Blog 19 – A new side of India for me

Generally speaking work travel seems much cooler to people on the outside-looking-in, than it actually is for the people doing it.  On the outside it seems fun to fly all over, see the world, eat at restaurants, and sleep in hotels… but, that’s because most people don’t do it much.  The inside-perspective of a heavy traveler just wishes they could be home to sleep in their own bed, with their own pillow, after eating dinner with their family. 

The reality of work travel is it normally looks exactly the same every time; airport, hotel, work office, conference room, restaurant, hotel, sleep, office, conference room, restaurant, hotel, airport, repeat, repeat, repeat.   It is rare that you get to see anything about a city except for traffic or the occasional blurry picture from the side window of a moving car…

That being said, this trip to India was an exception. 

Getting to India was still hard; 3am 5hr flight on a budget airline, followed by a 2hr layover in Kuala Lumpur, followed by another 5hr flight in a budget airline, followed by a 5hr layover before the final flight to my destination.  This time my trip to India was limited to Ahmadabad… the historical home of Ghandi and the current home of IndiaPlast (an India-focused plastics conference hosted every 3 yrs).

The conference was good… better than expected actually, but the trip was great because my India colleague organized a great Saturday afternoon outing prior to my flight out of India. 

Since my exposure and perspective of India was so limited (and in some ways tainted by abnormally bad stuff happening each time I visited before) Laks wanted to show me some of the country’s culture…   I truly appreciate his effort to both organize and expose me to a different aspect of India.

For the afternoon we visited two fantastic sites; the shrine for Swaminarayan Akshardham and the home of Ghandi.

Shrine of Swaminarayan Akshardham.

Diversity is a great thing because it rewires the way your mind works.  Our home country schooling in social sciences, quite rightly, mostly focuses on things that are more relevant to daily life in that country.  For example, our exposure to the kings & queens of England was a 2hr highlight reel, but my training in the American Civil war was 6-weeks of details, videos, military planning, etc.  I don’t have a problem with any of that, but then you get exposed to things like Swaminarayan Akshardham. 

First of all, the setting was beautiful.  I couldn’t bring in my camera, so the pictures are limited, but trust me it was amazing.  The carvings were detailed, the central golden statue was breathtaking, the grounds were as nice as Versaille in France, and the museums were great. 

But the story of this guy blew me away.  Firstly, this guy lived from 1780ish to 1830ish… So, it isn’t like we are learning about him from dusty manuscripts found in the dead sea.  There were legitimate reporters and followers and eye-witness accounts that followed his life.  Secondly, he was a miracle child and a miracle maker… brilliant by age 5, left home by age 11, wondered the wilderness finding enlightment for 7 yrs by himself, and then reemerged to heal people, perform countless miracles, advise governments, and a whole lot of other stuff… Why haven’t I ever heard of him…. His story was off the hook, sounded similar to Jesus, and totally sucked me in… I’m not saying it shakes my Christian faith, but the dude’s story was impressive…  Really really impressive. 

I also spent a lot of time talking to Laks, who is a deeply religious and practicing Hindu.  He taught me about Hinduism the belief structure and many of the stories… The parallels to Christianity were evident and even some of the stories overlapped; a flood, a trinity, a notion of God, etc.  I think learning about other religions is interesting, enlightening, and in many ways can deepen your own faith.  I know it has deepened mine.  Learning from Laks is always good.

Ghandi’s House

We were running out of time so we had to quickly breeze through this landmark… and that’s too bad because Ghandi was India’s Thomas Jefferson (National Father), Martin Luther King (Civil Rights defender), and Nelson Mandela (Liberator from the British) all wrapped up in one guy.  I suspect most remember Ghandi as a skinny pacifist that did something without firing a weapon while going on hunger strikes.  This is true, but it just misses the story. 

He was a lawyer, he learned about patience and pacifism from his wife, he cleverly used the press and pacifism to liberate India from the British (it was who he was, but it was also a clever way to turn the world and media against the British occupation and force independence), he led a salt strike (similar to the Boston Tea Party), he didn’t eat for days in protest – I don’t know how he did that, he made his own clothes after he spooled his own thread from cotton, and he was assassinated by a group that disagreed with a post-WW2 politician he supported.    

He wrote a ton of great stuff… enlightened and inspired stuff like an MLK speeches.  He was respected by everyone in the world because he did it with love and peace.  No weapons… think about it… it is like a John Lennon song.  I am fully convinced that the world would be a better place if his message was better understood and followed.  He was remarkable. 

And unlike most places we’ve visited in China… they had an awesome souvenir shop with magnets, pens, and other stuff to help me remember the trip. 

This is the kind of thing that you hope to experience when you take an expat assignment.  I just wish my family could have been with me on this one… they would have learned a lot from both stops… I will do my best to recreate for them with stories a nice blog. 

Picture 1 - The Conference circuit:  Indiaplast (a conference dedicated to India plastic) brought me to Ahmadabad, India.  It was a lot of work, but we did some good stuff.  We were invited to a cool event by Dow Chemical and they hired a cool DJ and magician to entertain... The magician was incredible.

Picture 2 - Greatness:  I love learning about great people.  And, Ghandi was one of the world's greatest.  I still give the nod to Winston Churchill as my favorite historical figure of all time, but after learning about Ghandi, his ranking skyrocketed.

Picture 3 - Humanitarian and Textiles?:  To rebel against British taxes, Ghandi learned how to make his own clothing out of cotton.  He spun the thread and made the fabric.  And in between that He overthrew the British occupation.

Picture 4 - Everyone respects Ghandi:  This stop is a classic for all politicians.  They all find their way here to pay their respects.

Picture 5 - Lawyer to world leader:  He was a bright guy who understood politics and found the right way to win independence.  Was he a pacifist first or was pacifism the tool he used.  I think probably both, but he wife definitely helped him get there.

Picture 6 - What an amazing life!

Picture 7 - Just cool stuff he said and stood for.