Like I said before, India is a land filled with contradictions and emotional clashes that can only resonate within a traveller's soul. To describe how I feel about it all is really a challenge; I have to say that I dare not try. Just look at this scene that was captured in New Delhi, while having to cross a bridge to catch our nearest Metro. The air was filled with dust and yet you see the industrial revolution happening all over again in this part of the city. Train tracks carves out the land beneath us and you will see that many of the train carriages are already filled up with raw materials and ready to journey its destiny.
The surrounding area brings poverty and hope. Men bathing naked in the open, shattered brick walls and shacks needed to shelter from the sun and all those harsh environmental conditions. Contradictory to that are satellite dishes that dispels all of what I said, instead they are icons of hope and dreams. Bringing Bollywood dreams into their homes poses only as an escape. I believe that this worm hole, or teleportation device, is just as important as food. At the end of the day, hope and dreams are the very foundation of survival itself. All of us goes through it, in hopes of a better future for our family and love ones.
As I crossed the bridge, my heart tells me that this is only the beginning and India is probably the only place that can teach us a lot about life. To its inhabitants, they clearly know that life is of course the birth and death of everything. What happens in between is just the journey. Happiness is a state of mind and to some extent what is portrayed on the silver screen. Shah Rukh Khan was interviewed in the past by a news agency and was asked what Bollywood means to the people of India. He shared that it is after all an escape, to be hopeful that they might one day fill up the role of a hero. I guess he is right, everyone I see in the broken down shack are heroes of their own world. We create our own worlds after all and we will never be able to comprehend their environment or understand its genetic makeup. Therefore I should keep quite, just observe and count my blessings.