Summer in South Asia

Academically, I was able to actively compare my experience in India to similarities I found in stratification when I went back home to Egypt. This was especially prominent in the conversations I had with my friends in Egypt after the trip and tying together the cross cultural similarities between the stratification in both countries and how that impacts one’s vulnerability to certain situations. I was even able to take it a step further and compare social standards influence on vulnerabilities…

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My first half of the trip I was mainly doing work around the Sneha shelter, but the second half I was working with another initiative Sanlaap had started, which is the Child Protection Programme. This was a programme where drop in centers in red-light districts act as a place catering to children living in red-light districts where they can find security and are provided education, health services, and opportunities to build their skills. This was my favorite work at Sanlaap….

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Though I don’t have enough time to travel outside of Kolkata,  the city has so many beautiful buildings and spots that I’m not sure if I will be able to visit all the places I want to in time. One of my favorite visits was the Birla Mandir. I was in the Sanlaap office one day and finished work early and so I walked around the area to explore and realized I was quite close to it. The architecture of…

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I have been pretty busy during the week, so I haven’t had much time to see the city. Ramadan has started so it is getting hard to do a lot after work because I often am too tired from fasting and go to sleep right after I break my fast at sundown . What has helped is that more recently a lot of the work has been remote. I have been doing my fieldwork one or twice a week while…

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Coming back so close to the beginning of the school year has been an overwhelming process. After upwards of 24 hours of travel, my mom and I moved all of my things into my new house. I have a lot of things. I was greeted with a flood of familiar faces and things that I know so well but everything still felt kind of different. There’s comfort in the familiar, but I still find myself feeling oddly unsettled. One of…

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I am finally home! After a long 24 hours of travel, three different airports, and numerous new acquaintances, I landed safely at Flint airport just before midnight on August 29th. My sister and mom were waiting for me with a big welcome home sign and I could not have been more excited to be back. It is so good to be home and to be getting a bit of rest before I head back to school. That said, I think…

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Erin Haley I’ve now been back in the US for a few weeks and I seem to miss India more and more each day; I’ve been out with my family for Indian food twice now and each time I leave wishing I could have the real deal back in Pune. When I first arrived at home, it was great to be back with my closest friends and family, but it only took about a week for me to understand the…

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I returned from India a little over a month ago and in the time I have been back, I have been able to reflect on my time there. Living in India and working was an experience like no other that I have had in my life. I found a new freedom while there and a new sense of confidence in myself and my ability to navigate the world. When I think back to what my trip involved, from traveling alone,…

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During the infant massage instructor training that I attended, the trainer began the course by talking about how you meet people for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. The other women in the training were incredible and inspiring and I hope that someday our paths will cross again. We all exchanged contact information and promised to let each other know if we ever ended up in each others’ home countries, which ranged from the Czech Republic to United Arab…

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It is my final night in India and I’m overwhelmed with emotions and thoughts. I left Jhalawar Friday evening and spent the weekend in Delhi with Cearet and her family. This is all so bittersweet. I really cannot find the words to explain how grateful and thankful I am to have been here and to have been granted access into the lives and culture of so many beautiful people and places. I am humbled, I am thankful, I am sad,…

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