While my summer in India had me traveling across the Atlantic Ocean rather than the sea of swirly twirly gumdrops and provided me with a new family rather than a long-lost one, just like Will …
India
A day as “Leesha didi”
I step out of the program center gate, lunch in hand, ready for a fantastic last day at Bopodi English Medium School (The Akanksha school branch where I intern). I walk down to the corner …
My life is my message.
Throughout my time in India, one thing has become glaringly obvious to me about Americans… or most Americans… or at least the Americans with whom I have been traveling: we really like to talk. From …
I bless the rains down in India
Before coming to India, rain and I were not exactly what you would call “friends.” One might even say that rain and I were “frienemies.” I recognized rain’s value, that some people cared deeply about …
Sangli’s finest
From the moment that he stopped me and pulled me into a tight, welcoming hug before I could respectfully bend to touch his feet, I knew that Dr. P. B. Patil was a unique individual. …
A birthday celebration to remember
It’s 7pm when the doorbell rings and my host mother, Geeta, beckons my roommate and I to gather our things. I throw my water bottle and camera into a drawstring backpack, in an effort to …
Finding memories in unexpected places
As I sat on my fifteen and a half hour flight from Newark to Mumbai, I prepared myself mentally to emerge from my aircraft into a completely different world from the one I knew at …
Planning for the unpredictable
I am a planner. I organize, I make lists, I schedule and reschedule, and I’m constantly looking ahead at how and when I need to prepare for what is going on in the in the …
There’s just something about a good sunrise…
Perhaps it’s the fresh stillness of a new morning, or the sparkling of the earth as the sunlight gradually cascades across the landscape. Whatever it is, there’s something powerful about a sunrise that makes early …