Travel!
You will find a replacement for what you have left
And strive! The sweetness of life is in striving!
I have seen that water stagnates if still
Becomes pure if it runs, but not if it does not flow.
These lines were written by Imam al-Shafi’i, a prominent Muslim Arab theologian and scholar. He believed in travelling for the sake of knowledge. In a different poem, al-Shafi’i counted five gains of travel including removal of stress, earning of livelihood, knowledge, culture, and a companion of stature.
From the eighth century when al-Shafi’i lived till now, a lot has changed with new possibilities for distant learning and online courses that teach almost everything across prestigious universities around the world. However, the old tradition of taking on long journeys to seek knowledge is still alive and flourishing.
Universities and countries often welcome international students amid promoting diversity on campuses or even as a tool for soft power. Yet, the journey at the end remains very personal. Perhaps the five gains by al-Shafi’i summarize to a good extent the attractiveness of travelling especially for young people. It is a mix of pursuing formal education with more impactful learning through various cultures and adventures.
India is second to China regarding the number of citizens who study in foreign countries, which is understood regarding the size of the population and fast development in both countries. At the same time, India is looking forward to becoming a regional hub for international students focusing on relatively cheap fees and the diverse crowd. Last year, the Ministry of Human Resource Development listed grand aims of such plan including enhancing the country’s soft power and increasing its education exports.
However, the choice of India as a destination of education for a foreign student is a personal one, that lasts through the whole journey. Among foreign students in Delhi, when meeting for the first time, there is always a way to start the conversation – mostly about the attempts to adjust to Indian food, desi gestures or accommodation in the city.
Travelling to study in another country is a mix of pursuing formal education with more impactful learning through various cultures and adventures.
For Arfah, a 20-year-old student from Mauritius, the stories of her Urdu high school teacher about his study years at Aligarh Muslim University led her thinking towards choosing India for graduate study.
“I knew that I was not going to study in Mauritius. My mom never took me seriously but I knew that I would leave,” said Arfah who took her first international trip to India in mid-2017 to join Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.
She is, like almost 65% of Mauritius’ population, of Indian origin. Like her grandmother, she grew up watching Hindi TV series and movies and developed a fondness of the Indian culture and monuments. Although Bollywood does not present every side of living in India, according to Arfah, her determination was greater than any fear regarding issues of women’s safety, pollution, weather, and lifestyle differences.
Amid conversations with many foreign students, issues of language are always present and hinder to different extents their abilities to interact with locals. However, Arfah’s stay in India is a boon for her level in Hindi and added to her fondness of Urdu, “Currently, I process my thoughts in Urdu and I can express myself in this language better than I can do in my native language.”
Though her language skills, Indian features, and close Indian friends, she still misses home or as she put in order, “food, places, environment, and family.” Her feeling of missing is strong regardless of her frequent visits to Mauritius and bringing countless important and trivial items from home. She is very much aware that “home is home” where identity is related to the place and her stay in India is only a way to fulfil her academic ambitions. It is, as she said, just a sweet trip she wants to enjoy it the most.
Asking Arfah about the deep impact of the journey, she recalled while laughing that she used to reject the food her mother made, “Here I encountered a completely different face of life as Mauritius is a small country. Now I am stronger and more grateful for everything I had in my life.”
For Adam, a 36-year-old student from Chad, the journey to pursue Masters of Commerce at Jamia Millia Islamia is not his first step away from his country. He can be comfortably described as an experienced international student. His journey began in Egypt where he spent ten years. He completed his high school and college at al-Azhar University. The long stay in Egypt left him with a clear Egyptian accent in his Arabic and a great fondness for Egyptian cuisine.
After taking a governmental job for a few years in Chad, he faced what he is describing now as “an uneasy decision” to resume formal education far away from home especially with a six-month-old baby at home. “I looked at my boy’s eyes asking for his opinion. I felt he asked me to stay. Eventually, I left,” he said.
As a father trying to follow the firsts of his son, Abu-Bakr, through photos and videos, Adam’s experience in India is far different from his long stay in Egypt as a teenager and a single youth among a big community of Chadian diaspora. Adding to the uniqueness of Delhi’s experience, Adam recalled the difficulties with the first few months because of the pollution and the wide age gap with his classmates who are mostly in their early twenties.
More importantly, Adam is still trying to figure out a way to deal with the spice in Indian food regardless of the shopkeepers’ promises of less spicy food. Perhaps the talk on food is the most widespread among foreign students in Delhi.
Sophie, a 23-year-old student of psychology as a part of an exchange program in India, recalled her happiness as a vegan coming to India with all the variety of vegetarian recipes. However, this early enthusiasm turned less with her experience with the food served by her hostel. Her experience is a little different as she has been treated mostly as a Western tourist moving around the city with some privileges and difficulties. For her, she is trying in one year to experience Indian geographical diversity through travelling around the country.
The situation for every foreign student does not have a universal experience, stamped by a proven formula. Some blend easily, some keep a distance with the new environment, some live emotionally in another place, while some continue the struggle longer than others, and some got haunted with questions about purposes and prospects. However, the experience is always rich and revealing about a new country and more importantly about the person themselves.
Featured image for representative purpose only.
Featured image source: Pradeep Gaur/Mint via Getty Images.
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