India videos

Over the last couple of days, I've watched 9 hours of video related to India - three movies and one travel guide. The movies were Pinjar (3 hours), The Namesake (2 hours), and Gandhi (3 hours) and the travel guide was by GlobeTrekker (the 1 hour portion on West India). All of this is in preparation for my trip to Kolkata in January with my father. I've been trying to get a better feel for India as a country and the specific events that influenced who my father is today. Pinjar and Gandhi were particularly helpful in terms of understanding the Partition of India and the ensuing violence and family dislocations. It's one thing to think about that time conceptually but it's another thing to see some of those events visually depicted and think about what it must have been like to live through that period of time. The Namesake was helpful to understand the challenges that first- and second-generation Indian families face here in the United States - in terms of culture clash and other issues. I don't think I was ever sensitive enough to this topic - since I didn't spend much time trying to really understand it. And the travel guide was helpful to see Kolkata in action and get a glimpse of what I will see and experience there.

The catch-phrase for The Namesake is "the greatest journeys are the ones that bring you home". I suspect that will be true about this trip in January.