'My India' - An Israeli's Discovery of India

LOS ANGELES: On February 7, Israeli Etan Doronne began a year long solitary backpack journey through rural India. Some of the villages he visited had never had a foreign visitor let alone an opportunity to build a friendship with one.

Today Etan shares this life changing experience with audiences throughout the United States. In his words: "At first I couldn't pin point this treasure of Indian people. It was so natural, simple and all around me.

It took months to actually put it into words: It was love. And pure love. Compassionate love with looking for no compensation and no judgment: no faults or blames and so no tension hence no anger and so no revenge nor violence.

And to imagine it would be all found here, in remote rural, simple villages: the tolerance of a stranger/ foreigner and the universal love of a human."

He describes the experience as falling like an alien into a village that had never experienced a friendship with a foreigner and be accepted as if you've been waited for:
When running into a stranger on the street, who never saw him and probably won't see him again, and being invited into a home, sitting with his family and have Chai and food.

When you come dressed and equipped as a rich person, relative to locals, yet he wasn't given a chance to pay for nothing, even for himself, he was treated to everything.
"Then you know you've reached home" he says peacefully.

And when this repeated in the next village or town and in the one following and in the one after he felt 'immersed in a sauna of true peace and love' as he describes it. Gradually his fears, manifested as worry, suspicion and reacted as anger, hatred, revenge, psychosomatic symptoms, faded away and gave way to true peace and freedom of mind.
Coming back to the USA, he felt like this great secret he witnessed must be shared with others who suffer the same, "I could tell by the attitude and priorities. People were wrapped up with empowering the exact things that stir them away from happiness." he recalls.

The aim of My India, the program he set, is to encourage people to travel this way, to explore this life changing experience. To introduce them to this other reality and have it influence ours no less then the other way around. He is now giving presentation talks in the Los Angeles metropolitan area.

"Hollywood, through the film industry, is a major player in worlds culture, opinions, lifestyle, trends and most any aspect of our lives." he says "This is a place that can really make a difference in mainstream. It is eventually up to private people. I believe it is a good place to start. On the other hand I will go anywhere I will be invited to."

He believes this is for any one. "Whether you had already traveled to India's most busy tourist attractions, bought a commercial package deal or joined in a large group organized tour or you had never traveled India before, he concludes "My India aim is to let you see another India, the way the untouched India looks like."

He plans to help people travel this way and very small groups for tours to different villages, so not to overwhelm and harm the traditional way of life there. The next one is planned for this coming February 2010.

Etan Doronne is a graduate of the Bezalel Academy of Art, and has worked both in education and the corporate world. 

In 1989 he took his first independent trip.  Since then he has traveled to Egypt, Tanzania, Cyprus, Turkey, Greece, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Netherlands, Britain, France, Spain, USA, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Nepal and India. 

Etan's current projects include creating eco-awareness workshops for communities, schools and businesses.

India Post News Service