Neighborhood Muse Walk

Recently I decided to walk around my neighborhood and take a closer look at the people, buildings, and colorful culture that surrounds me--well almost surrounds me. My apartment, which is in a gated and sheltered oasis from the realities of the neighborhood, has been built to ensure that its guests won't be surrounded too closely by the realities of Bangalore. So naturally I wanted to experience the dichotomy which exists a few steps away from my front door--something that I'm usually only allowed to observe from the backseat of my chauffeured car.

My apartment building is a complex appropriately named Zen Gardens to attract expatriates, foreign nationals, and other corporate citizens. There are several of us expats living here from Target, Goldman Sachs, IBM, and other multinational corporations. The complex is cleaned and maintained by a crew consisting of gardeners, housekeepers, security guards, and other staff. The main structures of the two buildings were completed just last spring and some of the apartments are still under construction, so our places are new and mostly owned and furnished by local investors. The grounds are quiet, patrolled, and calm.


The view across the street from Zen Gardens is profoundly different. The streets are filled with buses, trucks, cars, motor scooters and motorcycles (referred to as "two wheelers" in India), people of all ages, dogs, cows, goats, and anything else you can think of. Most fascinating are the piles of bricks, rocks and other rubble that line the streets and grace the front step of nearly half of the buildings and houses. Directly to the left of our front gate are several garbage piles where you will always see either a cow, dog, or goat munching on the latest treats. On this day there were a couple of dogs and a goat having an afternoon snack as a woman washed her laundry on the sidewalk (well, there really aren't any sidewalks either--they're just rock slabs lined next to each other... mostly).

I also caught the interest of the local kids who were excited to see a man with a camera taking pictures of animals and garbage, so they naturally started lining up for pictures with their smiles and laughter. Their favorite part is when I would show them their picture on my digital camera--they loved that!

I spent the afternoon just walking, listening, watching, (smelling), and experiencing my neighborhood. My muse walk was enlightening. The contrasts are so clear and powerful you can't help but be instantly moved into a state of introspection.

When I returned to the gates of Zen Gardens I was greeted by the usual 3-4 security guards, the iron gates were opened to me and I was once again welcomed into my protected sanctuary. I suddenly felt a rush of relief and gratitude, yet pangs of guilt and sadness. I felt grateful for the privilege to be experiencing life in India but also selfish for complaining about my water not being hot enough or my fan not keeping me cool. It's all a matter of perspective, but that's exactly what leaving your comfortable environment gives you. That's why I love to travel so much--it always teaches me to be grateful for what I have.

Today I am reminded to be grateful, and that is good.