Why a recent graduate student with a lot of projects and ideas for the future seems to be not yet satisfied? This was me one year ago. I was proud of me for my university career but I was not satisfied about the things around me. I run frantically all day, immersed in work and technology. I missed something that I could not recognize. And I tried to find it. That is why I went to India.
I traveled through the villages of Gujarat. Villages without names. What did I found there?
I found scared children that have never seen a white person before seeing me. They were dirty, barefooted, extremely skinny but curious, shiny and beautiful.
I found a man with arthritis sitting in a crowded market, nobody noticed him.
I found the cradle of a child made with the cardboard box of a multinational company.
I was sad, I didn’t understand why there could be situations like that.
But then something changed. I found Gypsies covering me with a yellow and sparkling veil, laughing with me.
And I noticed and old tattooed woman who greeted me laughing and showing me the few remaining teeth.
In that moment I had one of the most important lessons in my life: if that old woman was smiling in a country where there are cardboard cradle, why did I complain about my life?
I understood how lives can be different and at the same time full of meaning. I decided to stop running after the daily tasks and to start to take my time to watch the smiles of the people.
SmarThoughts 