Early this morning as the sun filled my room with light, I rolled over in bed and scrolled through the emails in my phone. One immediately caught my eye–from my baba (host dad) in India. He had received the letter I sent to him and was writing to let me know that both he and aai … Continue reading
“In a sense it’s the coming back, the return, which gives meaning to the going forth. We really don’t know where we’ve been until we come back to where we were. Only where we were may not be as it was because of who we’ve become, which, after all, is why we left…” –Bernard Stevens, … Continue reading
I’ve been given a challenge. We’ll not so much a challenge as an insightful suggestion. After spending nearly 4 months in India, writing about some of my most meaningful experiences several times a week, I’ve now slipped back into the sometimes-comfortable, sometimes-overwhelming pattern of my final semester at college. Still grappling with reverse culture shock, … Continue reading
As the semester came to an end our conversations naturally centered around our excitement about going home: What’s the first thing you’ll eat when you get back? Who are you most excited to see? What will your pets do when you walk in the door? How nice is it going to be … Continue reading
This one took me a little while to catch on to, but in India (at least in Pune) most people eat their meals with their hands–specifically their right hand. You serve food with your left. Most nights this means using your roti to pick up cooked vegetables and spoon them into your mouth, mixing warm … Continue reading
Right around this time in the program, with about one month to go, it seems like it is almost guaranteed that a person will be hit with homesickness. The newness and freshness of the first month has worn off, the excitement that you can now successfully catch a rickshaw, haggle for a kurta and walk … Continue reading
After venturing to a bar with a slightly older, more techno- and strobe-light-oriented crowd the night before, I was relieved when the bar suggested that night was slower paced. One of the men staying at the hotel recommended a bar called “Ghetto” to us and asked if we would like to accompany him. It was … Continue reading
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
