Deb Gerow | Article , Photos by Chuck Gerow

Nearly five years after retirement , my husband and I journeyed to Jalandhar , Punjab State , India , where I was to be principal of a new private school . We remained there for most of a year and our experiences were amazing .

We lived in a very comfortable house in an upscale area with family homes in gated enclosures . Our neighbours were doctors , lawyers , engineers , and army officers . However , India is a country of contrasts , and just two blocks from our home a group of people lived on a concrete slab next to the busy street , cooking on open fires , and sleeping on the ground . I often wondered what the future held for the children I saw there .

Many of the people we met spoke Hindi , Punjabi , and English . ( There are thirty-eight official languages in India .) We had the opportunity to learn some Hindi and Punjabi so that we could communicate with parents and others who had no English . It was like a French as a Second Language course , year one . People we met seemed surprised and pleased to hear our efforts in their language . Although there are some sounds in Hindi that were difficult for us to pronounce because they don ’ t exist in English , no one ever laughed at our attempts .

The daily trip to school was always interesting . Our driver would weave his way around cars , trucks , army vehicles , scooters , motorcycles , bicycle rickshaws , and tuk-tuks . We would pass groups of children in school uniforms , shopkeepers sweeping up debris from the front of their stores to burn in the street , packs of wild dogs , and herds of cows searching for food amongst garbage piles or lying along the side of the road . We even saw an elephant lumbering along the street once or twice . Funny to say , but at first it was difficult to recognize what the large , grey shape ahead of us was .

While we were there , we were able to travel to many historic parts of northwestern India . We visited Dharamsala , the residence of the Dalai Lama and the large Tibetan population that followed him into exile . We also journeyed to Agra to see the symmetrical beauty of the Taj Mahal . A visit to Amritsar to visit the Golden Temple of the Sikhs near the India-Pakistani border was impressive .

26 | arta . net A smoggy day in Delhi