Personal Narrative: My Raven Air India

I was 19 when I booked my flight ticket to India. A joyous sense of relief and anticipation filled me. I didn’t know much about India at the time — I hadn’t read any books or taken the time to find out a lot — but I was happy with the magic that this distant and exotic sub-continent evoked in me: mystery and vastness; a multitude of peoples, languages, religions and traditions; and a profound legacy of spiritual upliftment. The weeks leading up to the flight passed quickly, and the more imminent my departure was, the more excited and elated I became. I knew not why; I was simply aware of a sense of… rightness; of following a sunlit path, and of pursuing something novel. My first recollection of India is from the plane. I flew Air India. Normally,

He was three. I was worried. Although statistically speaking India is not necessarily less safe than the US or Israel, I saw how people drive so precariously, I saw open manholes in the middle of the road without so much as a warning sign before them. I saw people welding in the streets, motorbikes turning dangerously with 8-meter-long bamboo poles. I saw burning piles of waste, sending out noxious fumes into the atmosphere. I saw the lack of hygiene – plates still dirty and people who don’t wash their hands and children defecating in the street. And my son asked me why it’s so loud here and why there’s so much waste everywhere. And I felt… unsafe. I felt ill-at-ease. Because there’s a lot to worry about and a lot that can go wrong.

And the filth, oh the filth. The filth... Did I mention the filth? 2. Personal space: When I got to India, I loved the fact that there were so many people, that it was okay to brush up against someone, that you didn’t have to be uber-conscious of everyone’s personal space. It made it easier for me to lose myself, to become less self-conscious, and, thereby, to find myself again and again as someone new, someone with less baggage, someone with a purpose and with a sense of joy at being alive. Going to India, for me, was