Sarah A. Helminski Received 11/14/01
 The
amount of film that I used while in India was senseless; every image that I’d
like to remember is indelibly engraved on my mind. I
need not have taken even one single picture, the Technicolor that those memories
are saved in can be recalled at any moment- they are so strong that I don’t
even need to close my eyes to see every detail. |
The intensity of those snapshots in my mind- in fact the intensity of India- is so strong that every experience that I had prior to my visit over seas seems duller, not as real, like the difference between between watching Mr. Ed and an IMAX movie. Our group’s affectionate term for this in-your-face character of the country was “extreme India.” All the while I was in Delhi, I felt like a child at a carnival, there was so much to take in, I felt dizzy. I don’t want to give the false impression that every aspect of the experience was eye candy, however. I grew as a person as well. By becoming familiar with social intricacies of the Indian society I began to gain a little bit of perspective of myself and how and why I fit into my niches in the American culture. Agra Fort, Agra
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 Visiting
India opened up my mind to possibilities that I had never even considered. On a less heady note, all of the sites that we saw were
amazing. I don’t think anyone of
us had ever considered that seeing/touching/being at the Taj Mahal was ever
going to be an option for us in this life.
I still get goosebumps when thinking about the majesty of the Golden
Temple. (I can’t begin to do
justice to my experience there- my sense recall of the Golden Temple is tied up
in the intense emotions that I felt, surrounded by all of those people united by
One Belief, the metallic glow, the warmth of the spiritual energy gathered
there.) |
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And I got to know the pleasure of carrying a monkey stick and the Ubermonkey feeling that it brings. Rose petal ice cream and goat products for dinner. I’ll let those be my final (unfinished) thoughts; there is so much more that I could say, but life is better when lived as a first hand experience.
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With Shaun Malhotra, basking in the sun at the Agra Fort.
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Page maintained by James G. Lochtefeld.
Last modified 13 December 2001
