Life After India

I returned home from India a week and a half ago now, and have quickly been thrown back into normal life. Back to work, a job interview, got the job (senior position, same office), presenting my masters project in a week. Phew!

I have been putting off writing a post about India because there is so much to say, most of it I'm not sure how to put into words, and I don't know where to start. We spent about half of the time travelling like regular tourists, Christine and I, and the rest of the time with our friends' families and at their wedding. I think that the most memorable, and most impactful times were those with the family. We were welcomed with open arms, and everyone was so generous to us from lending a mobile phone to have when travelling on our own, to arranging accommodation, driving us around, taking us shopping, and generally treating us like one of the family and making us feel very welcome and loved. Below is a picture of us with the bride, and our friend from Victoria, Pratibha in the middle, and her cousins Sanchita and Vrinda.


Now that I'm back to my quiet little house on my quiet little island I have plenty of time to contemplate India, all that I learned about it when I was there, and what it all means. I feel like it's kind of a parallel universe. At least, that's how I put it into words. Things are so different there, yet also so the same. Well, not really the same, but the same very superficially. Like, there are roads and hospitals and shops and people have jobs and families and many speak English. I guess a microcosm of my parallel universe idea might be Bollywood. What other country has developed such a distinctly different tradition of film making? Well I'm not a film expert, maybe there is one, but am I making sense?

What else? Religion, and traditions. We were mostly exposed to Hinduism since that's the religion of our friends and their wedding was a Hindu wedding, of course. So totally different. And so fascinating to me. I wish I had learned more about it before going there. A lot of things might have made more sense.

Hm, it feels good to write this all down. I will write more posts about India, I promise.

For now, for your entertainment, some photos of our adventures: The wedding, and highlights from our other travels.