't. It was no country of pity, but what I saw was disjointed, awful, and wonderful.
I won’t be writing as much while in Thailand because I’ll no longer be traveling alone. It may take me a day or two to learn to converse again as it seems an eternity since I’ve had an exchange lasting longer than a few words. I feel as though I’ve been losing my mind here without anything remotely familiar. I’ve missed my language, nationality…. Identity. I’ve been the most stripped down version of myself I’ve ever been. It’s been an eye-opening trip. I suppose sometimes you just have to let go of all your crutches (friends, family, material belongings) for a couple of weeks to remind you that you can. I look forward to doing this for an entire year someday when I’m less of a weakling. For now, I’m bursting with excitement as I move on to brighter shores.
I want to avoid the tragic descriptions of the children with exposed and bloated bellies that bathe in the streets of a city as large and metropolitan as Calcutta. I also want to avoid the florid descriptions of women both young and old with vermillion in their parts that balance their grocery bags on their heads as gracefully as they make their way through throngs of people, animal cars, and rickshaws. But I can't. It was no country of pity, but what I saw was disjointed, awful, and wonderful.
I won’t be writing as much while in Thailand because I’ll no longer be traveling alone. It may take me a day or two to learn to converse again as it seems an eternity since I’ve had an exchange lasting longer than a few words. I feel as though I’ve been losing my mind here without anything remotely familiar. I’ve missed my language, nationality…. Identity. I’ve been the most stripped down version of myself I’ve ever been. It’s been an eye-opening trip. I suppose sometimes you just have to let go of all your crutches (friends, family, material belongings) for a couple of weeks to remind you that you can. I look forward to doing this for an entire year someday when I’m less of a weakling. For now, I’m bursting with excitement as I move on to brighter shores.
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