A Sense of India - Through Touch

I wrote in a Facebook post during my trip “If you have personal space issues, India is not the place you want to be.”

That was not meant to reflect on India in a negative way, it was just an observation I made on many, many occasions.

I am used to children in my classroom crowding around me to talk. I know there are some children who cannot speak without leaning on, holding on, or touching their teacher’s arm. I have gotten used to that over the last two decades in the classroom.

Because I am used to my students’ physical proximity to me, it did not take me too long to become accustomed to the crowds that surrounded me when I visited new schools. “Selfie” was the magic word to immediately surround myself with a large crowd and no discernible personal space. All the students were eager to pose. Crowding ever so close to be in the photo.

Often in markets my partner teacher and I found ourselves being chased down in the market by someone shouting “Selfie? Selfie?” and then crowding together with us we posed for a shot with our new friends. It became the new norm for our trip.

To me it gave me a sense of trust knowing strangers were comfortable enough with me that there was no issue of leaning in close and being in contact with one another.

Elevators were another thing.

We stopped at The Chennai Silks to do some shopping in Vellore one afternoon. We were going to the top floor and chose to wait for the elevator. It was small, designed for 8 or so people. There had to have been at least 15 of us crammed in there with absolutely no regard for personal space.

Taking a selfie with a crowd of students is one thing. Being shoulder to shoulder, nearly face to face with strangers in an elevator is way out of my comfort zone.

When I reflect on India another touch memory that comes back to me was the touch of hand

s. Hundreds of hands. All eager to shake our hands.

As Tom and I made our way around the various schools, children and adults alike reached out to shake our hands.

“Hello sir.”

“Welcome sir.”

“Nice to meet you sir.”

It was overwhelming the response we received. Children would reach out to shake our hands or to pull us over to take a selfie or drag us off to look at the game they were playing. At the end of one day, I think I had ‘politician’s hand’ it ached from shaking so many hands. My right hand was even bruised a little.

The touch of a hand can mean so many things. In the case of everyone we met, it meant we were welcome to be in that moment with everyone that was around us.