Where My History Begins - Intro

How does one begin pouring out her heart, thoughts, and memories of a business trip that she never wanted to take? How do you admit to being captivated by a country you had no desire to visit? How do you talk about a team of people who brought you to an emotional precipice with their compliments, kindness, and affection after knowing you 8 days?

This post and those that follow will attempt to share the most amazing time spent in a country where my history begins.

I have never really given much thought to my ancestral country. It has always been a distant place....a "third world country" full of abject poverty, hopelessness and no where I would want to be. I am and always have been an American of Indian descent with no connection to my Indian heritage. Until this trip, I could have cared less. I've always been very grateful that the British took my great grandparents, on both sides, out of India and plunked them in the Caribbean, regardless of the circumstance of that departure.

Now I think of it a little differently. I can only imagine the journey from India to the Caribbean on a ship; and quite frankly, I can't bear to think about how hard that must have been. Family, village, friends, left behind to go to a distant land to work. Did they leave to give themselves a better life or were they unceremoniously removed by the Brits against their will and forced into work bondage?

I'll never know, but I can only be thankful that God had a plan for them. If they had never left India, my grandparents, my parents, my extended family, and my sister and I would never exist. Until this trip, I had never really contemplated that point. When I think of everything that had to occur for me to even exist, I know how blessed I am. God, who knew my name before I was conceived, allowed these events to occur so that I may have the life I have today.

Who would have thought that I would travel back to India with my company to work there for a short time? I've come full circle.