A hands-on India

This weekend we traveled to the remote congregations on the islands near the Bay of Bengal at the mouth of the Krishna River, visiting six congregations in a twenty-four hour period. On Saturday we ate three times in eight hours. Eating this weekend those meals reminded me that this is a very "hands on" society. There are no eating utensils in the rural areas. Instead, people eat with their right hand only; rice, chicken, fish, lentil paste...it's all eaten with the hands. It reminds me of Jerry Seinfeld's comment about the Chinese people, "They've seen the fork, but they're sticking with the sticks." It's the same here, "They've seen the fork, ,but they're sticking with the hand." Or as a professor at the seminary told me after I asked him at a meal if he wanted a fork to use (we had brought some along for the Americans), "No. God has given me a bigger fork," as he showed me his hand with the fingers spread apart. Sure it is messy, but you really need to slow down to eat and it, eating, involves the sensation of touch in addition to taste, sight, and smell. It is a wholistic experience.

The "hands-on" India extends to their lifestyle as well. In the rural areas especially, the people work hard all day simply to survive. As I served communion yesterday I noticed the hands of the women as they extended their palms out to receive the bread. Each woman's hands were rough and worn from hard work, very unlike the hands of American women and men whose hands are soft from office work and hand creams.

At the end of each worship service, people come forward for prayer and blessing from the pastor. I've had the priveledge of literally laying hands in prayer on hundreds of people while I've been here. While they didn't know what I was praying since I was doing so in English, the touch from my hands communicated to them in a language that crosses cultures. We all need to be touched in gentle and loving ways whether you live in India or America. In one village, a couple invited us into their home to show us their living area. When we got in their, they asked for prayer for them as a couple. So I prayed in the typical American way, head down, hands folded, eyes closed. No touching. It matters that we're all in the same room. After I prayed, the man and the woman in succession gave me a hug. Touch. Again, they had no idea what I prayed, they were just "touched" that I was willing to do so and then showed me through their spontaneous simple hug.

Last week we visited the tailor to get hand-made shirts made for us. The tailoring here is cheap and excellent. People still hand make furniture. Rice is planted and harvested by hand still. Crops are picked by hand. As I was marveling the other day about the coconut trees growing on the seminary grounds, one man said to me, "Do you want a coconut?" "Sure," I replied. He didn't run down to the supermarket to get one, nor make his way into the seminary kitchen to grab a bag of shreaded coconut for me to munch on. No, instead he summed a student to scurry up the tree to pick one of the coconuts from the tree so that they could cut it open. Once open I drank the coconut milk directly from the shell. Awesome. Hands-on.

India while progressing into the 21st century, still has a way to go. India will modernize more and more. However, while technology is great, we also lose a beautiful the "hands-on"ness of a culture. I don't think it is possible to turn back the clock on American culture a do away with technology (unless we want to become Amish), but I do think we miss something living in America 2006 that India still retains. And yet, while I admire the people of India for their working with their hands, I do love the comforts of living in American western society. I hope that technology doesn't diminish the quality of this culture in the future.