Soundtrack for a Week in India

The Daily Post’s prompt today is to put together a soundtrack of five songs to explain the past week. I’ve had an amazing day and I’m far too excited to sleep so I figured this was a worthwhile pursuit.

Jai Ho by Sukhvinder Sing et al – because we have been in INDIA this week! And it’s colourful and busy and loud and beautiful and delicious and heartbreaking too. “Jai Ho” means “Let victory prevail”, and it’s the spirit I see in India: pride and resilience and stamina.

Amigos Para Siempre by Sarah Brightman and Jose Carreras – the way traveling to all these countries makes me feel, especially when I meet amazing locals. Like today, where we hung out with some awesome young entrepreneurs whom we met through Unreasonable at Sea. It gives me hope for our world, that nations will be “friends for life” in difficulty as well as ease. Maybe it’s idealistic, but that’s okay too.

Freedom Never Cries by Five for Fighting – this theme is going to go on, I can’t help it. India reminds me how important freedom and national pride are to all people, and how we all long for security. This is a world worth fighting for – fighting just may not be what we think it does.

Remember when… by The Parlotones – we visited an orphanage yesterday, and the children were just wonderful. They are more part of a big family of necessity rather than an orphanage. They performed traditional Keralan dance for us, and then some contemporary things, like Gangnam Style (there is always Gangnam Style).

So we cried we crawl we learn to walk, pretty soon we all fall down, and we laugh and we dance […] we all fall down. They say, that’s life. We’re born into this world with no book of rules, welcome to the hard-knock school.

Moedersmelk by Kaleidoskoop – an Afrikaans song that captures my homesickness exactly (just over two weeks to Cape Town!). India reminds me of South Africa in many ways, and the similarities and differences both amplify the longing. Roughly translated:

I miss Mom’s cooking,

I miss Stellenbosch […]

There’s hope for my country, there is hope for my language,

There is hope for my people, there is hope for everybody,

This hope is you and I

Will we live die for you, our nourishment? […]

Do we realise that we have mercy from above

Or do we have to lose that first?