India travel - my thoughts
India gives you a sensory jolt each time you visit it. Lot changes between two visits. The country is fast moving away from socialism that defined its past few decades. There is a booming capitalism now getting shaped by its younger generation and bringing a lot of equity in the society. This generation is courageous - not shying away from taking risks and exploring new career paths. It is absorbing a mix of many global cultures. Aesthetics and sense of style is taking its own shape and color which is not necessarily western and in some cases uniquely “Indian”. The exponential growth of cafes, restaurants, boutique stores, spiritual hubs, and entertainment activities, all now have an Indian touch to it. These places have significantly changed in every possible way one can imagine - they are hip, tech savvy, modern, aesthetically vibrant and youthful.
Each strata of the community has found its own outlet. One thing is clear - everyone wants to express - be it through their entrepreneurial set ups or through their loud meta world (reels, videos, blogs et al) or even through their unspoken silence (spiritual forays, meditation retreats et al). At its core, there is a movement and a sense of restlessness in everyone. It appears 1.5 billion people are now finally coming out of the closet and expressing themselves. All engines on full acceleration. One distraction leading to another, one noise mixing with another noise to create different noise which then flows into a new space which has its own noise. And that’s how things seem to be moving all around.
What’s fueling this energy in India? Is it the result of a booming economy which is yielding an era of consumerism in a densely populated country? Or Is it technological progress where not only India but the whole world is learning to do things differently and India is no different? And how do we make sense of it? Is this energy good in the long term? Are we marching towards creating something meaningful? Are people finding true happiness or are we creating a next generation that is confused and lost? There was a time when one would take a pause, assess the past and try to measure how far we have come in our lives. Comparison with the past gave us a sense of accomplishment, a sense of contentment as one could measure the journey covered from the start and find solace in it - but now things are running in so many directions, things that were linear are now multidimensional and it’s getting hard to measure how far we have traversed. The mental models to assess our happiness levels are failing. So much happens in daily life that even life changing events like getting a good education, landing a great job, getting married, having a kid or loss of a near and dear ones seem not to be sticking in the mind. It seems emotions that would hit hard in the past don’t hit us with similar intensity. It could just be a reality of the “new” times we live in. And ironically “new” doesn’t even hold any relevance as there is no sense of relativity in it. It’s not old vs new anymore.
India will continue to head in its own direction, the future of which is yet unwritten. It has a history of 6000 years which has seen many evolutionary cycles. While it may be hard to make sense of “good” or “bad” of the current times, there is still something unique that differentiates it from any other country. The thing that India had and will continue to have is a past baked in deep spiritual concepts and a holistic framework towards living life. The deeper self awakening and an appreciation of simpler principles of life - love, kindness, peace, innocence are yet not lost and the new generation still appreciates them no matter how materially consumed they may be in their own life. There is still an unspoken individuality anchored in these principles which is what continues to drive them. One still finds this trace of consciousness in them. And as long as it remains this way, one will always find India unique and lovable.
