dear india

(I wrote this last week)

I spent several hours watching and reading news from Mumbai last night (Wed.). I was relieved to get an email from a friend who lives there - that she and her family are fine albeit frightened. So many people have their own connections to India, and I realize that mine are pittily in comparison. Yet to know with eery clarity the places being attacked...


I remember standing in front of the Taj Mahal Hotel with 3 friends hoping desparately to see a Bollywood star. We stood outside of the place for quite awhile with our cameras ready. Although we didn't see anyone we recognized, I saw a dude wearing a Penn State t-shirt. Being the sophisticated, culturally-appropriate chica that I am, I yelled, "WE ARE...!" and he, looking confused, responded, "uh...Penn State?" It was so funny, and we talked in front of the Taj for a few more minutes before heading back to the train station (which also was attacked...and I have lots of memories from that crazy place!). I also have many memories of the market that was attacked in Jaipur earlier this year - getting my ears pierced with a friend, buying my first sari, and meandering for the sake of meandering.


Dear India. Why, despite such improvements in the economy and human rights, is there so much suffering? You've experienced tsunamis, earthquakes, droughts, flooding. Your Christians are experiencing major persecution. Terrorism, war, slums, failed crops, epidemics, ...so much pain. Will there be a release for you? You're a third the size of the US with 3 times the population - and have so many environmental and historical obstacles that are difficult to comprehend. Dear India. ...I feel so much emotion and confusion and helplessness...words don't even come.