It is human nature to be curious but I feel as though with the introduction of technology this curiosity of the world around us has been lost. Take a photo for the memory but not simply enjoying the place you are in. Looking down at our phones and never at the world around us.
I have found India to be a challenge on my perspective of the present. I joke that it seems my camera roll is relatively empty and yet this fact actually makes me happy. To be more intentional in the present, writing down memories in my journal instead of scrolling through photos, trying to achieve a disconnect from technology that seems to be a constant shadow nowadays. Simply remembering to look up. And yet looking up boasts another side to the story, one that challenges the way I view the world.
Dharavi, one of the largest slums in Asia, presents so much on the ground level that we forget to look up and acknowledge the lives that live in the stories above. What little sunlight gets through is used to try navigate the small alleyways and side streets. It’s easy to smile at the children playing cricket or the aunties cooking roti in the entrance to their homes. Their homes. Looking up here means acknowledging that you are walking past homes. Homes that would never be acceptable in New Zealand. Looking up here means acknowledging your privilege. Privilege that is so easily forgotten. Looking up here means realising that these people are smarter than you will ever be. Smarts that will never be achieved with a fancy degree.
Remembering to look up allows a connection to the present, the place, the people. The people that despite living in conditions of extreme hygiene and sanitation poverty, hold an immense sense of ownership and pride – a pride not from material wealth but from the strength of a community with an unwavering will to survive and thrive against all odds.
I have realised that we need to look up, to confront the world and what it has to offer – be that negative or positive. Positive: seeking to simply enjoy the now, Negative: to be challenged in how we interact with the world.
Don’t forget to look up.