We are blasting through our Northern Tour of India and at the same time that it is exhausting, different, and just generally overwhelming, I have also somehow found the time to reflect on the entire trip here. There are some constants on life in India that I’ve noticed and some things that are different depending on where you are, in the north or the south and if you are in a ...
Ecofeminism and Why Scientists (and everyone else) Should Care about the Humanities
We just came back from Bangalore where we studied for a while at a place called Visthar in the outskirts of the city. While at Visthar, we had a series of lectures about the environment, specifically how to care for the environment and for the people, animals and plants that make it up. Here’s a highlight reel of our time at Visthar, the lectures and experiences that I most ...
What’s with all the Tea?
Everywhere you go in India, you are offered tea. The offer of chai is everywhere from on the train before you travel back to Chennai to a lonely street on the Andaman Islands before you go to a national park. The constant offer of chai makes you wonder after a while, why is it absolutely everywhere? How did such a simple drink of just leaves and hot water make it so big that ...
A Walk Along the Mangroves and A Fishing Village
On our trip to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, we worked with the Andaman Nicobar Environment Team (ANET) for a couple days. There, we learned about the intertidal ecosystem that the Andamans supports through its mangrove forests and got to see for ourselves the different animals that come out at different times, high tide and low tide. We also learned about a fishing village ...
Reflections on Life in India
My stay here in India has been an experience that has helped me truly appreciate all of the resources and opportunities that I have back home. That's one of the most cliche things to say about a study abroad experience (gross I know) but I truly have learned to appreciate even something as basic as clean, fresh-smelling air, a relatively clean ground beneath my feet or a clean ...
A Welcome Back to Chennai
Coming back from an amazing 2 weeks working with Hyderabad Urban Lab (HUL) in Hyderabad, the group boarded a train that, in 13 hours would take us back to Chennai, where we are staying in the city itself rather than in Tambaram. The train was set up in a cool way; it had beds hanging from the ceiling and beds that folded out from the seats that connected to the ground. The ...
The Hijra of India and the West
Sitting on a train on our way for the second time to the FRRO office in Chennai, I suddenly hear loud clapping as people enter the ladies train cart. I look around to find the source of the loud clapping and notice two very tall individuals dressed in beautiful sarees. One of whom had the beginnings of a beard. The one without the beard came up to me, Reyna, Sophia and Emma and ...
Chemists and First Impressions
Upon arrival into India, as we stepped out of the airport into a wall of humidity, we were met with a huge crowd of people all staring at the group of delusional and sleepy foreigners. I was unsure what they were doing there at first but it seems like some were waiting to pick up passengers, as usual in airports: holding out their papers with the person's name scribbled on it, ...
