For seven years now, I have taken teachers in the University of Manitoba’s Post-Baccalaureate Diploma in Education (PBDE) program and undergraduates in the Catholic Studies program at St. Paul’s College on an intensive three week Field Study program in India (Delhi, Agra, Darjeeling, Kolkata, and Varanasi).

“New” Delhi, Edwin Lutyens’ incredible sandstone and marble celebration of British Imperial power and Shah Jahan’s capital, “Old” Delhi, are our introduction to the astonishing juxtaposition of histories and cultures that we call India.

Our two kilometer end to end walk along Rajpath (called Kingsway by the British) from India Gate to the Presidential Palace speaks volumes about British ambitions in India. A cycle rickshaw ride along Old Delhi’s fabled Chandni Chowk, where the call to prayer from the Jama Masjid mingles with the sights and sounds and smells of the spice market, takes our group back to the era of Shahjahanabad.

On one morning, as a respite from the crowded confusion of a large capital, we visit Raj Ghat to pay our respects to Mahatma Gandhi at the simple black marble memorial over the site of his cremation.

After a bumpy, noisy, and often stressful, mini-bus side trip we are happy to arrive in Agra for an overnight visit.  The Taj Mahal, the ethereal tomb Shah Jahan built for the love of his life, and the city’s imposing Red Fort, draw us into the grandeur of Mughal India.

Nearby, in Akbar the Great’s now “ghost” capital, Fatehpur Sikri, we visit the palace complex and mosque – both UNESCO world heritage sites.  Here, too, we learn about Din-e-Ilahi, the syncretic faith Akbar created there in dialogue with Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and other religious scholars – including Jesuits from Goa – a faith blended into the very architecture of the red sandstone buildings.

After an equally adventurous road trip back to Delhi, a flight to Bagdogra in North Bengal brings us to the plains below the Himalayan foothills. At the end of a harrowing four-wheel-drive jeep ride to an altitude of 7000 feet, we arrive in the town of Darjeeling — “Queen of the Hill Stations” — renowned for its scenery, tea gardens, Tibetan monasteries, unique “Toy Train”, and schools. Students always comment on the fact that there seem to be educational institutions everywhere in the district.  

Our own Jesuit schools include St. Joseph’s College (a boarding and day school founded in 1887), Gandhi Ashram (begun by Canadian Jesuit Ed McGuire for children of the poorest “forest dwellers”), and Jesu Niketan (for children of the stone-breakers along the banks of the nearby Balason River).

In Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Matigara, and Siligiuri, we learn from grassroots animators who work alongside India’s urban and rural poor in cooperative ventures of all kinds.

At the end of an overnight train journey on the fabled Darjeeling Mail, we step out of Sealdah Station

into Kolkata.   

From Mother Teresa’s tomb and her Home for the Dying at the Kali Temple, to Loreto Day School, widely recognized in India as a model for equality-based educational change, Kolkata challenges, amazes, and inspires, as no other place can.

My first visit to Kolkata was in 1980 and the ride into St. Xavier’s College (Jesuit) terrified me.  It was Kipling’s “city of the dreadful night”.  Ten years later, I again stayed at St. Xavier’s while visiting Sr. Cyril Mooney IBVM at Loreto Day School beside the congested Sealdah Railway Station. From that day forward, I gradually came to agree with Dominique Lapierre’s depiction of Kolkata as a “city of joy”.

Our Field Study groups spend three inspirational days with Sr. Cyril (now a long-time friend) and her bustling school community. Loreto Sealdah offers a child-centric, equality based, holistic educational experience. Half of the 1400 day students come from among the poorest families in the area and an additional 240 street children (Sr. Cyril calls them “Rainbows”) call the school — providing them with food, shelter, clothing, education, and friendship — their home.

Given such diversity across class and caste, our students are in awe of Loreto’s cohesive, cooperative, and caring student body. But the ‘day school’ is just one aspect of Loreto Sealdah.

The school is also a kind of laboratory for teacher training and an innovative centre for community development offering several programs and initiatives – using Loreto students — which combine to touch the lives of tens of thousands of the poorest of the poor in and around Kolkata.

It is no wonder that student journals and course evaluations invariably rank Loreto and Sr. Cyril as the highlight of their Field Study experience. Comments like, “the Rainbow children brought tears to my eyes”, “I don’t think I will ever forget Sr. Cyril”, and “I want to go back for more”, are typical.

Our final destination, Varanasi (Benares) on the Ganges River, is the religious centre of the Hindu world. The sight of pilgrims doing their pujas at the ghats along the Ganges, against the back drop of the ageless temples, leaves impressions that remain long after our brief visit.

For three weeks, our little group from the Canadian prairies are overwhelmed by the chaotic and noisy traffic of India and constant harassment by persistent beggars and souvenir sellers.

In Delhi and Agra we struggle with the heat and in Kolkata we battle the monsoon rains as we wade through water up to our ankles. But, we also visit amazing places and meet extraordinary people.

Along the way, we experience the quiet peace of a Jain Temple and the hypnotic chanting of 200 Buddhist monks at Dali Monastery.

We marvel at the selfless preparation and serving of langar (free mid-day meal) in Sikh gurdwaras and are surprised by the number of Hindu pilgrims we see along the roads.

We work beside the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata and are consoled by the prayerful atmosphere around Mother Teresa’s tomb.

All of this, and much more, are our windows into the timeless mystery and incredible diversity which are India.