Contradictions

The whole sidewalk and brick wall behind it were so wet it looked like it has rained. It was all urine and the stench was unbearable. I hate India. I jump on a crowded bus and, in typical Rosa Parks fashion, the conductor asks someone to give me his seat. The man happily agrees (not so Rosa-esque). I love India. I look at a motionless dog on the side of the road, then look closer and realize the pile of red beside him used to be inside him. I hate India. I ask a young woman to help me catch the right bus back to Gurgaon during a Delhi rush hour. She leads me excitedly and buys my bus ticket. I love India. At a famous lotus-shaped temple in Delhi, tourists stand in a line (yes, a line!) to go through it and see the amazing architecture. Before reaching the doors, people are pushing, shoving, and jostling the person in front of them. How can line-forming be so difficult? Volunteers ask us all to be silent when inside. This has no effect. People shout to one another, talk, and run through the aisles. I hate India. My host family greets me with warm smiles, eager ears to hear about my day, tea, and dinner when I reach home. I love India. I have to carry a used tissue around with me for hours while I walk through piles of garbage because there aren't any public trash cans. I hate India. The woman I am staying with takes me for a movie, lunch, and ice cream. She says it's all "her treat." This is only after taking me to dinner the night before, doing my laundry, and practically adopting me as a niece. I LOVE India!

I had read so much about India being a land of contradictions, but never beleived it could be this intense. I am about to head out to the malls for window-shopping and carol-singing. To get there, I will walk out of the spotless central courtyard and parking lot of the apartment complex, through a trash pile as I cross the street, around piles of cow, dog, and human waste to the mall parking lot, and again across sparkling clean pavement into the building. India has been called an "assault on the senses" and that is nothing short of the truth.