India

It’s nothing like what I expected – although I’m not entirely sure what I was going to expect.

From the moment we stepped out customs, it was a sea of people. There is a certain relief when you see your name on a card being held by taxi service to take you to your hotel. Once in the car, the traffic, even late at night, amazes me. The lines on the road mean nothing – they are just lines on the road. People are walking in the median on the freeway, rickshaws are cycling on the shoulder of the freeway with anywhere from 1 to 8 people inside, stop signs and traffic lights are ignored. People drive whatever speed they feel comfortable with. If you need to pull across traffic, there’s no need to wait for an opening in traffic, they just drive into oncoming traffic and wait. If you need to get around a car, just drive into the oncoming lane of traffic to get around. To an outsider, it may seem like chaos, and yet, traffic moves, horns honk, but there are no accidents. Maybe because I was jetlagged, I didn’t care, but even today, I sat there motionless and let the driver do the driving.

As chaotic as the city can be, the moment we pull into the hotel compound, the world changes. After driving through the gates, the noise and smells of the city seem to immediately stop and you are greeting with quiet and the smell of lemongrass and sandalwood. Someone opens my car door and escorts me through the calm pools and gardens to the lobby. The front doors are opened and the cool air of the lobby slaps you in the face. I try to keep my jaw from hitting the floor (acting like I check into world-class 5-star hotels all the time), but my mind is reeling with opulence, cleanliness, and beauty of this place.

Since most of our India office supports work in the UK, they tend to work UK hours. We have showed up both mornings at 10am and even still, we are the first people in the office. Most people show up between 11 and 12 and work to 7 and 8pm. I also realize the commonality of all our offices globally. All of our offices utilize an open-office concept. There are very few offices, and very few walls.

Power outages occur often – at the hotel and office. Every place has backup generators that kick on, but let’s just say, when you are in the bathroom and all the lights go out for 1 minute, you just learn to stay where you are at. They always kick back on after a minute or two.

The drive to and from the office lets us see a bit of Delhi. The basic things I have noticed are no zoning, no parking lots, and farm animals in the city. It’s not uncommon to see wild pigs, dogs, cows, and horses roaming around. I’ve been told there are monkeys around, but have yet to see them. You look up and see beautiful high-rise apartments and office buildings, but when you look at the base, you see the tin lean-to’s where kids are running around and raw sewage runs through the shacks. Construction is everywhere in Delhi. They have told us how so much has boomed in the last 5 years and that property values have shot up 400%. Since the cost of living in the city is high, many of our workers live a ways out, but they have taxis pick up every worker and bring them in to work every day and take them home every night. They are considered a preferred provider since they do this and use air-conditioned taxis. It’s basically a car-pool service picking up to 6 people, but logistically is a nightmare to manage.

The dichotomy between the hotel and the city strikes me. I know we are told to “live in the world, but not of it”. Living in the hotel is quite, peaceful, calm, beautiful, and a safe haven. But I can’t work there, and I can’t stay there (I would like to stay there, but I think I would get to fat and happy being waited on hand-and-foot). We have to leave the comfort zone and go into the world. We have to see the poverty, feel the heat, smell the city, and work among the people. We have to stop being served and serve others. As Christians, you need the safe haven for retreat from the world, for worship, for fellowship, but you can’t stay there. You have to go out into the world, make a difference, and work. Matthew 29:19 “Therefore go . . . “.