5/28/2010
I just had a great dinner with family and friends in North Olmsted, my hometown in Ohio. It is almost as if I fell into a time warp sitting in my Mom’s house in Ohio, as I finally finished my hardest semester as an undergraduate, graduated from U. C. Berkeley, had my Mom and brother come visit me in Berkeley, and now I am getting ready to fly 18 hours east back to India for the summer. I feel mixed with relief, nostalgia, anxiety and excitement all at the same time!
One year later and I am headed back to India. Who would have though it? After my four-month journey around South America a year and a half ago, I never would have guessed I would be on the opposite side of the world any time soon. I though my life would be centered upon Spanish and Latin American culture and politics after that trip. Yet, as of right now I am returning to South Asia for my second summer in a row and looking forward to giving India another shot after a crazy adventure last year involving roof-top bus rides, explorations of informal communities (“slums”) and a acquiring a nasty parasite that took 10+ pounds of my body weight!
Things are a bit different this time: I actually have a plan (somewhat) and a more concrete reason for going than last year. For the past semester I have been preparing myself for a summertime internship with Tata, Inc. Tata is a massive Indian corporation that yields a large production for various goods and services that support Indian infrastructure. The program is called TISES (Tata International Social Entrepreneurship Scheme) and the company is hosting four U. C. Berkeley students to work in various sectors within Tata Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Division in different Tata locations all over India. I will be going to Jamshedpur, a small corporate cite four hours east of Kolkata, to work with a doctor on a public health service project to evaluate the reach of health services to the communities that Tata’s CSR division serves.
It should be interesting, to say the least. This experience is part of my practice experience required for my minor, Global Poverty and Practice. I will also use it as field work for my career in anthropology. I have spent all se
mester learning about globalizing India today, Hindu and Muslim philosophy, Indian geography and politics, poverty in India, small Indian cultural lessons here and there, and a very small amount of Hindi. My semester has been surround by Indian themes and now I am here to see them all play out. This will be totally different than last summer, when I jumped aboard a plane knowing nothing more about Indian culture than tikka masala and chai tea. I am nervous, but so ready to learn as much as I can and put to practice all that I have learned about India, poverty and development.
It’s been a crazy couple of weeks; moving out of another apartment, hiking in Santa Cruz 20+ miles in one day, saying goodbye to roommates and good friends, finishing a year long Americorps service project, showing my brother my life in the Bay Area, graduating, spending time with family. . . I got sick in Ohio before I left and was worried I wasn’t going to make it. Traveler’s diarrhea in Cleveland? Go figure! Now I am going to embark on a long plane ride and a big project in that will carry me through the summer. The horizon that marks the end of my journey here is two and a half months away. I have 8 weeks in Jamshedpur, then two weeks to travel where I want. Then, after this summer, I return to the States for my last semester at Berkeley. It will be a weird one, as many of my friends will be gone and I will be living somewhere new. I am excited to have an adventure this summer, and arrive back in Berkeley ready to conclude my undergraduate experience after nearly 7 years! Then, maybe Brazil for a semester? Maybe Ghana, Africa? Then: who knows? But right now, it’s all about India! Chalo chalo!
