Culture Shock

Several months ago, as a part of a course that I took, I was asked to describe the biggest areas of culture shock that my wife and I faced in India. At the time, we had been here less than 3 months. Now, after 7 months, we have truly fallen in love with India, its people and culture. There are so many things we will miss when we leave – the food, the music and dance, the colorful dress, the lilting accent, the approach to life and resilient spirit, the warmth of the people, the rikshaws, the friends we have made and the ministries we are privileged to be a part of… Yet these three things remain the most difficult and disturbing aspects of life in this land:

1. Poor Sanitation. Standards of public cleanliness in India are very low. The streets are used as dumps, every river or little creek we have seen is completely filled with trash, and the water is somewhere between grey and black. The smell of rotting garbage and human feces is ubiquitous. On a typical ride to work, I see 15 men urinating, 10 children squatting naked to defecate, and countless people (usually men or boys) spitting and scratching their “family jewels” in public. My wife has been to 32 countries—many of them poor ones—while I have been to 11, but neither of us has ever been to any place as dirty.

2. Hinduism. We love the Indian culture in general, but continue to find Hinduism a little bizarre and almost incomprehensible. To us, worshipping the popular deities would be like reading Greek mythology and then deciding to worship Zeus or Prometheus. These characters, who seem to be drawn out of ancient soap operas, often seem unworthy of veneration. It is, by and large, unlike anything we have encountered before. Between the two of us, we can relate to atheism, agnosticism, secularism, Judaism, and somewhat to Buddhism as well. The closest thing to Hinduism we have experienced is in some aspects of the “New Age” movement in America – but this is a highly Westernized version without the temples and idols, and we still find it hard to appreciate. Indians exhibit intense religious devotion, but the objects of that devotion often seem unworthy of it. Every time we pass by a temple or see a picture of a Hindu god, we can’t help but to be disturbed. Perhaps that’s a good sign.

3. Extreme Poverty and the Caste System. What we call poverty in North America would be considered middle-class here. We have never seen, elsewhere, the sort of grinding, crushing destitution that exists here. Mumbai has neighborhoods where apartments cost $1 million, and it also boasts the largest slum in Asia. But the poor are everywhere, often entire families living on the street. On almost every rikshaw ride, we are approached by street children begging for food. And Bombay is wealthier than most of India. Nearly all societies have prejudices and different socioeconomic classes, but for rigidity, pervasiveness and oppressiveness there are few things like the caste system anywhere else in the world today. The sheer size of the problem, the frequent failure of Christians to oppose it, and the manner in which caste makes itself oblivious to most of those who see it every day, can be tremendously discouraging.

When we examine the things that about a culture that strike us as bizarre or wrong, and then ask which of these things are due to Christian conviction and which are merely our own preferences, the results can be quite revealing. Because if I were to be perfectly honest, I would have to admit that it is #1 above that disturbs me the most on a daily basis. While God certainly wants us to care for His creation and to value beauty in our surroundings, if we ask which of these offends God the most, the answer would easily be #2 (that which causes alienation from Him), followed by #3 (that which degrades human beings made in His image). I may be slow at times, but thanks to God’s patient, persistent love, I am learning to love India as He does.

Extreme Sports in India

Extreme sports such as those featured in the X-Games have thus far been a phenomenon confined mostly to the developed world, if not the Western world. For example, there are few (if any) freestyle aerial in-line skating champions from India. But India has their own ancient tradition of extreme competitions. Here are five of the most popular:

1. Rikshaw Coffee Drinking

Trying to hold on to any open beverage – let alone consume it – is difficult enough on India’s pothole-filled roads. But when you attempt this in a 3-wheeled auto rikshaw, weaving around heavy trucks and buses, with scalding hot coffee, then you have a real challenge on your hands. The goal: to get more of the coffee down your throat than on you (or the person next to you). Scoring: 1 point for every mL of coffee consumed, 0 points for every mL spilled on the road, -2 points for every mL spilled on yourself.

2. Barefoot Traffic Dodging

Remember the old arcade game Frogger? This is the human version – except the traffic doesn’t stay in lanes and sometimes ignores stoplights, the road is clogged with cows and stray dogs, and there are no crosswalks. Oh, and you’re also barefoot – this is India. The goal: get to the other side in as little time as possible, in one piece. (Getting run over results in disqualification). Best strategy: get behind a cow.

3. On-the-fly Bus Jumping

The bus is coming at 50 km/hr and it’s not going to stop. There are 5 times as many people as seats on the bus, and they’re not budging. There are only three choices: run, jump, and hold on; get run over; or miss the bus. The winner needs a fast sprint, a large vertical jump, a good sense of timing, and a tenacious grip.

4. Street Vendor Crawl

This contest makes a pub crawl look like a kindergarten game. The effects of excessive alcohol consumption are mild compared to the power of white-hot Indian spices, half-spoiled ingredients, and contamination from a diverse selection of microbes in unsanitary conditions. This is the ultimate test of digestive fortitude, intestinal stamina, taste bud endurance, and olfactory perseverance. You must eat food from 18 street vendors, selected at random from all over the city, in a single night. And you have to be healthy the next day. So few can complete the challenge that the victory usually goes to the last man standing, but those rare individuals who conquer the street culinary scene earn a lasting respect (and a permanent red flag from health insurers).

5. Ultimate Mosquito Fighting

The cage? A tiny taxi, air-conditioned if you are lucky. Your opponents? A horde of blood-sucking, malaria- or dengue-carrying flying menaces. The rules? There are none. The goal? GET OUT ALIVE.

Buddist leader visits India, calls terrorists victims, ignores attacks on minorities

When prominent Buddhist monk and scholar Thicht Naht Hanh arrived in India, the country was reeling from months of Islamist terrorist attacks, a campaign of violence in Orissa to wipe out Christians, the spillover of America’s economic turmoil, and the death of over 220 Hindus in a stampede at temple. Many were eager to hear what solutions the renowned “peace activist” had to offer to India’s troubles.

He called the terrorists “victims,” blaming their actions on poverty and growing up in difficult circumstances. He said not a single word about the attacks on Christians or the continued discrimination faced by Indian Muslims. Instead, in an October 2 interview with the Times of India, he warned journalists not to "water the seeds of hate.” Nice advice - as far as it goes. Speaking only in vague generalities, he dodged every major question facing India today, trying instead to appear wise and sophisticated by spouting such classic Buddhist fare as (in the Times' paraphrase) "once we realize that the idea of 'I' is a mere figment of the imagination, with nothing real to correspond with it, we will realize our larger or universal self." He offered all sorts of platitudes about being nice to one another, but when it came to the pressing moral issues of the day he had no huevos. Or, perhaps he simply had no answers.

One of the few specifics he offered was to urge people to eat less meat or adopt a vegetarian (or even vegan) diet. Of course! That’s it! If we only stop eating meat, global warming will halt, Russia will cease their aggression, Sunnis and Shias will get along, the Indian Mujahideen will renounce violence, the genocide in Darfur will end, the world’s financial markets will right themselves, and all of India’s Dalits and Tribals will be lifted out of poverty.

As for me, I’ll have a steak.

She Has A Name

Today as my wife was returning from her work at a children’s ministry, the rickshaw she was riding in came within inches of running over a little girl who was no more than 3 years old. This dirt-covered girl was on the side of the highway, where trucks lumber along and cars zip by, with no mother in sight. She was squatting down to relieve herself, oblivious to the dangerous public setting.

Such sights are common in India, despite the breakneck economic growth and tech companies sprouting up like dandelions after a summer rain. The world sees Bollywood films and successful emigrants across the globe. But here in Mumbai, the media and financial capital of India, we also see crushing poverty first-hand. Not just occasionally, or in just a few disadvantaged neighborhoods, but everywhere and every day.

Heart-broken for this utterly neglected little girl, my wife immediately began looking into adoption procedures in India. Not that we could necessarily scoop her up off the highway, but perhaps there was at least something two affluent young Americans could do when surrounded by such need. Surely a country with so many orphanages and so many starving children would be eager for anyone to help provide for them. The results were not encouraging.

Those adopting a child from India can expect to pay at least $12,000 in fees—not including travel expenses and the like. (After all, someone has to line the pockets of government officials). Also, both the husband and wife must be over 30 years old. And finally, foreigners can only adopt a child if no Indians can first be found to adopt. (As if high-caste Hindus would really take a poor child into their home).

One cannot escape the conclusion that the Indian government does not want these children adopted. It would apparently prefer that they die here, perhaps by being run over by a truck.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently referred to the campaign of terror against Christians in Odisha as a “national shame.” His words were well chosen, although he also chose to wait until most of these people had been driven into refugee camps before taking any action to stop it. Given that several more villages have been burned and three more Christians have been killed, that action seems insufficient. But there is another national shame – the shame of a nation that treats one-third of its children as if they are expendable.

In Jesus’ parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31), I have always wondered why the beggar is given a name. In no other parable do any of the characters have names – the stories are meant to be illustrations and to relate to anyone. But seeing poverty up close, you realize that the poor – particularly in India – have had their dignity stripped away. They are not seen as valuable. They are not even seen. If one takes the Vedas (the Hindu scriptures) seriously, that little girl beside the road was of less value than a stray dog.

The rich man in Jesus’ parable would have been a prominent figure in his community. He was important. Everybody knew his name. But to Jesus, he has no name. He’s just another guy with money, and without a heart. It is the beggar, the one whom everyone ignores, whom everyone sees but no one cares to know, who is given a name. He has an identity. He is an individual. He is someone. He is Lazarus.

My wife and I will probably never know that girl’s name. Most people here would not even want to know her name. But God does. And long after the names of Bollywood stars, New Delhi politicians, and titans of industry are forgotten by the public, her name will stand.

She is not a worthless Dalit. She is someone. She is a child of God.