Cows Eat Garbage

 Yes, that's right: cows eat garbage.  Yesterday, I worked on reading with a ten-year-old girl at the Loreto Day School.  As we tried to complete activities in the reading book that her teacher suggested, we worked on a page that required her to select the appropriate response to complete the sentence.  One question was something along the lines of, "Cows like to eat ______ (toys, grass, sugar)."  In America, most children would say, "grass," automatically because the answer is simply obvious.  I would give that answer, at least.  This girl also knew the answer automatically.  Without looking at the choices, she said, "Garbage!"  And she was right.  The book may disagree, but the many cows that roam the streets of India always eat garbage.

Today is the halfway point of my trip.  Upon reflecting on my first two months in India, it occurs to me that yesterday's amusement provides a good example of what India has meant to me so far.  I came with a firm understanding of what is what and how the world works according to my experiences in Minnesota.  India has forced me to change some of these thoughts and reconsider the obvious.  For example, a quality hotel will not necessarily have a working shower head.  The best food may be not at the cleanest restaurant but at the dirty stand on the street.  And, yes, people can kindly make a path to the metro door even when packed tighter than sardines.

I have unquestionably fallen in love with India.  My list of things I want to see and places I want to visit is so long that some items have already fallen into the "Next Trip to India" category.  But in the end, India's impact on me will not be a matter of remembering great trips and sights.  I will never forget the Taj Mahal, riding camels in the desert, or this weekend's trip to the Sundarbans.  More importantly, I will never forget the little things that made me reconsider the obvious.  The "salt of the earth" is not a tasty addition to food but rather an absolute necessity if food is to be edible, as one homily insisted.  Respectable people can eat rice with their hands rather than with silverware.  Cows, dogs, and cats all like to eat garbage.