Reflection

While sitting inside of my Toronto apartment, I was thinking about what makes living in a

building here so different to living in an a building in India. This got me thinking about the difference in the small every day-to-day actions and activities that set the living conditions apart.

I began to dissect every single thing in viewing site inside my apartment beginning with the wooden chair I was sitting on.

I thought back to how little wood was used across India because of the humid and rainy weather they receive. I also thought back to the heat and high temperatures that we all felt while travelling, reflecting on the cool breeze of the air conditioning running through my apartment. One very crucial living condition that we all made adjustments for was honestly the heat and the weather. Placing our bodies in very different environments is one major change already, but to have exposure to high temperatures creates more stress on the body. I thought about how comfortable I felt while sitting in an air-conditioned apartment, but I felt strange at the same time. I could not help but feel as if I was using such an unnecessary machine and resources simply to cool a space. It caused me to immediately turn off the air conditioning and open up some windows. In that moment I also thought about the word itself “air-conditioning”. A machine created to condition our air. It seemed very odd to me that by paying some money, installing a machine, and by pushing a button that I could control my environment.

After some long thought, I was trying to place myself back onto the roads and train in Malavli and I had a memory suddenly rush to my head. I was remembering the experience of watching two gentlemen fall asleep on the fast and bumpy train. I remembered their precise and complementary head movements moving back and forth at a synchronized pace. Their heads were bouncing with the train in harmony as if they became attached or part of the train.It reminded me of how I would always see people in Toronto riding the subway on their commute home and decide to take a short power nap. This again reminded me of the comparisons and similarities of people and transportation and how regardless of the location, people are the same.