Pune to Mumbai The train from Pune to Mumbai was a little over four hours in the second seating compartment of a crowded Indian train. Second seating was the cheapest (yet still safest) choice we could make for transportation; our trip to Mumbai and back cost only 6 USD! We took our assigned seats in … Continue reading
Sitting on a friend’s lap on a stuffy, crowded Indian train for four hours. Sipping a glass of wine at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel as the sun sets over the bay. Falling asleep to the sound of a rattling fan in a room with no windows and no sheets on the bed. Looking up … Continue reading
On our final morning in Mumbai we decided to venture off the beaten path and seek out something Lonely Planet called “The Wall Project” or “The Wall of Mumbai.” “An artistic initiative similar to Berlin’s East Side Gallery, though without the 28 years of oppression and isolation,” Lonely Planet had called it. We didn’t know … Continue reading
The first Miss America of Indian descent was crowned just a few short days ago in the US. The news of her victory has taken the American media and the internet by storm. And no one seems to be afraid to say exactly how they feel about Nina Duvuluri’s triumph. Twitter Backlash I’m sure you’ve … Continue reading
After reading “the article” as we’ve come to refer to it, I was a little nervous about the final day of the Ganpati Festival. The American girl who wrote the article talked about her experience with men at the Pune Ganpati festival: feeling uncomfortable, not being able to dance in the crowd without being stared … Continue reading
The driver looked back at me sitting in the back seat and said something I didn’t understand in Marathi. “What?” I asked him confused. He gestured to the brake handles as we continued gaining speed down the hill. Oh, crap. His brakes are broken. He pulled over to the side of the road, slowly rolling … Continue reading
A couple nights ago, Emelia and I got into a rickshaw to travel back home for the evening. The driver asked for a flat rate probably twice what we would have paid if he had agreed to use the meter, and we begrudgingly got into the auto. Little did we know, we had just picked … Continue reading
One of the greatest things about traveling and living in a new place is its ability to take your breath away with an unfamiliar beauty. When I first arrive somewhere new, I have a tendency to see the world through rose-colored glasses. The sky seems bluer, the water clearer, the people more fascinating. And then … Continue reading
I’m pretty sure it’s a sin and I’m fairly embarrassed to admit it, but before I came to India I had never seen a Bollywood movie. The closest I’d come is the final dance number in Slumdog Millionaire and somehow I don’t really think that qualifies. So when our program planned an outing for us … Continue reading
“We’ll be having a guest for dinner tomorrow night,” Baba told us last week. “He’s a very famous international consultant and will be staying with us because he has a speech in Pune tomorrow.” Baba didn’t tell us too much beyond that, just that this consultant had met Barack Obama, he would be coming the … Continue reading
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