We arrived back in Delhi, tired but sad to have the Indian adventure end. We took one last sightseeing trip to the famous Baha'i temple in Delhi called the Lotus Temple. We spent as much time as we could with Janis and Sophia, and even took a few more cooking lessons. Then, it was time to head back. The flight was bittersweet. We knew it had to end, but we still had so much to see and really started enjoying the Indian culture. We looked out the plane windows down on Delhi and it already felt like we were waking from an unbelievable dream. When we arrived at Houston International, Amy turned to Rob and said, "Did we really just spend two months in India? It feels like a dream." Rob responded by looking around and stating, "We must have, because it seems so clean here that I could lick the floor!" We shared a good laugh and walked back into our American lives.
Some final thoughts:
We pretty much ate vegetarian while in India. It was amazing how easy it was to find vegetarian food and how different it is from the Western notion of vegetarian cuisine (aka - iceburg lettuce on bread or tofu turkey). The dishes were so delicious and different, you would never know that it was meatless. Upon returning to The States, Amy has decided to continue with the vegetarian diet and Rob has returned to being, as he calls it, a "meatatarian." At least for now. One thing that helped them in their decision was something that was said at our Buddhism course. The teacher said, "Buddhism emphasizes compassionate living and this can be interpreted to mean many different things. If you want to be 100% compassionate, you'll get so extreme that you won't be able to eat anything or even leave your house out of concern for accidentally stepping on a bug. So, what's the answer? You need to find what you, personally, are comfortable with. Are you okay with eating meat? Great, do that. Are you okay with eating eggs, but no meat? Great, do that." This was a good lesson for us. Amy had been struggling for awhile trying to figure out what to eat. She has done a lot of research about the animal industry and factory farms and couldn't figure out what to do with the information and how far to let it affect her eating behavior. This little lesson helped us figure out that Rob likes eating meat, so he's okay with it. Amy would prefer not to, so she will choose other options. It's about making decisions that you will feel comfortable with, not trying to "do the right thing" or trying to change anyone or judge anybody for their choices. It's interesting to see a culture where around 40% of the population is vegetarian, and they all seem to be doing just fine. For Amy, it may well be true that we humans need to eat meat for maximum health, but she is okay with the possibility of shaving off a few years of her life in order to save possibly hundreds, if not thousands of animals. For Rob, it may well be true that humans need to avoid meat for maximum health, but he is okay with shaving off a few years of his life and slaughtering thousands of animals in order to consume their tasty flesh. At least for now. He'll probably go vegetarian someday, just not right now. The beauty is, we all have a choice, and there is no need to judge each other for it.
We were slightly terrified at the thought of dropping ourselves off in a foreign country with nothing but a couple of backpacks and a guidebook, but we were lucky to meet up with some very kind people who made our travels much easier. Even so, we want to encourage everyone to take an outlandish adventure, the thought of which scares the crap out of you. You don't need a safety net. Have faith in the people of the world to take care of you. Two years ago, we never would have pictured ourselves doing anything like this, but we heard enough stories of people going out on their own and relying on the kindness of strangers to make their travels possible, that we finally came to the conclusion that it can't be that hard. We think that a key thing for our India adventure was our willingness to accept the bad with the good, both of them being necessary ingredients for a worthwhile experience. Thank you to all of our friends who inspired us before this trip, the friends who supported us and encouraged us during the trip, and to all of our friends who have welcomed us back home. We love you all! You make us feel like the luckiest people in the world.
Love,
Rob and Amy
Some final thoughts:
We pretty much ate vegetarian while in India. It was amazing how easy it was to find vegetarian food and how different it is from the Western notion of vegetarian cuisine (aka - iceburg lettuce on bread or tofu turkey). The dishes were so delicious and different, you would never know that it was meatless. Upon returning to The States, Amy has decided to continue with the vegetarian diet and Rob has returned to being, as he calls it, a "meatatarian." At least for now. One thing that helped them in their decision was something that was said at our Buddhism course. The teacher said, "Buddhism emphasizes compassionate living and this can be interpreted to mean many different things. If you want to be 100% compassionate, you'll get so extreme that you won't be able to eat anything or even leave your house out of concern for accidentally stepping on a bug. So, what's the answer? You need to find what you, personally, are comfortable with. Are you okay with eating meat? Great, do that. Are you okay with eating eggs, but no meat? Great, do that." This was a good lesson for us. Amy had been struggling for awhile trying to figure out what to eat. She has done a lot of research about the animal industry and factory farms and couldn't figure out what to do with the information and how far to let it affect her eating behavior. This little lesson helped us figure out that Rob likes eating meat, so he's okay with it. Amy would prefer not to, so she will choose other options. It's about making decisions that you will feel comfortable with, not trying to "do the right thing" or trying to change anyone or judge anybody for their choices. It's interesting to see a culture where around 40% of the population is vegetarian, and they all seem to be doing just fine. For Amy, it may well be true that we humans need to eat meat for maximum health, but she is okay with the possibility of shaving off a few years of her life in order to save possibly hundreds, if not thousands of animals. For Rob, it may well be true that humans need to avoid meat for maximum health, but he is okay with shaving off a few years of his life and slaughtering thousands of animals in order to consume their tasty flesh. At least for now. He'll probably go vegetarian someday, just not right now. The beauty is, we all have a choice, and there is no need to judge each other for it.
We were slightly terrified at the thought of dropping ourselves off in a foreign country with nothing but a couple of backpacks and a guidebook, but we were lucky to meet up with some very kind people who made our travels much easier. Even so, we want to encourage everyone to take an outlandish adventure, the thought of which scares the crap out of you. You don't need a safety net. Have faith in the people of the world to take care of you. Two years ago, we never would have pictured ourselves doing anything like this, but we heard enough stories of people going out on their own and relying on the kindness of strangers to make their travels possible, that we finally came to the conclusion that it can't be that hard. We think that a key thing for our India adventure was our willingness to accept the bad with the good, both of them being necessary ingredients for a worthwhile experience. Thank you to all of our friends who inspired us before this trip, the friends who supported us and encouraged us during the trip, and to all of our friends who have welcomed us back home. We love you all! You make us feel like the luckiest people in the world.
Love,
Rob and Amy
