One of the interns I interviewed for Leave UR Mark last week told me that he used to be able to visualize everything he was going to do in life. The only exception to that, he said, was his work in India, which he could never really picture himself doing until he was actually in the middle of it. Having visited so many projects here in Bangalore, I realize that what he said held true for me as well. I came here with expectations, certainly, but nearly all of them were broken and I realize now, halfway through my time here, that that is a very good thing.
On the rooftop of the Leave UR Mark apartment
I would have never expected, for example, to be spending a few days helping little kids wash their hands and brush their teeth. Studying international politics, I tend to look at the world on a larger scale, trying to sift out the big problems that need solving. But how real are those big problems, and what do they mean once you stand in front of twenty little kids who eat lunch with the same hands with which they just touched that mangy dog? Helping to teach those kids basic hygiene introduced them and their parents to the concepts of soap and toothbrushes, and could – shoving aside ideas of grand-scale healthcare reforms – have an impact as big as prolonging their lives right there and then. Experiencing that kind of impact on a person’s life was something I would not have expected, but which at the same time was a privileged invitation to change my look on the world: be it through teaching hygiene, or simply through being there for a group of abandoned children to play with. The impact that one volunteer can have on India is formidable, politics or not.
Nor is that impact restricted to one-on-one volunteering. Another thing I would never have expected to see, for example, is the kind of compassion I found while visiting an intern at a microfinance institution. To my surprise, the project was set up entirely on a non-profit basis, as an initiative by a small group of people to help lift their neighbors out of poverty. Nevertheless, the organization was engaged in lifting 1200 women out of poverty. I had heard of microfinance before, of course, but to see the concept applied by people who make no money off of it but do spend a lot of their spare time helping organize the project and travel around to interview its members; that is something no book on ethics can help you grasp.
To see the city of Bangalore through the eyes of so many interns and volunteers who have come to India to do such life-changing work really is a privilege, and again one that I couldn’t fully appreciate until I came here. It has been a pleasant surprise to find how much an individual can accomplish, in whatever kind of internship, through perseverance (no, please don’t brush your teeth a fourth time) and the positive outlook on life that keeps you working with a smile (internet’s down, let’s go outside and help those kids get their cricket ball out of that tree).
In the end, it all comes down to what every intern has told me in every interview I have taken so far: if you want to have a good time in India, be flexible. Not only is it a lifesaver on the streets, but it will lead you to do things you normally wouldn’t, and help you open your eyes to those aspects of Indian life that most tourists miss. Without a doubt, it is flexibility that will make your time in India truly worthwhile and enjoyable.
