Melby's Travels

I was lucky to be invited to my first Indian wedding. The groom was Rishika’s paternal grandfather’s sibling’s grandson (I think). The flights to Agra where the wedding took place is infrequent. Since the Taj Mahal is located in Agra, the local government wants to restrict the flights over the city. On the way there, we took one of the few flights to Agra with a layover in Locknow. At the Locknow airport, I had some chole kulche and chai. Not bad, particularly for airport food. Kulche is a soft and pillowy bread, lightly buttered and sprinkled with cilantro. It was enjoyable to eat both on its own and with the chickpeas. The chai was mainly flavored with ginger instead of other warm spices, which I found to be common here in the state of Upi (both in Locknow and Agra). Also, the weather is colder up north here, with temperatures ranging from 40s to 70s, and the foggy, wet air making it feel colder. Chole bature Since there are infrequent flights to Agra, people typically drive to Agr...

We are all working on projects that have impact across all nine NavGurukul campuses. For instance, Rishika and I are developing leadership training curriculum for the student councils on all campuses. We wanted to interact more closely with the students on the Pune campus, so we hosted a few workshops for the students. We held two English workshops: one where they created skits based on improv prompts to practice spontaneous speaking and another where they developed their vocabulary by playing Charades. We also held a cultural activity workshop where we taught them American dances, such as Cotton-Eyed Joe and Cha Cha Slide, and played American games like Capture The Flag. Thought: They have played a lot of games that we grew up with (Red Light, Green Light; Duck, Duck Goose) but not Capture The Flag. Perhaps this reflects the imperialistic history of the US and/or the Western emphasis on military strategy in children’s games? Anyway, the students seemed very excited for the activities....

Since our Airbnb would be occupied the night of Jan 14, we decided to stay in Mumbai for that night. The famous Taj Mahal Hotel. Also where there was a huge massacre in 2008. View of Taj Mahal Hotel and Gateway of India at night, photo taken from Elephanta Ferry Some trains are pretty crowded On our way to the train station, I saw my first monkey of the day. As we waited for the Uber, the monkey leaped onto a wall into the brush. I didn't get a chance to take a picture, but I remember that the monkey was larger than the dogs chasing it away. On the way to the train station, we passed a more central part of Pune. There were many murals painted for G20 and the streets felt cleaner in those areas. In addition, I saw runners for the first time since arriving! Probably white collar professionals. The train station was quite a busy place, though not as bad as I was anticipating. Still, there were many porters carrying luggage on their heads (quite a skill). There were also people pulling...