Women of Bapugaon

Shades of orange dupattas represent
different social castes

Last week we left the large city of Jaipur and ventured, for the first time, into rural and impoverished India. We had an "interaction" scheduled with the "marginalized women" of the Bapugaon Village. Within minutes of meeting them, it was difficult to imagine these women as being marginalized at all. They were incredibly intelligent and passionate about their lives and work; they had ambitions, drive, and smiles on each of their faces. Just like us. Because they spoke absolutely no English and we are still speaking Hindi at a toddler level, we could not converse directly with them. Thankfully, this didn't hinder relationships from forming between our group and theirs. As they wove their dupattas around our heads and taught us to dance as they did, we sang together in unfamiliar languages, ignoring the insignificant details that made up our opposite lives on different sides of the world.

Sharing with us a song about empowered women,
"marginalized" does not do them justice

Later that day, we met a group of village children playing in the streets. Like the women, their lack of  common communication (including written literacy, the only bit of Hindi we know) seemed negligible as we climbed mountains and taught high-five games to the scrawny kids. Driving away on the bus that day, I touched thumbs through the glass window with a beautiful young girl (pictured below on the rock). As our fingerprints matched one another's, I realized the undeniable similarity between her and I. Although we come from such different backgrounds, worlds, and futures, we forgot all of this as we laughed and danced together. Noticing our sameness instead of our differences– this is the moment I fell in love with India.

Beautiful girl who changed everything. I will never know her name. 

The only toy between the six children- an inflatable pink airplane