2/19/2004

In the middle of India, Darcy Zabel ventured across a newly constructed dam.  The Indian people brought cows, horses, fruit and themselves to be blessed by the dam’s holy water. 

As she crossed, more people crowded onto the dam.  Pressed between the bodies of strangers, she was no longer touching the ground.  As she forced her way through the crowd, people reached out to touch her, to feel her white skin.

Zabel, a Friends University English professor, received the opportunity to visit India for a month through Rotary International.  The organization chose Zabel because of her role in higher education and her ability to take her experience into the classroom by teaching a World Culture class at Friends in the spring of 2005.

Rotary is a way for business members to participate in humanitarian projects at both a national and international level with the notion that knowledge of other cultures is beneficial to business relationships. Through a personal essay and an intensive interview process, the Rotary decided Zabel would be a great candidate for the trip.

Arriving in Bombay on Jan. 5, Zabel visited three different states in India.  With a full daily itinerary and being escorted by a guide, she visited charity groups and medical facilities.  She saw surgeons perform eye and dental surgery and talked with people suffering from AIDS and leprosy.

At these events, the Indian people and news organizations questioned and interviewed Zabel about public and higher education in America and relations between Pakistan and the United States.

The Indian people were not the only ones who benefited from the visit.

“The people who are the recipients of charity also give you something back,” Zabel said.

She recalled the opening of a new school in Ancola.  Previously students sat on the ground to learn, but with the help of the Rotary International they received chairs, uniforms, food and pride.  The parents of the children were not wealthy, but gave Zabel and the group over 150 flowers in thanks. 

“They wanted to give you something because you gave them something,” Zabel said.

During one of her visits, Zabel was invited to a formal dinner in Kolhapur.  At dinner, it is customary for the men, women and children to sit separate from one another.  But the head of the house did not know where to seat Zabel because she has a doctorate, and in India doctors are widely respected. 

“They didn’t know what to do with me,” Zabel said.

Also posing a problem was that with Zabel’s intelligence and professional status, she would be considered a man in India.

After 20 minutes of confusion, Zabel was seated at the children’s table. 

After dinner, the head of the family asked if he had offended Zabel and asked if he should treat American women like men.

“No,” Zabel replied.  “Treat them like people.”

At another event, she talked with a professor from Dharward about American poet Syliva Plath.

After reading Plath’s poems, the Indian professor decided that American women are more alienated than Indian women. 

American women are taught to be independent and strong, while Indian women leave their families and rely on their husband as their sole support, the professor said.

“American women don’t know where their safety net lies,” Zabel recalled the professor saying. 

Indian women have 10,000 years of soothing stories to help them throughout their lives and connect them with nature.

One story teaches women that the moon is their mother’s brother.  When a woman marries a man, she has no one to share her secrets, fears and heartaches with except the moon.  The moon will always be with her wherever she goes and tells her children that wherever they go they will always have their mother’s brother. 

This is just one of many stories that gave Zabel a new way of looking at the world.

Zabel now sees India as not just one India but many Indias, and relates her views about India to America.   

“We, too, are many Americas with many American dreams; so is India,” Zabel said.

In America, as in India, there are differing values placed on religion and the roles of women in society.