{"id":697,"date":"2011-09-15T10:43:05","date_gmt":"2011-09-15T14:43:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/discoveriesofawanderer\/?p=697"},"modified":"2011-09-15T10:43:05","modified_gmt":"2011-09-15T14:43:05","slug":"village-life-in-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/discoveriesofawanderer\/2011\/09\/village-life-in-india.html","title":{"rendered":"Village Life in India"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
A Village in Western India<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Village life is more complex than what merely meets the eye. At first glance, there’s a small community of people that have spent their entire lives together in close-knit relationships. But look deeper, and you’ll see an amazing array of stories<\/a>, families, and values that would take an outsider years to unravel and understand.<\/p>\n

I traveled to India for school in 2009 to understand what life was like in Southern Asia. While I traveled to several villages, I still saw diversity among the villagers: A happy elderly man who looked a lot like Gandhi. Children unable to hold back their laughter while they played. A young woman who was excited at the opportunity to learn to read<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But I also went to two homes in one village where sick children were lying on the floor. Not on a bed, but just on a blanket on the floor.\u00a0The doctors\u00a0spoke to the\u00a0mothers who were gripped with sadness.\u00a0The reality of a sick child can sometimes be too much grief for parents to bear.<\/p>\n

It’s too much of a whirlwind, the happiness and sadness of a small and tightly-knit community<\/a>. I wanted to spend more time understanding and putting together pieces of the puzzle.\u00a0 There’s nothing “simple” about village life. It’s complex and has layers\/stories of hope, fear, and love.<\/p>\n

Village life, just like any\u00a0city,\u00a0reflects the diversity of the human experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Village life is more complex than what merely meets the eye. At first glance, there’s a small community of people that have spent their entire lives together in close-knit relationships. But look deeper, and you’ll see an amazing array of stories, families, and values that would take an outsider years to unravel and understand. I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":235,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,4,29,12,13,35,58],"tags":[60,38,104],"class_list":["post-697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia","category-childrens-rights","category-economics","category-god","category-love","category-malnutrition","category-parenting","tag-childrens-health","tag-india","tag-village"],"yoast_head":"\nVillage Life in India - Discoveries of a Wanderer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/discoveriesofawanderer\/2011\/09\/village-life-in-india.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Village Life in India - Discoveries of a Wanderer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Village life is more complex than what merely meets the eye. 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