India, The Land of Contradictions

A Tuk Tuk In Front Of A Road Side Diner

     As I ride through the streets of Jaipur on a tuk tuk, I cannot help but notice how much this country epitomizes contradiction.  India is a land of extraordinary beauty and extreme filth.  It has one of the fastest expanding economies in the world and yet it possess one third of the worlds poor.  It is a wild, exciting, and truly unique experience for westerners.

     For anyone who truly wants an adventure, try a tuk tuk ride in Jaipur.  A tuk tuk is a three wheeled taxi with an engine no larger than a lawnmower.  They have no sides and no seat belts and roll through traffic at surprisingly fast speeds (around 45 mph).  Thus, if you fall out of one these little green and yellow vehicles, than your more than likely heading to the morgue.  Look on the bright side, you only live once, right!  Unless your a Hindu like the confident and highly skilled driver maneuvering you through the throngs of chaos, that is Indian traffic.  As we slip through the thick but ever moving conglomerate of compact cars, motor cycles with whole families jumbled upon them and bicycle rickshaws hauling massive piles of textiles, I am shocked to see an old fashion camel drawn cart pulling about twelve flat screen televisions on it.  Then I realize that this is India, a place where you see brand new Dell stores full of men in suits buying the most cutting edge technological gizmo's on the market and yet there is a tarp covered shack in front selling the best naan bread that you will ever eat in your life.  This is a place where if you are in need of hair cut you head to a street islander, where a guy has placed a rickety chair and a small mirror in front of a banyan tree and is ready for business.  This is a place where road construction workers consist of women in elegant dresses and thousands of dollars in gold jewelry carrying large dollops of concrete on their heads.This is a place where homes are impeccably clean and yet you have piles of trash everywhere.  The trash men employ pigs and goats to eat up the almost endless supply of garbage.  This is a land where orange clad Hindu priests, who are covered from head to toe in ash since they have not bathed in months since their last pilgrimage to a Varanasi, are talking on cell phones on the side of the road.
This is truly a land of contradiction, and a place where you will find unique surprises on every block.

     So as I sit back and listen to the honks of the cars (every time a car passes another one they honk to avoid collisions) as they carefully swerve around a cow meandering through traffic, I cannot help but realize how modernity and tradition are constantly clashing in this exotic part of the world.  It is an amazing experience, to go half-way around the world to visit a culture so unfamiliar to my own and see how these individuals live.  I truly believe that India is not for everyone, but only when we step out of our comfort zones and try new things can we truly have the most unique, meaningful, and life altering experiences of our lives.

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