Passage to/in India

Not so much my passage to India, because that was by plane, and, inside a plane, indistinguishable from the passage to anywhere else, but the beginning of a passage in India. What began as a suggestion that I visit a Korean friend currently working in a children’s home in Krishnagiri in Tamil Nadu State will be a journey from here to the far north of India. The itinerary looks exhausting. Some of the “accommodation” will be on overnight trains or buses; but at least we’ve booked sleepers and are not travelling on the roof.

 

I arrived last night in Bengaluru (Bangalore) and was met by Hee Kyung who then took me back to the Trinity Children’s Home in Krishnagiri. Our driver wove his way between container trucks, regarding any more than a metre’s clearance as wasted space. At one stage when he was tired of doing that on his own side of the motorway he popped over to the other side to do it with the oncoming traffic. We arrived at about 2:30 am and I finally got some horizontal sleep, until being woken by all the sounds of neighbourhood life from about 5am. Our own establishment made its contribution with loud gospel choruses through loudspeakers at 6am, followed by the exercise music which used to be played loudly in Korean schools, offices, factories, villages - pretty well everywhere – when I first stated living in Korea in 1995, but which I hadn’t heard for a few years. I felt I should have been out in the yard doing jumping and stretching to the shouted out “one two three four” of the exercise instructor on the recording.

 

This is Holy Week and instead of the usual community religious exercises I’ll be on trains, or sightseeing, saying my offices as best as I can while on the go. I miss the experience of being in community this week, but will be forming a different sort of community with Hee Kyung and another of his fellow missionaries from here. I told the brothers at Stroud I would be like St Clare who, when prevented by illness from being present at Christmas midnight mass one year saw it all as it happened in a vision and was able to tell the sisters what they had experienced. (For which she is patron saint of television). So in my mind’s eye I will see them at Stroud going about the daily office and the liturgies of the Triduum.

 

Hee Kyung (or Peter as he has adopted as his name in India) has been a friend for a long time. He was one of my students when I was teaching English at Sungkonghoe University in Seoul, and since graduating from there in social welfare has entered a Presbyterian seminary and is taking a year in India as a mission placement. We’ll be joined for our travels by another of his fellow workers from here, Gabriel.

 

We depart tomorrow – and about 24 hours later arrive in Pune.