Comments on: An Incident in India

By: Phil

Phil — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 22:04:44 +0000

Personally, I am wondering what the heck Jeff was doing while this was going down?! I mean, the guy can bench press a small car and it is Theresa (whom I am sure is much stronger than she looks) is taking on the privileged upper class in a parade in India? Man…or maybe not. j/k JB.

Theresa…awesome story. You really are an amazing writer and apparently an ever better person. You two have brought the world to my lab bench. I could not thank you enough.

And Neel’s post makes me want to get a T-shirt that reads, “I converted to Christianity and all I got was eternal salvation.” If I knew I could score some cash, I might have negotiated harder. (For those who don’t know me…I am incredibly sarcastic. Shocked?)

By: Angela W

Angela W — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 22:34:36 +0000

Love this post, Theresa. I got a little teary in the end (not shocking, I know).

Neel’s comment made me crack up laughing. If only he knew who he was talking to…hahaha!

By: Franny

Franny — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 18:25:44 +0000

I imagine Neel was triggered by something that is most likely a sore spot for *HIM* (why most people react to things in such a clearly inappropriate way) – ie, perhaps he grew up in India, in an environment where he or others he knew were constantly being harassed by the Church to convert for cash.. and read into your post what he wanted to read and see YOUR experience as the experience that most upsets him (Americans coming to India to find ‘good Christians’ and convert others? Who knows). He certainly invented a narrative in your blog that didn’t exist, so don’t take it personally.. when people do that, it’s about their baggage, not yours.

Thanks for the post – India is ridiculously complicated and I’m always interested to see how people react to it. Do you follow one-giant-step.com? They just cut their planned 5 week itinerary in India short to get the hell out of dodge and get to Thailand. They were over it too.

By: Lauren Quinn

Lauren Quinn — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 09:01:51 +0000

Wow. The post was beautifully written, but more importantly, it was heartfelt and honest. The clarity of an un-sugar-coated voice is refreshing. And you stuck by your guns in the comments. Impressive on all counts!

By: Theresa

Theresa — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 02:51:45 +0000

I’m pretty sure Neel is not a regular reader of LoW. He’s certainly not a regular commenter. (Though I have nothing against newbies, especially if they’re actually interested in the content of our blog. If you’re new here, Welcome, Come Back Often, Comment Regularly!) I think he just might be one of those people who trolls the Internet looking for whatever topic it is they feel impassioned about and then leaving a comment, ignoring any and all context. Anyhow, I’ll let him be. I think most of my readers are quite intelligent and got out of their reading of this post exactly what I meant. And the comments of you smart, funny, interesting readers always make my day, so keep ‘em coming.

By: Gregory

Gregory — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:08:51 +0000

I read it as, “He was friendly and helpful, pointing out sights all while pedaling his heart out, and I felt my mood lift a bit in his presence. There were good people in India, I was reminded.”

And not…

“He was a friendly and helpful Christian, pointing out Christian sights all while pedaling his Christian heart out, and I felt my mood lift a bit in his Christian presence. There were good Christian people in India, I was reminded.”

By: Susanne

Susanne — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 18:33:16 +0000

LOL….Theresa, I had stared to post something similar to your response…then thought it probably really wasn’t my place. Regardless, I don’t thing anyone who read this actually got the impression you were saying anything beyond “Michael” being an unusual Hindu name, followed by an explanation of why they he adopted the name.

Speaking up for Michael says volumes about your character. Most of us like to think we would intervene, but the reality has it that if we all spoke up when we saw injustice, we would live in a much different world.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 17:45:00 +0000

Wow. So sad and Kick ass for standing up to those jerks!

By: Theresa

Theresa — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:01:46 +0000

Neel, I don’t give a crap about what religion Michael is. That doesn’t make a bit of difference to me. I don’t even know what religion I consider myself–I am certainly no hardcore Christian–so before you jump to bold conclusions that are wildly wrong, you might want to stop and think for a minute. I found Michael to be a good person because he was kind and interested in talking to us as people–not as potential moneybags. I think there are many good people in India. In fact we met many of them. But after the night and day I’d had I needed to be reminded of that fact and Michael did just that.

Anyhow, your story is interesting, and I agree that bribery with cash is not a good way to convert people. I’m not a big fan of converting people period. But in this post, I only told what I know…what I had read and what I had been told by people in India. Thanks for enlightening us to a different angle. But next time, I’d suggest presenting your argument in a better way. Starting off by making inaccurate conclusions and insulting people does little to win people over to your side.

By: aTravelAroundTheWorld

aTravelAroundTheWorld — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 09:08:07 +0000

Theresa, I like your story so much that I Stubled it.
You are a good person, not just a person.