India/Israel culture shock, part two

Perspectives shift and change throughout my stay abroad. Whereas six months ago I once made a wrong turn on my way home from work, I now navigate the roads of Mahim with confidence. I recognize the pungent morning smell of mothers cooking with dried chiles, tumeric, and ginger over open fires on Tulsi Pipe road. I know how to flow into (and out of!) the mass of people entering and exiting the trains at rush hour, and I smile and shrug with an Indian ' What to do?' when the water runs out in my apartment as I am washing dishes.

I even have picked up a bit of the Indian "yes-no" head wobble in my day to day conversation, and I find myself emphatically using the nasal "Haaa" ( Hindi for Yes) in my responses, even among expats who only speak English.

Stepping off the plane to Israel, I felt my cultural perspective shift once more. Things that were de riguer in any international airport were now suddenly bizarre and exceptionally large, not to mention stunningly beautiful. The new Ben Gurion Airport is dazzling, its walkways so clean that I would eat off of them, so vast that I smiled to myself picturing rows and rows of people sleeping on them as they do in the streets of Bombay... But where were "my" steps directly out of the airplane into the lush Israeli air? I walked halfway out onto the passage between plane and airport, before realizing that the entire airport as I had known it had been revamped, my mini busses taking crabby passengers to the terminal gone, the large outdoor 'Welcome to Israel' sign, the small dark baggage claim... Its funny the things which are personally sentimental.

Also the Tel Aviv traffic, which once seemed considered unbearable and frustrating, seemed seamless. I even witnessed ( sit down, mumbaikars who are reading this) a SILENT traffic jam in Jerusalem where not one person laid a hand on their horn. During the morning rush hour.

Adjustment to Israel, however strange at first, was a snap compared to re-entering life in Bombay. I didn't realize how different it would all seem once more, and how relieving it is to be a virtually anonymous tourist/Israeli in Haifa, all while running into acquaintances and friends in the midrchovs of its cities. My American accent and whiteness no a big deal, no second glances, no conversations I don't understand. In some sense it had been tiring in Bombay, being stared at all the time, the novelty of being interesting and 'other' wearing off quickly and weary in it of itself. Hearing foreign languages in Israel that you do for once understand is liberating, stimulating, as opposed to frustrating and exhausting.

I had a moment of clarity the flight back to Bombay- Israel is central in its importance in my life, and The Untied States of America and Israel are an intrinsic part of my identity- and the people who are closet to me and know me best reside in those countries. A bumper sticker in the gift ship of the hotel summed it up cheekily- " America, don't worry, Israel is right behind you ". I understand and in some sense ' live' this connection between Israel and the States, as do many of my friends who have bridged America and Israel. As I sat in the middle seat between a turbaned Sikh man and Gujarati woman I had recurring thoughts- What precisely am I doing in India? How did India become my place abroad, when for the last ten odd years of my life the longest plane rides were between my two homes of the States and Israel?

While I do feel certainly that I belong and am welcomed in the Mumbai Jewish communities, I at times am unsure of my place and position in Bombay as an American citizen for the next number of months, especially since many of the expatriates I am friends with here are leaving for home in the next few weeks.

Leaving Israel and not knowing when my next passage out of India would be taking place frightened me. My perspective regarding India had shifted once more on this second trip into the Bharaht (India), perhaps because some of the unknown of this country- its chaos and its crowds and its communities-- is now familiar, while the future of my stay, the potential impact of my work here still unclear.