January 25, 2024

All the Windows of the Soul

It has been 25 days now in India. If I could roll back to day one and redo it all like my own version of Groundhog’s Day, would I have the same motivations I have now? I wonder if I have changed much and reflect on how certain things still feel like me. I still walk late at night, wondering what type of people I will find on my stroll. Like back home, I have no actual fear, even with the many eyes surrounding me. On my day or night walks, I have realized that seeing and understanding people is more profound than what meets the eye. Reading people’s intentions and thoughts before pleasantries are uttered is so easy in America. There is a sing-song rhyme I am so used to when interacting with others.

I find myself searching for India’s rhyme and reason, what shifts India, what makes India proud, and what makes India want to change. Or maybe I have been asking the wrong questions all along. Maybe, during this process, I have been using my eyes to collect all the different
inferences of bias, calamity, and all the little wrong in-betweens that I feel hold this country back, but that’s not helping grow in what are the actual unmet needs people face. The eyes are the window of the soul. Still, India has a population of 1.4 billion people approx., and I think because this is a society where people choose to sacrifice everything to remain one and united in the mind, I think I have found their windows. The way that each person I see is gifted and willing to get their hands dirty speaks volumes of how they work for their small family businesses, bond through eating, and, a favorite part of mine, growing all the giant watermelons I miss back
home. Honestly, I still do not know India. Still, I am ready to not only use my eyes like I have done in my culture to find the deeper meanings in my community, but I also want to know how to lend my hands and be shaped into India’s window by continuously being present and getting my hands deep into the history, the conversations, and start shaping some goals for the future just like many generations of Indians who have seemingly forged more incredible lives for their families by their bare hands.

By Aaliyah

There is so much beauty and wonder in the design and painting of each home here. I am always in awe when the next home differs with more carving and brighter designs. You realize the amount of thought that has to come from within each process. In the recesses of my mind, I
keep asking myself how many hands were needed to shape a gray concrete slab into this sculpted lived in art.