In the past, just the thought of traveling to India made me sweat a little bit. I would conjure up Images of heat, poverty, and complete anarchy in the streets...basically 16th and Mission on a busy Friday night, with the temperature of 100 degrees. I envisioned an army of paraplegic beggars, tugging on my shirt, my only escape to run to the Hare Krishna temple across the street, where due to my fragile state they convince me to sell all my belongings and hand out pamphlets at the airport with a perma-grin on my face.
Yet whatever my idiot preconceived notions, It was still a place I knew I had to visit, a place I knew a big part of me wanted to go. The food, the way of life, the spirituality ingrained I knew it was something I wanted to experience...but whenever it was time to start planning a new trip, I always brushed India aside. I said to myself, I'm not sure if I want to take time out of my hectic life, to go somewhere where just going to the bathroom can be hectic. Ah, Delhi belly. Good times.
But one out of many reasons I've been grateful for the opportunity to participate in this program and be on the Semester At Sea ship, is that it brought me to India. It's a place I'd like to think I would have built up the gumption at some point in my life to visit. But who knows? Maybe I would have always found another place, another reason to avoid it.
But there I found myself early on a sunday morning, filming as we pulled into the dock, hundreds of thoughts running through my head, sort of getting psyched up to go toe to toe with whatever Chennai had to offer.
And sure enough, as soon as we got off the ship, in search of a quick bite before heading off to the school we were going to be broadcasting from, we got a quick, and jarring introduction to India. Leaving the comfy confines of the MV Explorer and it's icy AC, I think I broke a sweat in the first five steps outside the ship, as we walked past the coal factory the ship was docked next to (Chennai is not a big destination for cruise ships) and towards the throngs of auto rickshaw drivers gathered outside the gate. The sun and humidity beating down on us, we were set upon by the drivers like locusts as we passed the gate into the street, each one asking where we were going and telling us they would give us the best deal. 
Insisting we just wanted to walk around, they just kept up the hard sell, following us for the next 2 blocks, honking their horns, or following us on foot, trying to get us in their little rickshaws. Eventually they turned back, seeing more ripe prospects coming thru the gate. But this wasn't before they passed the baton to a combination of street vendors and beggars. We eventually got some good Indian food, and made the trek back to the ship, I think a bit battered from our first experience into India.
Although this first experience reinforced some of my preconceived notions of what the country was about, the reality is that the rest of the trip proved to be much different from what I expected. The most stunning aspect of life here that I hadn't expected was the hospitality we encountered over and over again. The people were just so kind, wanting to introduce us to everybody in their family, and the family that lived next to them, their uncle that lived down the street, the cousin that lived across town. And the food....everyplace we were, we were offered vast quantities of amazing food. But in a way, given our schedule and what we had to get done for our project, the hospitality was almost too excessive. I'll get to that later, but in some ways it was like we were killed by kindness.
One of the most difficult aspects of making the documentary pieces in each port city has been finding the right subject in an extremely short amount of time. Each port we've gone to, we have to find a person who is about the right age for our demographic, which is roughly 17-22, and who is the religion we're focusing on. This is without much pre-production, because without seeing them and checking out how they are on camera, we can't make any judgments on how good a subject they'll be for our piece. But given the fact we have about four to five days in each port, we basically have to find a person that not only fits the basic criteria, but also hopefully is an intelligent, well-spoken person...in our first or second day in port. This is a tall order, and means that we need to get most of our footage with the subject, like an interview, and footage with them with their friends, families, and where they worship, in the remaining two to three days. Yikes.
We've been extremely lucky so far, in that all the subjects we've been able to convince to be a part of Currents have been fantastic. And Nythia, our subject in Chennai, was no different.
We met her on the day of the first broadcast, and immediately felt like she would be a great subject. During the broadcast, you could see she was the most eager to speak, and was articulate and precocious. I spoke to her after the conference, explained what we were looking for and inquiring if she had free time over the next two days, and she thankfully agreed to be a part of our program. Me, Mark, and Joanna were excited about working with her, and felt good as we mapped out the next two days of filming.
But, you know what they say about best-laid plans. Yeah, me neither. So I googled it-"the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry". In other words, things didn't go according to plan, or at least not as much as I was hoping to. But the funny thing is the reason behind why I didn't get as much footage as I'd hoped: it was the kindness of the people involved that got in the way.
From the first morning of shooting with Nythia, we were invited to eat with her family. After shooting a quick interview and tour of her home, we had to rush off with headmaster of the school who had helped us greatly in getting our broadcasts together and putting us in touch with Nythia. He wanted me to film his other school, and then sit down for some lunch with some of his teachers. Then I had to rush back and try to shoot more with Nythia and her family, but they insisted I have another snack with them. Nythia's mom, a very outgoing, nurturing woman, had been dismayed about my lack of appetite earlier, and expected me to eat more this time around. Going on my third meal in 2 1/2 hours, I stuffed my face until it felt like my gut was going to burst. I waddled around, shooting her family cooking and eating, until we had to take off to do the GNG Broadcast at a nearby temple.
After the broadcast, I was able to get Nythia and a couple of her friends together for an impromptu discussion about women's role in Indian society. It went well, but afterwards I was taken on a tour of all the friends’ homes. I was introduced to their families, their neighbors, grandparents.... basically it was an instant block party wherever we went. And we went to ALOT of homes. Over the next 48 hours, this happened constantly. I grew a bit frustrated by the whole process. I was happy to meet everyone, but I felt like it was all happening at the expense of the project. I could hear the clock ticking in my head, telling me I only had a few hours left to get all of the important segments for our doc. All the while I could hardly think straight, because of all the food everyone kept stuffing me with I was in a constant state of curry coma. I think at that point if you had cut me I would have bled masala dosa.
I think the basic problem was I have such an American mentality, go go go, get the job done, move fast, get it, and move on. It was a tough transition for me, to slow down, to incorporate ritual and tradition when I was so stressed out on just getting what I needed.
But in our final minutes together, as I was about to hop into a cab that would hopefully speed me along back to the ship so I could make it before missing our departure (I was cutting it close), Nythia said something to me.
I was running around like a maniac, trying to get all of these shots I thought were necessary for the piece, and as I was shooting her family gathered outside of her home, she comes up to me, happy, and tells me how much me being with her, finding out more about her life and world, has meant to her. "These last few days have meant a lot to me, they have been very precious and I’ll not forget them. Ben, at first I was intimidated by you, of the way you looked, of your demeanor, you seemed so serious. But now, now that we’ve got to know each other, I think you are my best friend."
It was like a slap in the face with a big lovable marshmallow. I got a little veklempt, or maybe it was the dust in my eye. Hard to tell. But as I said my goodbyes and zoomed off in my little rickshaw back to the ship, and off again to a new destination, I realized how amazing Nythia, and everyone else I had met were. I might not have been able to film everything I had hoped, but we still ended up with some amazing stuff. But more importantly is realizing the impact I had on my subject. And the impact she, and the rest of them, has had on me.
Sometimes, in this work, you find yourself being selfish. You just take and take, put demands on subjects without ever giving back. But we can give back, not only by giving people a chance to tell their story, but also just be being considerate, good people, interested in finding out about their life and culture. It's not just a job, making this type of work. It's a passport into another world, where, so far on this trip, we've been brought in not as strangers, but treated as friends. Nythia's words really hit home, and even though in the heat of the moment I was a tad irritated by the time I lost through the constant offerings of hospitality and the visits to all the homes, I know realize that time wasn’t lost at all.
I realize how special those moments were, and, considering what they gave me-access to their homes, their lives, their religion and spirituality, the absolute least I could have done was to eat one more pappadom and meet one more grandmother in law.
As Mick says, you can’t always get what you want, and if you try sometime, you get what you need. And boy, I needed that. I needed a reminder of the impact I have as documentarian, and how important it is to not forget to give back. So thanks to all the young people that were involved in our India project, and all the other projects. And a special thank you to my new best friend.
Nythia & family kickin w/ Joanna after our shoot
