On the Road

Most times my trips to India involve travel by vehicle. The roads can be very good and/or very bad. We had the opportunity to travel on National Highway 7 as we drove south from Shamshabad some 100 kilometers to a center of work for one of the Mennonite Conferences here in India.

The National Highway system is not completed, but it is similar to the InterState system in the Unite States. These highways connect the major cities of India and provide a good system for the overland flow of truck and vehicle traffic. We moved along at a good pace and arrived at our destination as planned.

We met with a group of church leaders and discussed the inter-working of the NGO we are studying and their own work as a conference of churches. There was a rich history of experience in the lives of the people in the room. Interestingly they gave way to the eldest one among them as is so true of Indian culture. Even with this, however, as the elders spoke their piece the others then also entered into the conversation.

We had a good several hours of interaction and then we pushed on to the next community to have our noon meal together. I was looking at the menu and I saw that there was a difference in the menu based on Non-AC and AC. It did not immediately hit me what this referred to and then I realized – oh yes the air-conditioned part of the restaurant or the non-air-conditioned part. It was worth it to pay a little extra for the air-conditioning.

The temperature outside was close to 35 degrees centigrade (95 F) with a good amount of humidity. Walking in the sun brought the perspiration rather quickly. It wasn’t all that bad in the shade and the ceiling fans made most of the rooms quite comfortable. But air-conditioning was very pleasant.

After lunch we took time to see a junior college and a high school operated by our hosts. In the country of India, as in most of the world, an education is a crucial key to doors being opened to you later in life. The students we met and the faculty of the institutions were all strongly committed to the task of educating the mind through their educational activities.

Our hosts took us to one more place before we headed back to our lodging place. We headed out of town on another road and soon came to a restricted area where vehicles were no longer allowed. We parked our cars and went on by foot. Soon there was a park on our right. There sprawled our before us was a great banyan tree. We estimated the land to be around two acres. It was remarkable and beautiful to see.