Moment:
Tuesday, December 3rd at 8:47 AM IST
“The visitors’ gallery has a snack counter, restrooms, and places to sit and/or sleep...if you wanted, you could just move in and not be a visitor anymore!”
So I’ve been back in Texas for about a week now, and I’m already severely missing India. It seems like it was only yesterday that I got on a plane to start my six-month stint at the University of Hyderabad through the Study in India Program (SIP), and like my mom had warned me, as soon as I landed at the Austin airport, for a split second I wondered if I had even gone to India at all! When I first heard of reverse culture shock, it sounded like a made-up thing, but I can assure you that it’s real. Although America and India have a lot more in common than one would initially think, they are still worlds apart. Adjusting back to life here in the US is going to be a bit of a process, so if you know me at home, please bear with me :)
I’ve been going through photos (all 11,345 of them!) and reminiscing on the amazing memories I made during my time abroad, and a lot of those are thanks to the amazing friends I made while I was there. The SIP-ping Chai crew made this experience one for the books (or one for the blog, rather). When I first found out about this program and the opportunity to go to India for a semester to study at the university my dad went to, I was so scared to tell my parents, because it sounded absolutely insane! I’ve never been abroad by myself before, and the longest I’ve ever been in India before was about 2 months at my grandparents’ home.
When I got to India, however, I realized I wasn’t there by myself. I was surrounded by people from different countries, backgrounds, and walks of life who all went to India for their own reasons, but nonetheless were there to see what this country was all about. I experienced India, a place that I had visited numerous times before, in a whole new light because of them. Learning about the differences they perceived between India and America, seeing what they were surprised or caught off-guard by, and understanding how they navigated being in a completely new place helped me avoid being complacent and instead seek out new experiences.
We had the opportunity to demonstrate the things we had learned over the course of the semester and celebrate our unique interests and talents in the SIP Showcase to wrap up the semester. All of our professors and many of our university friends came out to see what we have been working on for the past few months. There were dance, songs, nursery rhyme recitations, and multi-lingual presentations. Our Hindi class made a parody video of the “What is a Machine?” skit from 3 Idiots. I’m the narrator, and in case you didn’t already know, I don’t speak Hindi so...don’t have too high of expectations :P
The show was far from perfect, but it was a spot-on representation of us, which is what made it perfect. There were a few awkward transitions due to technical difficulties, which Miles as our M.C., Gavin as our show director, and Tanvi as our official joke teller handled wonderfully, so it didn’t feel like a rigid and pre-planned production. Problem-solving skills were put to the test to figure out a new order or performances when an instructor was running late, and at one point, I think there was sound playing from three or four different sources. It just felt like a bunch of friends getting up on stage together and doing what we love (and doing it well, I might add), which made for a really memorable show.
I’m really not a crier, but every time I sent people off at the airport and watched them walk through airport security with so much luggage I wasn’t even sure they’d be allowed to pass, saying goodbye from behind a pane of glass with quarter-sized holes to talk through, I sobbed. Tears of sorrow and heartbreak because honestly I don’t know when or where I will see them again, but also tears of joy and laughter because until the very last moment, they reminded me of why we formed such a strong bond in the first place. People come and go, some for a short time and some for a lifetime, and I am so grateful to God that I was able to build friendships with people from across the world that I hope I will continue to foster in the years to come.
