My memorable experience in India

by Eshlin Vedan (South Africa)

A leap into the unknown India

I was fortunate to have grown up during the age of Nelson Mandela, a time in which patriotism and hope within South Africa was at an all-time high. As a result, I grew up deeply patriotic and never felt much of a connection to India. For the majority of my life, I thought of India as being a cricket obsessed nation which also had a rich cultural history. In spite of this, the opportunity to attend the 47th Know India Program organized by the Indian consulate could not have come at a better time in my life. The 47th Know India Program was of special significance to me as it involved a visit to the state of Tamil Nadu for 12 days. Tamil Nadu is the region in India from which my ancestors migrated to South Africa during the year of 1860 in order to work on the Sugar cane fields of Kwa-Zulu Natal. Entering Tamil Nadu in a way felt like a spiritual homecoming to me. While I consider myself privileged to have grown up in a diverse and multi-cultural society, this was the first time in my life that I was literally surrounded by individuals who closely resemble my own family members. Another thing which took my aback about Tamil Nadu was the fact that there were a few times when individuals would come up to me and strike conversations with me in Tamil. They were unaware that I was a foreigner and were of the belief that I was one of their own. This made me aware of the fact that while I may be culturally different to the native people of Tamil Nadu, I still do retain many of the South Indian physical features. My favourite areas within the Tamil Nadu region was definitely the visits of Ponducherry and Kodaikanal. I loved the way in which Ponducherry was maintained and being a beach town, it reminded me a lot of my own place of birth which is Durban. I am a nature lover and I loved the beautiful natural landscape, mountains, scenery, animals and plants of Kodaikanal. There are definitely many aspects of Indian society which I have come to admire.I liked the sense of safety which I was able to enjoy whilst in India. In both Tamil Nadu and New Dehli, I was able to walk around the streets freely, at any-time be it during the day or night. Secondly, I admired the way in which the people of India look after and care for animals. There were a few times during the course of the trip when I witnessed a group of people lovingly feeding dogs and cows food. I have had the privilege of visiting a few countries and I can say that this is something which I had never witnessed before. Thirdly, I admire the way in which the people of India make efforts towards solving their own problems without depending on assistance from others. We saw this through the work of the Goonj non-governmental organization in Dehli which uses material and labour as its currency of development. Goonj works with disenfranchised individuals and helps them to improve their lives. The individuals work by doing things such as knitting, repairing roads etc and are compensated with material resources such as food, clothing and furniture. I was also taken aback by the countless amount of women who I saw who are old enough to be my own mother and in some cases grandmother riding through the city using their motorbikes. This is something which I have never seen anywhere else and something which I feel also makes Indian society very special. Lastly, something which astounds me about Indian society is the amazing ingenuity and engineering abilities which have been shown by its people throughout history. Many of the temples which I had the honour of visiting during my time in Tamil Nadu were built hundreds of years ago, yet they are still difficult to build using modern day machinery. This proves that my ancestors were way ahead of their time in spite of the fact that some Western thinkers may claim that it was Western influence which civilized them.