Clash of Cultures

Today, two worlds collided.  And lest you be deceived by the title of the post, please note that my own personal American culture had nothing to do with the clash.  Rather, it was a clash of two Indian cultures; two worlds that I experienced within 5 hours.

I spent the day at my old NGO, and it was a joy and a privilege to surprise the girls when I walked onto their campus this morning.  As I got close, I could hear the murmers and questions, “That looks like Jen-aunty - Is that Jen-aunty?” and then, running: “Jen-aunty!”  There were lots of hugs, some tears (none from me), and much happiness.  One of the first things that Rajeshwariya did was start combing my hair, and don’t worry mom, I’ve already checked for lice.  They have moved to a new dorm, still living around 20 to a room on bamboo floor mats, rotating kitchen shifts, doing chores, and studying during every free moment.  The homework the 16/17 year old girls were working on?  Learning the parts of a computer (monitor, speaker, keyboard, CPU, hard drive, etc.) and duplicating them in a poster board sketch.  We had a very rough medical information session on high blood pressure (which was pretty inapplicable since most of the girls are rail-thin and they don’t eat anything but the rice of the day...they don’t even have access to the soda, fried foods, etc. that were being warned against in the session as the causes of “the silent killer”), and came back to eat rice and chicken curry (a Sunday treat) with our fingers out of tin plates.

Fast forward through an incredible, fun, and exhausting day to my evening meeting at the apartment of a girl who wants to go abroad but whose father has his doubts.

We parked the car outside of the gate because there was no room in the underground parking lot and walked in to a posh apartment with music blaring (Queen and the Rolling Stones).  Were offered whiskey and wine (whiskey seems to be the Indian drink of choice), nachos, finger veggies (that we ate with a fork), sausages on toothpicks and fried cheese balls.  The father talked about his time working in fashion merchandising (and when I say fashion, I don’t mean Hanes her Way.  I’m talking Oscar de la Renta here), and the daughter’s iphone rang during our conversation.  We gave her a hard time for being 16 and having an iphone...at which she told us that she has had a phone since 5th grade, all her friends have iphones, and her father interjected with his opinion that mac is the best and that is why they all need their iphones, macbook pros, ipads, and macbook airs.  And how wonderful it is that we can now run a Google search for finding study programs in the U.S. instead of needing to go to the library to look through the college board review.

Wealth - and lack of it - in India is absolutely mind-boggling.  We’re looking at 16 year old girls who live just a bus ride down the road from each other living such vastly different lives and anticipating completely different futures.  I think that is the part that is incomprehensible is not that there are people who are filthy rich, and not that there are people who are more than dirt poor, but that these two groups live side-by-side.

P.S. Today I also met the new batch of students from the program I worked with last fall, AND played my first game of cricket today.  For our at-bat, I was the first batter.  And stayed batting through to our very last out.  I bowled pretty well too, and have determined that I have finally found my athletic calling.  Several also say it confirms that I really am an Indian...who just happens to be white.