Jen Lindsay #2

I guess I’ve survived my first day in India! Our presentations today have all been very wonderful. I’ve had many opportunities to speak with so many amazing women. Our hostess Amrita Somaiya has shared so much information about culture in Bombay, including education systems, typical housing situations, cell phone culture, and salary. There are many similarities including grants provided by the government to assist for payment of education, apartment buildings in the inner city, with single family homes in the suburbs, and laborers/immigrant workers. Some quotes: “cell phone culture has exploded in India” (while describing an image of a cart vender living in a slum, sitting on the floor talking on a cell phone) and some people describe Indian culture as “religion and Bollywood”. Other speakers shared information on our host school’s fund and hospital outreach programs, working with the Warli tribe community. Although the community is less than 20 miles from Bombay, it is incredibly poor and rural. These outreach programs are working with the community to improve their value of education, and provides free care to HIV/AIDS sufferers with dignity and sensitivity.

After a very thorough tour of the campus and all the separate colleges, I had the opportunity to go for a short walk with one of the management graduate students. She and I found it surprisingly easy to talk about our lives, and commonalities including relationships with our families, transportation and traveling away from our boyfriends. We had an interesting conversation about her and her boyfriend her parents do not know she is dating. Her and him belong to different classes, meaning different religion, language, home like customs, and basically everything, and yet are finding it possible to build a relationship. If they decided to marry, both her and her husband would be exiled from their families so they would be forced to live on their own (very against typical culture). I asked would they really do that, and she answered, “Yes, this relationship is damn difficult.” She explained that if she was forced to leave her family she would miss them too much, but they are still trying to make it work.

A bit of culture that I hope to take back with me, is Indian hospitality. How generous and genuine everyone has been is kind of overwhelming. All the free gifts we’re receiving are colorful and beautiful. Our group has “servers” that provides tea and biscuits, and bottled water whenever we ask. It seems our hosts anticipate our wishes and has them ready for us before we even ask. Conversations are unrestricted, and everyone is willing to answer any curious questions we can think up. I don’t think it’s fully sunk in that I’m in India, but I’m so glad I am!