Every Time You Return from a Long Voyage, You Always Have A Story to Tell

Last summer, when my daughter, Yuanyuan, told me that she wanted to join the School’s community trip to India, the first thing I did was to dissuade her from going. My research about India on the Internet shows all the things you want to avoid: women attacked on buses, water undrinkable, malaria, etc. My persistent advising, however, only made Yuanyuan more determined to go. The trip led by Mr. Pollach and Ms. Moore lasted ten days, and as a typical Chinese Mum, I did not sleep well for more than 10 days, until I saw Yuanyuan arriving at the Beijing International Airport in one piece, sun-tanned like an Indian, with a huge smile, shining eyes, and exhausted! I have never seen Yuanyuan as excited as she was. She was telling her stories one after another, nonstop. One would think she had been to the Mars, or at least the Moon if you witnessed her excitement. I had written off her excitement as just typical tourist curiosity, aggravated by jetlag, and an Indian temperature of 45 degrees Celsius, until however, I saw some untypical and profound changes in her. Yuanyuan told me the trip to India transformed her life. She was for the first time looked upon as a “foreigner” because of her skin, an experience she never had before either in China or in US. The innocent, friendly and polite faces she saw at the Delhi airport totally wiped away all the previous bad perceptions she had about Indian people. In contrast to an expectation that Indian people are not fond of Chinese people, the airport representative, a Brahman, who “escorted” Yuanyuan to make a connection flight at midnight talked about China in a very respectful manner, constantly praising China, almost in awe about Chinese achievement of lifting poverty and building immense infrastructure and an effective education system. The School group visited a school for under-privileged kids in Ananya, a small city in Southern India. Yuanyuan told me the children come to the school having various troubles within their families, and the school offers them love that lack in their families. “I would not share every one of the stories I heard about the children in Ananya, because they deserve more respect than pity. In Ananya, education is the way to teach the children to live with respect for themselves, despite where they come from, and when they graduate from Ananya, they have learned to respect others and themselves as equals. They may become construction workers, or dish washers, tractor drivers - the mission of the school is to make sure they do these work with dignity and self-respect”, wrote Yuanyuan. Yuanyuan's observation of India is holographic and totally fresh, unencumbered by any fixed narratives – I guess only a teenager can do this! Ten days of travel in India provide her a panorama of Indian society ranging from all walks of people to all walks of society – she becomes a guru on India in our family. She also developed a first-handed impression of plurality seeing a Hindus temple is side by side with a Christian Church and a Muslim mosque that the movie “Life of Pie” shows. “Difference means difference and differences can co-exist and flourish’’, she concluded. Returning from India Yuanyuan opened a blog account with Wordpress and started to write blogs. Her enterprise of writing continues until today and her first three blogs are all about India and reflections about the Indian trip. I hope she keeps on writing. I must thank my kid's school and in particular Mr. Pollach and Ms. Moore for arranging such a trip with a wonderful balance of comfort and grit but with total security. It’s not just an enlightening trip for Yuanyuan, but also an enlightening trip for me. Some philosopher must have said that all experiences become one’s life, I can truly see this verified in her. “Every time you return from a long voyage, you always have a story to tell”，says Arthur Schopenhauer. I cannot agree with him more.