India Paradox

I am on my annual visit to the city of my birth. As always I am here for several reasons. The primary one being to spend time with my aging parents, a requirement for all us expats in our fifties. I am also here to screen some of my films and commence filming on a new one.

To begin filming, I arrived in a quaint temple town in Tamil Nadu, called Thiruvannamalai, a four hour rocky drive from Bangalore. This town is known for one of the oldest Hindu temples in India and an Ashram established by a saint named Ramana Maharshi.

Many from around India and the west come here to find inner peace and contentment and also Yoga and your Ayurvedic massage.

I was here to interview a person who is significant to my film.

During our conversation, this British lady of 83, who has spent a lifetime in India said something that grabbed me.

She said "Everything you hear about India is absolutely true and so is exactly the opposite".

I have written many essays about this profound land of my birth, trying to capture its beauty, problems, contradictions and paradoxes.

This one sentence for me, pretty much captures what India is, has always been and will always remain.

This maybe true for many other countries as well, but for me it rings true more here than any place else. It would be pedantic to give examples. One would have to experience it to believe it.

It is what it is.