XIX. Glimpses from the Mundane and the Material

When I first traveled within India back in the 1970s, it almost always was by overnight train. On these trips, there were the inevitable 21, or so, questions. These included ones such as: Where is your family? Are you married? Friend or Wife? How much did that backpack cost? How old are you? What does your father do? What is your education? How much money do you earn? Do you like Indian food? I met this Canadian man, Peter, who printed out an answer sheet for the questions he was regularly asked. He mentioned that people received this very favorably, often asked a few other questions, usually by way of clarification, and then they would move on to other matters for discussion.

As much as I was amused by these questions, the latitude I was given to respond, and the true interest in my response; I was more struck by how very soon after we dispatched with the 21 questions and answers that the conversation would turn toward things spiritual. Religion was mixed up in this, but not in the kind of pedantic, often proselytizing way that I experienced religion to be used in the US. People really did want to probe the depths of human understanding to discover and ponder universal truths that would emerge from this kind of discourse. Over that time and in the subsequent years that I lived here I got very used to, and comfortable with, this kind of exploration. I was willing, indeed eager, to drink from this deep well of potential understanding because I learned a lot about myself and what I have found to be universal truths along the way. I think that everyone who seeks to understand life’s deeper meaning wants this. It is sad that so few receive it.

In retrospect, the absence of this probing introspection and deep connection with others was a major source of culture shock when I did return home. Big cars were the outward manifestation of the shock; and they have gotten ever bigger over the years! Of course, they are “needed” to cover vast distances at high speeds because we have been deceived into believing more mundane, crass, and
superficial things are the necessities of life. Having embarked on this cumbersome journey, the privacy entailed, indeed effectively required, shuts out any such possibility of spiritual striving – though I rarely even perceive dim glimmers of the urge.The Indian middle class is growing and with that growth has emerged a trend toward private automobiles (along with the hostile urban environments it creates) and airplane trips (with forward-facing seats and short travel times) that have dampened this experience in important ways.

Still, on the way back home to Kharghar by train from the 14th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health on Thursday night I was able to converse with a retired Army colonel on topics ranging from price supports for agricultural commodities to the inevitability of terrorist attacks in a world without understanding, respect and love for one another. It also comforts me to know that conversations with colleagues here almost always turn to the philosophical, if not explicitly spiritual, underpinnings of what we do. I cannot work this hard without belief in the inherent goodness and worth of it all. I am happy to report that I also have drawn colleagues back home into this kind of discourse; for example, we have written this wonderful paper, which I hope folks will have time to read when it comes out in April or May: Hebert JR, †‡Brandt HM, ‡Armstead CA, *‡Adams SA, ‡Steck SE. Interdisciplinary, translational, and community-based participatory research: finding a common language to improve cancer research. Cancer Epidemiol Biomark Prev 2009;(in press):00-000.