Atithi Devo Bhava - "Guest is God"

Our first full day in New Delhi brought full meaning to a phrase we learned from our in country trainers, Atithi Devo Bhava "Guest is God." Our group of twelve Fulbright scholars were invited to the village of Pachayara about 45 minutes outside of Delhi.

Surrounded by fields striped and squared with irrigation canals and dusty rows waiting for water and seed, Pachayara is the home of Rajesh, and approximately 3000 residents. As we pulled up at 5am to beat the heat, we were greeted by Rajesh's siblings, uncles, aunts, cousins and a barrage of cell phone selfies. His family brought us drinks, snacks, and seats of honor outside a concrete grain storage building.

As we toured his farmhouse compound and got to know his family, it became clear that this experience was exiting for both us and our hosts. The selfies kept coming, and so did the neighbors. We saw grain storage, and meandered through Rawjesh's garden with lime, and black current trees. It was a beautiful scene of rural village life. And the selfies kept coming.

Over the next hour we toured a number of houses in the village on a blanketed cart behind a tractor trailed by what started to feel like our own paparazzi. At each home our cart of Americans was welcomed with open arms, cold drinks, snacks and at one home an Indian hooka that burned the lungs of even the suavest. My travel partner, Bill, the most senior of our group was even treated to a motorcycle ride and a scarf.

The scenes of village life kept coming; we watched and helped women bake roti bread over a cow dung fire; a few Fulbrighters milked a cow, and I used an fascinating machine to shred sorgum stalks for the same cows.  The hospitality continued to be amazing, and we felt like celebrities, or even gods!

This brought out some complicated thoughts. We aren't gods, and the hospitality clouded the fact that this was a very poor village. It was brought to clearer focus as we debriefed over an extravegent breakfast buffet at our luxury hotel. I do appreiciate the opportunity to understand daily life for nearly a billion Indians. I wonder if this could be considered a poverty tour? I ended the visit happy to have met some new folks, but wondering if what kind of real impact I could have during this trip.