Cows Works: India is the Great Teacher
“Chaos” in India
One thing (among many) that I loved about our experience in India is that it demonstrated, in ever-in-your-face, living color that so many of the rules, laws, regulations, restrictions, dicta, fiats, got-to’s and can’t-do’s that we embrace in western culture as critical to maintaining order and indeed to our survival, are actually neither necessary, nor, in many circumstances, even desirable. They are only cultural preferences. They happen to be our (Americans and Europeans, in this case) cultural preferences, so we fall in love with them and grant them the status of wisdom, wonderfulness and “better than”. (Jingoism is not the worst thing in the world, but we should be aware of it when it pops up for us—all that “Consciousness” stuff, you know…)
Stopping at stop lights, for example, is like choosing the green chile chicken chowder rather than the tostada with salmon at Del Charro. It is simply a preference that we have, in this case supported by laws and punishable by penalties. But stopping at a red light is not inherently right, correct, better or morally superior. Blue is not better than green—I just happen to like it better. With the exception of huge intersections in Delhi, and maybe a couple in Jaipur, drivers that I observed (and drove with) in India did not choose “stopping at red lights” from the menu.
“Chaos” is often simply an “order” that the observer does not, or cannot perceive. I think that when my ego or personality is threatened, THAT is when I am inclined to call it “Chaos”, and mean it in a negative way. Good stuff to think and write about…
By the way, my German brother-in-law, Markus, pronounces “chaos” the German way (Kaos), so that it sounds more like “cows.” So when, after a particularly colorful auto-rickshaw ride, he announced “Cows Works”, I had to smile, and, especially for India, I liked his pronunciation better…
About the Moderator
Jim Nolan is in his 6th year as president of Southwestern College. He has worked for a dozen universities or colleges, both online and on the ground. He holds a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology, and attended graduate school in English/Irish Literature. He reads a lot of books, takes a lot of photos, plays guitar, got married in India in 2010, and has a wire haired fox terrier named Barney. He is the opposite of a guru, whatever that is called.
