Posted August 19, 2008
Traveling to exotic locations and experiencing foreign cultures is something all of us have dreams about. I, along with 20 other individuals, have gotten the chance to make that dream a reality. Upon telling friends and family I would be venturing to Mumbai, India, there was a lot of skepticism. Everyone told me about the poverty, food, water and political corruption. However, not until landing at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport did I get my first taste of everything Mumbai had to offer. Surprisingly, I didn't feel frightened or worried like most said I would be--instead I felt in a state of irony.
How ironic that I almost felt like I had just landed in New York. These two cities that are on opposite sides of the world do feel so similar. However, it wasn't until I stepped outside of the airport to get my full blast of Mumbai's beautiful irony. I thought it ironic Gandhi was displayed on every paper rupee and that despite how heavily and chaotic the traffic was in this large city, there are fewer accidents by far than the United States.
Jerry Pinto, a celebrated Indian journalist and author, told our group of travelers Mumbai is an "emergency in slow motion," and everything in the city can be seen as ironic. For example, the huge island temple that rests just perfectly overlooking a group of nuclear reactors. Or how health tourism has brought many foreigners to India for incredibly cheap healthcare, and yet people lay injured or even dead in front of the hospital doors.
I continued to find evidence of more irony as days passed. On a day trip to Mani Bhavan, where Gandhi was known to reside when he traveled to India, I witnessed a posting on the wall that Gandhi had said during his incredible life. The writing read "Woman is more fitted than man to make exploration and take older action in nonviolence. There is no occasion for women to consider themselves subordinate or inferior to men. Woman is the companion of man, gifted with equal mental capacity. If by strength is meant moral power, then woman is immeasurably man's superior. If nonviolence is the lay of our being, the future is with women." I read this quote out loud and then thought about how many women in the country are not being educated and the number of women who are neglected by their families and the culture they live in. The Hindu religion praises their female Goddesses, and of course, they take the words of Gandhi to heart. Not to mention India has elected women political leaders far ahead of many more developed countries. So, with such praise for females, I was left wondering why women have not made more advances in Indian society.
I really felt the irony when I visited the largest slum in Asia. I noticed how every person I saw in the slum was happier and more genuine than most people I had come across in the urban area of Mumbai.
I keep coming across these ironic situations in my short time here, and then wondered if perhaps India isn't the thing that contains the irony--but rather it is India that has placed the irony on us. For instance, our group of mass media and communication majors speak loudly and passionately about how The Times of India and newspapers back in America are infested with sensationalism and infotainment and yet, every morning at breakfast we must discuss what happened on the one page spread of Hollywood news and not what has happened on page one itself. Or perhaps how I don't even acknowledge the existence of hundreds of begging homeless people on the streets, but have no worries about walking down the street with my five bottles of water in one hand and an ice cream cone in the other.
Mumbai is a magical place, and if it weren't for the irony of it all, I do not think I could enjoy the city as much. Mumbai is extremely welcoming, yet forbidden. It is up-close and personal but still feels very distant. Mumbai is reversible in its nature. What you see is definitely not what you get. It's a whole lot better.
About the Summer in India blog:
All of 19 Seattle University students are right now roaming the streets of Mumbai, India, watching and telling the story of globalisation and mass media in this country with multiple realities.
This is a Study Abroad program titled "Mass Media in Modern India," directed by Prof. Sonora Jha from The Department of Communication. Students are visiting sites that powerfully show a media and a country in transition. They are meeting top journalists from The Times of India and The Hindu, watching TV show shootings by MTV India and NDTV, Bollywood, documentary and independent filmmakers. They are attending classes with Indian students of mass media, through the Jesuit school, Xavier's Institute of Communication and through Sophia Polytechnic's program titled Social Communications Media. And, more than anything else, as one of them says, they are arriving into the world, growing up in every single moment. They welcome your comments on their blog posts.
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