Ann Grodzins Gold | Errant Youth: Circling the Subcontinent, 1968

The Moynihan Institute’s South Asia Center presents Ann Grodzins Gold, professor emerita of religion. Gold will draw from Chapter 6 of her (unpublished) memoir Gap Years: How Anthropology Saved My Life.

“On March 1, 1968 my first husband and I, both college drop-outs, set forth on the now stereotypical overland journey from Europe to South Asia. We reached Pakistan in mid-April at the peak of the hot season and walked across the border into India about three weeks later. Well into August we literally circled the subcontinent: from Lahore to Kashmir, gradually southward all the way to Rameshwaram, north again briefly visiting Nepal. We moved constantly—riding ordinary buses and 3rd-class trains, rarely stopping anywhere more than 2-3 nights. 

“In letters home I express a yearning to remain in one place, even as I rush to the next destination. While observant, I never contemplate how privileged are my hardships and freedom to cross borders. I do recount the myriad ways strangers exerted themselves to welcome, teach and feed us. When I resumed my education in 1973 I chose to study anthropology and eventually to focus on India—finding my way into a fulfilling career through a fortuitous combination of aptitude, affinity, ancestry and dumb luck. Emerging retrospective anthropological themes are the privilege of mobility and the ‘banquet of hospitality.’”