I Want to Know the World

“I want to know the world” is what a writer told me while I visited with her in Petrer, Spain. Originally from Peru, a lawyer turned poet, she resides with her Spanish husband and their two daughters. Working for immigrant rights in Spain, she belongs to a growing number of social practice artists whose creative work intersects with social advocacy, affecting what is happening in the world.

I thought of her when I received an email from my son, Myles, who had been laid off from his job in Los Angeles. He looked for other jobs that he did not find and decided to take a break to do something that he had wanted to do for many years--travel and photograph in India.

Art happens out in the world and not necessarily in rarified places like galleries and museums. It can come from those who do not have the title of artist but who have the desire to create something of significance and to begin a dialogue between themselves and an audience. They can set things in motion, illuminate connections between people and be a vehicle for life’s meaningful encounters and engagements and when they seek to “know the world” they can affect change. From time to time, I will post emails that illuminate experiences that broaden and change people’s perspectives on life as they seek to “know the world”. I am starting by sharing with you an email from Myles.

FIN

I planned to go out shooting today, as it was my last day in Mumbai. Instead, I spent the day in Navi (new) Mumbai, a planned suburb of Mumbai with middle to upper-middle income families, with a guy and his brother-in-law, whom I had met on the train to Goa from Kerala.

He (Gopi) received his MBA at UC Irvine some time ago, and currently has a son who is in San Jose studying/working. He and his brother-in-law work for ICICI Bank here in Mumbai, the largest Indian-owned bank in the country. We sat around his flat, philosophizing about the global recession, politics, what's needed for social progression in the world today, as well as a few business opportunities (import/export) that we're going to take a closer look at, while sipping cold beer and snacking on fresh-roasted peanuts and chunks of chilled watermelon, splashed with lime juice and mint. After having a lunch of mushrooms-green pea curry, cabbage with saffron, chapatti (unleavened bread) and more cold beer, we napped a bit. His wife (Pushpa) came shortly after five, as she was eager to meet me. She has a brother in Vancouver who has done very well for himself in the IT security field, and she showed me photos of her trip to visit he and his wife. Afterwards, we drove to her mother’s house nearby and I met her as well as his other brother-in-law - a graphic designer who was with him when we met on the train. My stay was completed with a whiskey followed by Pushpa preparing a masala dosa with sambar (vegetable soup) and coconut chutney for me, before I ventured out for my hour train ride back to central Mumbai. It was really nice meeting the family and spending time in an area of the greater metropolis that was not riddled with rushing crowds and noise. It was like coming from downtown San Francisco and spending time with a family in Berkeley--proper culmination to my trip here.

I have reached the end of my journey in India. Tomorrow I depart for Kuala Lumpur. These last few days, I have been reflecting on my thoughts, the sights, sounds, smells and emotions that I've experienced these past couple of months. It hit me on my return from Gopi and Pushpa's house in Navi Mumbai - sitting in the gender segregated section of the local train (all public transportation is segregated due to men sexually harassing women), watching the men hang out off of the door, while the breeze wrapped them in its cooling sheath, India is a beautiful place - straddling the edge of modernity and traditionalism, of extreme poverty and wealth, of progression and regression. The colors are vibrant and peak out at you from the most odd places you wouldn't expect them to. The people are generally extremely faith-based, very friendly, and humble. However - if you need to buy goods/services without fixed prices, you'd better be confident and ready to haggle - because as a foreigner, in merchant's eyes, you are a walking dollar sign and you will get taken for the proverbial ride.

Traveling on a budget like I've been (seven dollar hotel rooms, dollar breakfasts consisting of tangerines, baby bananas, mangos and water, dollar vegetarian dinners), I couldn't afford myself some of the luxuries that I would have liked. I did have periods of selective splurging, but the majority of my adventure was tempered. Upon reflecting, the most apparent gift that I have received from this voyage is a honed sense of will power, discipline, and restraint that I did not have prior to coming. If I come away from this flight with those enhancements to my character - along with everything that I've heard, seen, tasted, felt and experienced here, I can say that my trip has in--fact been life changing.

Love,

Myles