Unity in Diversity

India is the land of contrasts – and as we have discovered, the national sentiment of “unity in diversity” could not be more fitting for a country with a truly stunning amount of diversity that has taken us all by surprise. And somehow it all comes together in a hectic yet peaceful co-existence of the old and the new, the rich and the poor, the traditional and the state-of-the-art.

On a national scale, each of the 28 states have their own regional cuisine, language, traditions, dress, etc. My current host family exemplifies a “blended” family with respect to regional differences where husband and wife speak English and Hindi to one another, Marathi to one set of parents and Gujarati to the other.

As we are learning this week, even within Pune itself are remarkable displays of mind-bending disparities – exploring different neighborhoods feels like visiting entirely different cities. Last week we stayed in a more industrial part of the city and the hub of manufacturing. Back again this week after the conference in Lonavla, we are closer to the heart of the city and old town Pune. As we discovered today, the old town is an overwhelming and thrilling experience of narrow laneways (by North American standards, wide enough only to accommodate one way traffic but here are multidirectional by-ways) clogged with cars, motorbikes, garbage and waste, colorful fruit and vegetable stalls, stunningly vibrant textiles and cloth, ornate balconies and crumbling facades of buildings. It is a mysteriously chaotic and beautiful sight.

On an even smaller scale, witnessing contrasts is unavoidable even while driving down the same block … within the span of 2 minutes you can pass a small boy playing in a puddle of stagnant water, billboards advertising lavish condo developments, ladies expertly balancing bowls of rice on their heads, gated homes, cows lazily making their way down the street, shiny new malls with huge glass windows, women washing their clothes in metal buckets and hanging them over open windows … One of our hosts put it this way: “Pune is a bustling city that still has not lost its small town feel. Where else would you have to stop your car and wait for 2 ladies to finish catching up on the days news halfway in the middle of a busy laneway?…”