INDIA

There's the world to explore... And then there's India. A whole other planet. It's so varied, so diverse, yet people seem inexorably connected.
First, I felt like an alien. I felt like when I went to Maranhão, my father's home state, for the first time. Like I've never seen, smelled, heard, sensed, the real world. Because India is the real work, not manicured Europe, that I love, don't take me wrong, or North America. And I must confess, I prefer to visit the real world rather than the very well planned urban spaces. Yes, I like the planned comforts of the urbanism, and I probably prefer to live on them (yes, I'm hypocritical sometimes...) . But from time to tome we just need to be energized by real people having real intense deep grounding connections and existences.
We live so disconnect from what matters here in the West: family, spirit, soul, care, connection, love. I'm not saying India is perfect, far from that. The sexism is aggravating and it hides itself behind the veil of religion, which to me makes it even more disgusting and insurmountable. But there are people, people, people, flooding like bees from a beehive, everywhere. And I'm a people's person. The thing I appreciate the most about being alive is human interaction. And in India I had so many wonderful, beautiful, unexpected, uncomfortable, undesired, hilarious and specially enriching encounters like that, that I felt enchanted every single day of my trip.
The fact is India is a delight to the senses. Even though I don't like Indian food and curry, so that sense was out of the picture for me. But the sight, the hearing, the smell and even the touch are so stimulated (no concept of personal space in India, sorry). There's a lot of noise, I thought Brazil was noisy, not at all, motorcycles, trucks, cars, people, music, it's deafening. But oh so many colors! Not a single sari print is the same, it's amazing! And I was worried about the smells before I got there, but they were just fine, I think Brazil can be worse actually.
And in India death and life are in place everywhere, all the time, and I love it. It's all about the cycle of existence, birth, death, rebirth. Life is sacred, it's cherished as a divine gift, and so is death. Death is integrated in daily life, not denied and swept under the rug like here in the West. It is just a passage, it's not the end, maybe it's just the beginning, since it's viewed as liberation from material existence. I've always been fascinated by death, by the silence and stillness I imagine death is all about, and see people actually embracing it felt like I was understood finally.
There's a lot more to write about India, don't worry. I'll write about people, places, bad experiences (I did get a Delhi belly 2 days before I was supposed to leave)  and beautiful moments. I'll definitely go back to India some day.