India Comes to Our Door

India came to our doorstep this week. A bag of San-Cha tea grown in Assam, the richest tea growing district in India arrived in our mail box. Sarah was there this summer and picked up a gift for us. “For the family who gave me a love for homemade chai”, she said. It was much like the gift another friend from Chicago gave us a few years ago. Good stuff.

India also came into our home by way of a book I’m reading by Ravi Zacharias. Ravi is Indian born and a leading Christian apologist of our day. He’s brilliant, very heady. Mostly over my head if you want to know the truth. You should give him a read sometime if you haven’t already. I recommend Beyond Opinion. But he can also be very down to earth as he is in his autobiography Walking from East to West: God in the Shadows.I’ve gotten a good taste of India culture as he describes food (A typical Indian sweet is made purely from milk and sugar that’s repeatedly reduced until it’s thickened and then loaded with pistachios or coconut or almonds or other genuine flavor.), housing (This is a simple little house like most others on the street, very small, made up of four rooms, each measuring about ten feet by ten. Even these small rooms are carefully compartmentalized. There may be a stove next to the bed, that sort of thing.) and lots more.

He has some good insights about the religion of India too. It’s particularly helpful for those who have hopes of sharing their faith in our multi-ethnic society. (Each time I visit a Hindu temple in India, I am conscious that the religious lives of the people worshiping there have been shaped and transferred to them around these temples for literally thousands of years. Their songs, their chants, their superstitions, their commitments, and their fear of the spirits have all come to them across the centuries in the womb of their heritage…This connection with past generations and centuries is one reason why it is very hard for anyone from the East to convert to Christianity. It is a much more intricate matter than in the West where, generally speaking one thinks individually. In the East, one’s thinking is collective.).

That’s not all. Our experience culminated with a special Indian meal. It got started days in advanced with a trip to the International Grocer to purchase basmati rice and garam masala. Then on Saturday Diana and the girls made a wonderful dish of chicken tikka masala to go along with the naan and chai tea. Add a little Indian instrumental music and it brought India from our doorstep into our home and right to our table.