There's nothing quite like India

May 14, 2020

My first trip to India was transformative. My second was eye-opening. And my third was defining.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so what better way to share INDIA with you than through some of my favorite pictures and captions from my Instagram account.

1. Like a scene from a movie, all of it, such beauty and such misery and rawness and everything all at once... THIS IS INDIA 🇮🇳

2. “India is, the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grandmother of tradition. Our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only” ~ Mark Twain

3. What would you say if I told you kids here, even in conditions which seem unfathomable to us, are HAPPY. We are greeted everywhere we go with the biggest smiles I’ve ever seen. During our road trip from Agra to Jaipur, we stopped at a school, unannounced, just to say hello and we were welcomed with smiles and excitement and LOVE!

4. Saw a wedding taking place as we drove past a small town, so we stopped our van to get out and take pictures. As soon as they saw us, the whole wedding party invited us to join in their celebration. We danced and laughed and shared in the joy of their life because, in the end, we are all more alike than we are different, and those are the invaluable lessons of travel.

5. We wanted another opportunity to visit a school, but this time, to hand out school supplies for all the kids. We bought: pencils, sharpeners, notebooks, and markers. This school has four classrooms, 81 kids, four teachers, and two administrators. But those are just facts and numbers. The true students here were US, and the real lesson and gift were for US. Each child stood up and gave a warm smile and a sincere THANK YOU, the looks in their eyes was priceless. When they all started singing, I could see my mother’s face as tears streamed down her face, and we all began to cry as well... We had never heard such a beautiful song.

6. So, am I a different person than before I came to India? I believe I come back home with a stronger conviction than ever, that everywhere in the world, we are all the same; rich, poor, living in opulence or living on the street. I see people with the same right to have dignity and respect. I value everyone the same, no matter their circumstances. Most people have the wrong idea about poverty in India because they are only judging poverty by “material possessions.” In reality, people here are extremely RICH in culture, values, traditions, faith and happiness. So in a funny way, they may see us from the West, with our never-ending consumerism and our value of material possessions as the poor people of the world.