Day 95: Everybody has got 5.5 liters of blood

I had the opportunity to visit Bangalore, India in 2000 for 8 weeks.  It was an amazing experience.  Totally sensory.  The sounds of the city never cease, even in the middle of the night.  Honking horns to warn people you are driving around a corner.  Street vendors shouting their daily specials.

The visual imagery of India is lasting.  Throngs of beautiful brown-skinned people, dressed in an array of brightly colored sarees and kurta pyjamas.  The contrast of beautiful homes directly next door to slums.  Cows stopping traffic, with cars 5 or 6 across what we would consider to be a two or three-lane highway.  Heads bobbing side to side in affirmation.

The smells are potent.  Burning incense to greet you as you enter a shop.  The smell of raw sewage as you drive over what at first glance appears to be a river.  The constant smell of burning trash.

Indian food is a tasty combination of sweet and savory.  Spice.  Rich creamy sauces and rice in abundance.  Combine your taste and touch sensations at each meal, as food is eaten by hand.  Combine the rice with sauce into a cohensive clump, hold with your four fingers cupping the food, and push it into your mouth with your thumb.

I loved my time there.  But the heart break of poverty is so evident and accepted that there was a lot of confusion and questions as well.  The caste system still exists, separating the poorest of the poor from the richest of the rich.  But even in these set ways, and centuries of ingrained ideals and traditions, there are heroes in India.  People that recognize we are all the same, regardless of our status in society.  "Everybody has got 5.5 liters of blood.  I am just a human being."  Narayanan Krishnan is serving these people.  Nourishing their bodies and encouraging their spirit.  

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