We took our final train ride from Haridwar down to Delhi, and after a brief 27 hours or so, we’ll be heading home to New York City via Frankfurt, Germany. So how to reflect, how to process all that I’ve experienced and felt, all the surprises and bodily sensations during these 5 crazy weeks…
The Nature of Life is to Grow
During monsoon season in India, everything seems to be growing. Green is everywhere, and water is everywhere, and water is life, and if there’s anything that India has a lot of… well, it’s life. It’s hard to imagine that during other times of the year, some parts of India receive no rain at all, and are…
Some Magic Moments
Dancing Ladies You know… that time I got pulled into a group of dancing Indian ladies who were walking behind a mobile shrine at the start of a pilgrimage to get some sacred water because it’s pilgrimage season here in India…. and it was epic monsoon raining at the moment… and they kept rubbing my…
On the Go in India
There are 1.2 billion people in India, and sometimes it seems like they are all trying to get to the same place at the same time. Traffic is omnipresent. No matter the city (perhaps with the exception of my stay at the posh Shangri-La in New Delhi), I can almost always hear the distant honking of…
Tough Questions
“Are there poor people in America?” “How can I go to United States?” “Why the US is developed and India is not?” “Are students allowed weapons in the United States? I saw on the news about the shootings… it’s not the children’s fault.” Shortly after receiving my introductory materials from TGC, I was leafing through…
Culture Shock
July 24, 2016 Yesterday we left the warmth and safety of our little Chattarpur community and flew to Delhi. In Chattarpur, “fancy” meant room service breakfast (tea and paneer paratha, please!) … we were treated like precious things, to be sure, but at least we were out on the street every day, with the cows…
Om, I’m Home
My yoga journey started at least 14 years ago, probably around 2002, when I attended a yoga class on 86th Street in Bensonhurst, a short drive from where I was living in Bay Ridge. I remember feeling nervous, and also sort of rebellious and eccentric… in my mind yoga was weird, kind of exotic, and…
A Sea of Waste
What happens when 1.2 billion people don’t have access to potable drinking water, municipal trash pick-up, recycling programs, and – perhaps most importantly – education about environmental sustainability? I think these pictures tell the tale. The trash problem in India is well-known, and its causes are multifarious. There is the burgeoning access to consumer culture,…
My First Visit to an Indian School
We arrived at RBANMS School just as the morning assembly was finishing. This concept of a school-wide gathering, in which all students and staff assemble at the start of the school day, is part of what first got me interested in visiting Indian schools. Unfortunately we arrived right at the end of the assembly, but…
Day One: Bengaluru, India
I made it halfway across the world smoothly, with lots of reading, tv and movie watching, and eating not-so-bad Indian plane food to keep me occupied on the 7 hr (DC – Frankfurt) and 8.5 hr flights (Frankfurt-Bengalore). Traveling with a group is a different and interesting experience; I’m not used to having so many…
What Does it Mean to Want Your Students to Go to School “Happy?”
Smriti Irani releases ‘syllabus for yoga’ in govt schools “Our objective is that our children go to school happily. Therefore, our aim is to give a push to physical and cultural activities in schools,” she said. http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/yoga-a-compulsory-subject-in-govt-run-schools-teacher-training-courses-smriti-irani/ Within 5 minutes of a google search, I’m already blown away by the level of seriousness with which this…
Postcards: They Can Say So Much
Our 6th graders created postcards to celebrate and encourage appreciation of NYC’s awesome waterways.
Exploration Goes Global 