“India is a curious place that still preserves the past, religions, and its history. No matter how modern India becomes, it is still very much an old country.” – Anita Desai

It’s 11: 05 AM on day 1940 of my journey towards independence and I managed to pray, read 2 Corinthians 6 and learn one new thing – Despite its name, Worcestershire sauce was originally an Indian recipe, brought back to Britain by Lord Marcus Sandys, ex-Governor of Bengal. One day in 1835, Sandys appeared in a prospering chemist’s emporium in Worcestershire, England, and asked the chemist to create a batch of sauce from his recipe.

A month ago my family and I went to India I saw and experienced so many things there that I felt compelled to write them down. Take a look:

Observations of India

• Cash is king (as we were leaving the airport upon our arrival the security guard was arguing with my uncle over a few cents)
• India is becoming more open-minded and accepting with each passing day (when I went to India in 2011 everywhere I went people stared at me blatantly but this time around people hardly paid any attention to me it was awesome)
• Some Indians are super nice (one afternoon we were outside a restaurant and a autorickshaw driver put my wheelchair in the boot for us while my sister was putting me in the car after which without a word he came to the passenger side of the car, kissed my hand and left I will never forget him)
• The people I’ve seen in India have no regard for road rules (because the roads are narrow and people are impatient they do some crazy things to get where they need to go like U-turns in the middle of the road and swerving into different lanes ….travelling on Indian roads is SCARY)
• It takes forever to get anywhere in India (we went to visit family friends one day and no joke it took us 4 hours to travel 40 kilometres I could not believe it)
• It always hot (it wasn’t even summer while we were there but the moment we stepped outside we were boiling)
• The people I’ve seen in India have no regard for the environment (people eat in the car then throw the packets outside the window)
• India embraces all religions (I saw a church directly opposite a mosque it was a sight to behold)
• India is designed for the able-bodied (most places you go to in Kerala have stairs and no lifts [simple things like going to restaurants and the movies were the hardest for me because we had to check beforehand if the places were wheelchair accessible])