For most of my life, I have experienced India in two very distinct ways.
The first is the India many of us romanticize: Yoga. Ayurveda. Spirituality. Ancient wisdom. Wellness retreats by the sea.
The second is the India that overwhelms: Noise. Crowds. Smells. Chaos. Infrastructure that strains under its own growth. A developing nation, still becoming itself.
A New Way to Experience Home
I left India when I was 26.
Since then, I have lived in Australia and the United States. My healthcare experiences were shaped by those systems.
I had never navigated serious medical issues in India before.
Until now.
India: Chaotic and Frenzied and Compassionate and Whole
What I expected was unwavering bureaucracy. Innumerable delays. A system that required patience and endurance.
What I encountered was something else entirely.
It was compassion.
Sometimes noisy and irreverent.
But always deeply compassionate.
It Works Somehow
India can be overwhelming. It can feel chaotic. Overstimulating. Frenetic.
And yet — somehow — it works.
Appointments were shifted because someone cared to make a difference.
Tests were expedited because someone intervened.
Access to advanced specialists was streamlined because of compassion.
Extra time and energy was shared because someone noticed discomfort.
There is interdependence at work. People power.
I began to experience India not through one lens or the other, but as a whole.
Imperfect — certainly. But whole. Both, and.
Loving a Country Like You Love a Child
I have high expectations of India.
I want it to be cleaner.
Quieter.
More orderly.
More fully developed.
I want more for it.
In a way, loving a country is a bit like loving a child.
Peaceful Park Walk
You can hold a vision for what they may become while at the same time accepting — fully — who they are right now.
India has transformed dramatically since I left at 26.
Infrastructure has improved. Healthcare capabilities have expanded. Multinational corporations have moved in and literally changed the landscape.
It is not the same country I left.
And I’m not the same either.
India in Wholeness
For years, I may have subconsciously measured India against my experiences with Western systems.
This time around, I have experienced healthcare from within.
And from within, it feels whole. Warm. Responsive. Relational.
Pagoda in the Park
Medical tourism is often discussed in terms of cost savings or speed.
For me, it has been about a perspective shift.
It has revealed how much healing depends on human connection.
What Has Changed in Me
These experiences with Western healthcare and Indian healthcare one after the other has forced me to consider what we value most about the care we receive.
Is it speed? Expertise? Lack of bureaucracy? Access to specialists? I certainly don’t have the answers.
But I am still here. Still navigating uncertainty.
Still receiving treatment.
Still learning. Still growing.
And I am seeing India differently. As a complex, evolving, relational ecosystem that can be both inefficient and very compassionate at once.
From another point of view, it works.