The Sounds of The Real India

by Tanya Sandeep Gupta (India)

Making a local connection India

The story begins on a hot summer day On the last seat of a dilapidated bus Bouncing up and down on speed breakers My first visit to a village had me all fussed The summer heat made me regret volunteering with the NGO And so, did the dust-storms and lack of clean accommodation I had travelled 3 hours to do a water resources survey Only to realise the locals speak a language from another nation And I had to rely on a local guide to converse with them I stayed with a family of 6 in a single room, with only enough space to fit 5 mattresses The father left early morning to work on the rice fields And the mother was a teaching in the village anganwadi, the local nursery school I was informed the eldest son was toiling in the city to send money back home They had two twin daughters who were barely more than 7 years old And their youngest daughter was sleeping tumultuously in a makeshift cot But in the evening while we admire the sunset on the veranda steps The two twin girls stand before me, squabbling over an accessory I go inside and rummage through my luggage, find two pink hair clips and give them one each They smile, putting up the other’s clips in each other's hair And in the distance, I can see their mother with her eyes blurry And I get down on my knees and hug them both For they don’t know the definition of an orthodontist, nor can they pronounce the word But I am by birth a dentist’s daughter with appreciation for straight teeth And I suddenly feel that the smiles her patients leave with are fake As now I can’t help but love their crooked teeth and the mischief in their eyes Months later when I close my eyes at night, I reminiscence about this exact moment Missing the sound of the village boys arguing over a game of cards in the background Savouring the smell of chicken masala and wild dust in the air And the vroom of the village bike as the husband two houses down comes home. At night when there is no electricity and we are unable to sleep due to the heat You look up to see you're enveloped in a blanket of stars And you wish you remembered the constellations so you could point them out And you pray you come back to experience this intense connection to nature The village women gather to share stories and the children are singing songs in their language And you are tempted to laugh and cry at the same time Because you, the city girl, will probably never know love this strong Or a feeling this potent of belonging, of having found your place in the world You're sucked in the vortex of proving yourself to the world By trying to sum up your life in a resume of doings Filled with the mundane achievements of branded internships and perfect exam scores And being patted on the back for these accomplishments which ultimately mean nothing Did you know? There is a saying in India, which goes by atithi devo bhava In English, it literally translates to 'Guest is God' I have travelled to US and Thailand, to Germany, South Korea and Singapore And nowhere else did I feel this welcomed, loved or at peace with myself You may have never drunk alcohol or done drugs, but on returning you feel like you're experiencing withdrawals Because early morning when you wake up before the alarm you miss the dogs barking When you have a bath, you fill it to half level because that's how much more than they have in the village When you apply sunscreen before going out and you know they didn't have the same luxury It's all these small things and more that hit you at once, screaming for attention Imagine living with no internet connection for two weeks Children laughing and running barefoot on gravelled paths I hope and wish you visit a village in India for two weeks Just so you can experience the Real India, like I did