The 40 parts to the Why India journal that were posted here, have been taken down for rewriting into stories and/or edited into an e-book. You can still read Part 1 below. For updates, please leave your e-mail in the sidebar for the mailing list.
Why India?
Part 1: Vancouver, January 2010
Why India?
It’s a question many of you asked after asking me for months, “Have you decided where you’re going during the Olympics?”
“No, it stresses me out to think about it.”
It was now almost February; two weeks before the opening ceremony and the road closures had begun. Downtown on Seymour Street, city workers were covering the parking meters from Granville Bridge to Waterfront Station with red hoods, locked and stamped: “No Stopping Anytime.” The prohibition applied to cabs as well for no pick-ups or drop-offs but the worst was that trains and buses were expecting 40 minute delays.
My business that runs on hourly appointments from the Seymour Building was about to stop flowing, so I really had to stop putting it off and find a place to go. I bounced destinations off my friend, Angie. Argentina, Guatemala, Morocco, Vietnam, or India? Angie asked why I had so much anxiety over this decision. I told her about the time I went to India when I was 22, with a Canadian exchange program that could have sent me to any dozens of countries but they chose India for me.
“My parents are from India but I was a punk-kid and I rebelled against their culture. So it wasn’t my first choice but I went anyway. When the group got to Delhi, the local host arranged a dance performance to greet us. Everyone ooh’d and aah’d over the girls’ costumes, but I just saw their long hair like the kind my parents made me keep until I got the guts to cut it off. I also foresaw their future arranged marriages. I saw other stuff in India that scared me, too.
“I felt trapped there. So I came back after 5 days with a nervous breakdown. Since then I’ve associated traveling abroad with that bad experience and don’t think I can do it alone.”
Angie’s voice went down about three notes. “You never told me this before, Shai. How come?”
“Because it was so long ago and it’s silly of me to give it any weight. I know that it was a unique situation…I had escaped and exiled myself from my family only two years earlier….”
“I’m getting goose-bumps!” Her fingers ran over the fine blonde hair on her forearms. “Have you thought about going to India? You have to go to India. It’s so obvious. It wraps up everything you’ve worked on since I’ve known you…on your past…on your future.”
I nodded tentatively but a grin was spreading inside.
“So when are you booking your ticket?”
“Today.”
So that’s why India.
Continued in Part 2.
The 40 parts to the Why India journal have been taken down for editing into an e-book. For updates, please leave your e-mail in the sidebar for the mailing list, or come have a conversation with me over a haircut at my hair studio in Vancouver, BC, Canada.
copyright 2010/2011, Shai Dhali.