#nandri: A day at the Market

India enlivens your senses in a way thats hard to describe. The smells, the colors, the sounds...its all so overwhelming in its very perfect way.

I spent last summer working as a camp counselor at Camp Lakey Gap, a camp for children with Autism. We ate our meals quietly and communicated mostly by written word or pictures. As with any summer camp there was always a sense of chaos, despite our calm demeanor and quiet voices. India has proven to be the exact opposite of my camp experience.

Instead of trying to dull down sensory objects it seems as if India's goal is to overstimulate its population. Thousand of people, cars and animals walk along a single street. People participate in 5 conversations at one time. And yet, there is this underlying sense of calm here. Its as if people are both entirely aware and entirely unaware of the chaos that surrounds them. Somehow I am not overstimulated by this environment (although I am usually so quickly overstimulated at home that I insist on turning the music off before having a conversation, or turning the TV off if the phone rings). India is really about finding your groove and falling into it. Like I said, it's hard to describe.

We spent the morning at the market. It was packed full of people and produce. At one point we were even pushed out of the way by a cow! The pictures that we see in magazines really don't convey what its like to be at a traditional Indian market (especially on a Sunday, its busiest day of the week). We snapped a few pictures of our own (half of these are Emily's) -- I am sorry that you can't smell the produce through the computer- it was quite an experience!