[Note: Yo, an American here writing this post and more posts after this. My observations are solely mine and aren't intended to describe India accurately as I am aware that my American upbringing may have shaped my perspective of the world and is likely to reflect my ignorance more than my knowledge. Corrections necessary to help me adjust my perspective are welcomed. Thanks!]
The name of this country has probably evoked an image, a sensation, something in you.
India used to evoke in me the sense of colorfulness, a wild assortment of spicy, hot, and spirited colors everywhere.
Now that I am here, India is India.
There is no place like India in the world, yet India is profoundly familiar in a way.
Perhaps India is familiar in a way that it displays every single color, every single emotion, every single smell, every single incident, every single everything that defines the entire humankind.
It might explain why India provokes such strong feelings in many who visited India. After all, who don't have strong opinions about the humankind?
In my case, it's been only a few days and already I am amazed by the way India seems to reinforce my intention to see the world without knowing the future.
I arrived in Mumbai feeling like a crazy little lady, being so distorted by seeming time wrap. If I am to calucate my lifetime based on the American time, I left the United States on Monday and landed in India on Tuesday. If you are to ask Indians, I was leaving on Tuesday and arrived on Wednesday. If you ask me directly, I left my homeland on Monday and came here on Wednesday.
So, it's been three days for me while it's only two days for everyone else.
Clearly, time is an illusion.
Or I am just this crazy little lady whose mind had been messed around by jetlag.
Nevertheless, the entire Deaf men's soccer team had decided to whisk me away to Gujarat as soon as my feet touched upon the soil of India. As it turned out, Mumbai wasn't going to be my first city to visit in India.
Instead, the team put me on one train after other train for over 10 hours while giving me a crash course in everything Indian: Indian Sign Language, Indian cuisine, Indian way of riding the train, and especially Indian culture.
Finally arriving in Gujarat feeling absolutely filthy, insanely distorted, and yet exhilarated to have finally made it through my first day in India, I know India will give me two very interesting months and I have literally no idea what these months has in its store awaiting for me.
In meanwhile, here are the pictures!
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