Possibilities

Okay, so I am going to India. What, what, what am I going to do there!? I could sit around all day and soak in the experience from Barista, their very own Starbucks-esque coffee shop, watching people from a table by the window and sipping some marvelous brew or other, wrapped in warm repast amid repeated sighs of deep satisfaction.

I could embark on a culinary adventure set to the tune of Mumbai street vendors excitedly hawking everything from pakoras and dosas to samosas, chaat and a lot more I have yet to experience and would likely make me as ill.

I could stay in my hotel room with my remote, order pizza from Pizza Hut (oh yeah baby), get some Guinness and channel surf for something I can understand (just like in Fresno....).

I could do these and a thousand other things. But I am going to India.

India.

Who goes to India just to have Chinese? Why have 'coffee shop' coffee when you can risk everything on in small, corner, one-of-a-kind cafe? When life as you have never experienced before is blasting past you, full tilt, just opposite your door, why sit back and let it all happen without you jumping in, helter skelter, head first, and with wild, reckless abandon?

The simple answer is you don't. Ever. At least not if you want to stay connected.

All our lives we hear "Stay within the box. The box is your friend". There is nothing wrong with the box. I can exist, even flourish, inside the box. But stepping outside the box can be so refreshing. So exhilarating. So life changing.

Since I have never been to India I can only listen, read and ask about what I should expect. Even then, I am told, I will not be prepared for what I will face for the first time in person. The throngs of people, the smog, the dirt, the wallahs, the beggars, the corruption, the theft, the almost-certain-illness.

For me this is like saying "Don't press that button, NO MATTER WHAT!". It's the kind of warning that, after careful consideration, appears to have the opposite-than-desired affect.

Tell me I shouldn't do something and I am all the more intrigued by it.

It's one thing to hear about something. It's another thing altogether to actually experience it. I have been in contact with other travelers who have all run into some of the things that I have described here, and more. And since everything does not appear to be happening to everyone I should be pretty much okay.

An acquaintance of Indian descent went to visit relatives in Delhi but was 'sick the whole time'. Someone from New York is currently there now and experiencing no ill effects (pun intended) whatsoever. The latter did however have to deal issues such as loneliness and the daily "sarong-wallah-ambush". I can't wait!