Namaste! Never would I ever thought or say that India is dope, but here I am writing about the country. I would have thought that India would be the last country that I would ever visit just because nothing really stood out for me. But boy oh boy was I wrong. I encourage everyone that read the following to visit visit visit. Exceeded my expectation I have to say. Wow just wow… that traffic though! Haha. Just kidding! Other than the traffic it is an experience of a life time. Actually let me rephrase that for India first timers. Traffic in India WOULD BE an experience of a lifetime for y’all! Bottom line, I think I will go back to India some day. One day.
So you ask why is the country amazing? Let me start with FOOD (hmm hmm hmm)! Honestly, I have no idea what I was eating most of the time HOWEVER everything taste sooo gooooddd! Praise the Lord I did not get the Delhi Belly! For some reason I would always ask the waiter what I was eating knowing that I would not know what the ingredients were. So I would nod and pretend I know what they were talking about. Smooth right? I know I know! By the way DO NOT eat street food! Free tip from me to you. Another free tip – try everything, order food that will surprise you. This is the best part about travelling to ‘a whole new world…’. See what I did there? Ha! Leave your pickiness at your home country yo!
Culture. Of course, if you travel to another country that do not speak English you will experience the culture. Well you probably would get hit by the culture shock. Just the crowd, the dirtiness, traffic, traffic, traffic, food, where lines do not exist, rudeness of people, hospitality and respect, simple life, near death experiences of the road, oh did I mention traffic? As you can read there are 2 things that I mention that contradicted each other. Rudeness of people and hospitality/respect. Well as you all know every country in the world will have rude homies, it is inevitable not to have them, but if you put into account the population of India it is given that you would meet a lot more of them. So expect to encounter a whole bunch of rude people. Make no mistake though, there are also a whole bunch of nice, respectful and lovely people as well! Do not let your encounters with rude people ruin the image of the whole country. I met some awesome and lovely people that were pure gold. Leaving conversations with such joy and thankfulness. Have some time and talk to randoms, ask them how they are, trust me it’s worth it.
Monuments. Yes I only visited Taj Mahal and Agra Fort but seriously I think all other cities would have an amazing experience and story no matter what. Just a surreal moment to step into the tunnel entrance of Taj Mahal and see the building itself from afar. It is truly truly magnificent. I mean I watched Aladdin and I thought that was cool. TRUST ME, it is even better in real life. Yes, I know…. I have also been told that Aladdin was not set India. Blah blah blah…. Let me live my life yo! Hehe.
It was astounding to hear the history of how and why Taj Mahal was created from our tour guide named Rahul. To cut the story short Shah Jahan (An emperor during that time) loved his third wife Mumtaz Mahal so much that he built the monument to tomb her inside. Now you know how it got its name. Basically the Taj has nothing inside except a tomb. It took 10 years to build, all done with marble and jewels, and guess how much it would have cost today? US$800+ million!!!! #Allbuiltforlove. Romantic huh? To hear a story like that is kinda shocking. Good shock. Speechless and somewhat you admire the guy for doing that. I think it is what we all desire, for a person to love another human being just like Mr Jahan. Over the course of the tour it hit me…. the greatest love that anyone could ever know, is the love of Jesus. A love that we are so used to by now that we don’t really appreciate it any more. We should be in awe everyday that His love overcame the cross and grave to find our soul. We are His greatest creation. We are the temple, the greatest monument that has ever existed because of His love for us. Even better than the 7 wonders of the world. He sacrificially gave His life to die on the cross whether we know Him, love Him, hate Him or don’t know Him.
— For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. John — 3:16-17
The difference with His creation is that he doesn’t need us to love or know Him back. It is a one way love with no strings attached. How does He do it? To love people that doesn’t love Him back? It is already hard enough to love someone that loves you back right? 2 words…UNCONDITIONAL LOVE. Can you imagine a God that would only love us with conditions? That would never work. The thing is, we sometimes lose focus because of the world, we forget to just stop and appreciate His creation, us. No matter what anyone says about you, remember you were worth dying for. For the women out there, please do not let the world change or shape you for who you are. The word said you were created with perfection. –So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.– Genesis 1:27. THAT is love. (Exception: unless God tells you specifically to change, for example – bad habits. Hehe. Remember to always line it up with the word of God!)
Now lets get back to the highlights shall we? Got a bit too intense there….Agra Fort! Man I have to say… it was gigantic! Currently, portion of it are still being used by the Indian army. Pretty dope! Ain’t nobody messing with them! I believe the fort was created for war purposes, that is a given…. However the most interesting theory and sad part was that Shan Jahan was actually kept under ‘fort arrest’ by his son as he spent too much money building monuments. Story was told that Shan Jahan wanted to build a BLACK Taj Mahal for himself so that he could be tombed inside once he passes away, just across the river from the White Taj Mahal. His son apparently was a humble man and did not like to spend money extravagantly. To stop his father, he had to imprisoned him inside the Agra fort. Rumour has it, he died at a tower with a marble balcony looking at the Taj Mahal.
Poverty. To see the poverty in India saddens my heart. So why would that be a highlight for me? Sometimes you need a reality check and see it for yourself to remind you that you are one blessed human being. It just encourages myself to become better, appreciate my life of where I’m at, be a blessing to others, thankful of where I am and where I live. — In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ” Acts 20:35– #wordd
It’s crazy though, I could see there are people suffering and at the same time there others who are just happy of where they are, I guess it is all about perspective of what has been given to them. 2 choices, to dance in the hallway while doors are closed or to stand still with an attitude in the darkness. I guess my encouragement to everyone is to be thankful where you are at. Count your blessings. If you think you have it rough always remember there are other people that has it even rougher. You don’t need everything of this world to live a happy life. There were kids playing cricket in the streets with sticks as bats and stones as wickets, they didn’t let their circumstances stop them, instead they were having fun, living a simple life.
— For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? Matthew 16:25,26 — Remember that when we die we ain’t gonna take nothing with us. Live life to the fullest even if you don’t have the names, fame and money. Do not waste nor lose your life by chasing all of these things.
For my fellow Christians, let fire be lit up in your hearts for those who has lost its flame. For those who aren’t Christians, let my travel experience raise questions whether Jesus is real or not. One baby step at a time. Blessings.
#justsomeasianguythatlovestotravelandJesus
HowToPronounceIwan 