The way we are...

The way I am is nothing like the way they are. From children to adults to elders, the mood in India is just totally different from what it is here. Everyone is happy, even the poorest of people are happy with what they have. Maybe it's because they don't know anything different, but one can't help but be jealous of simple happiness.

Even the maids and workers don't ever seem to have a depressing day. They do their jobs contently and you can just tell they have no real issues with what they're doing. Here in the U.S. you can just read people's faces as they come home from work tired and in the mood to complain about this boss or that coworker.

Maybe I just can't explain what it's like there in words...it's the kind of thing you really have to experience yourself. But I do know that having so much in the U.S. makes us prone to complaining about everything we don't have. Even the Americans in India complained about heat, lack of air-conditioning, flies, etc. I don't like flies either, they were annoying as all hell and they creep me out. But whatever, they existed so I just had to shut up and wave them away with my arms.

The little children were my favorite. I've always been in awe of the innocence of children anywhere, wishing they could stay that way because I don't want them to have to experience such a world. My young cousins here in the U.S. have so much...toys, video games, crayons, computers, etc. I'm not saying the kids in India have nothing...all the same things that are available here are just as available there, albeit expensive. But I never heard a kid ask for a Nintendo DS or the latest video game or say they're bored because they have nothing to play with.

There was a little boy playing with his broken toy truck and he took my hand and brought me to the backyard to play with him and his truck. The adults told me he does have a new toy truck so I asked him, "where's your new truck. will you show it to me?" But he was just so happy with the broken one...he'd tell me, "look, it stopped. it's broken. this is how you fix it." And then he'd continue on driving it along.

Even I changed after 5 weeks in India. Before I left, I'd spend most of the day in front of my laptop or clicking away on my Blackberry. But there, I brought none of that with me and only had the chance to go online a few times during the whole trip. In all that I realized that I have no real use for these fancy gadgets, at least not 24/7.

Life in India was just calmer and more relaxed. None of this hustle and bustle, always being technologically connected, fancy gadgets, etc. Yeah, most people there have mobile phones, but it's not like here where 10-year-olds are texting away on iPhones because apparently they have oh-so-important things to talk about.

Sometimes I wish I could go back, if only for the atmosphere, the simple happiness. I wanted to move to India at one point, but my family in America said I wouldn't be able to handle it, but my family in India think that of everyone I am the only one that can handle such a move. Maybe one day, we'll just have to see...