The atmosphere that young people create is alive. An air of excitement filled the campus as we quickly toured around before class, but it had nothing to do with us visiting foreigners. Though there’s staring wherever we go, the University students were more occupied with their studies, student government campaigns, social movements and their conversations walking around the Swami Vivekananda Statue. When we reached the classroom, it was all smiles, holding doors and bringing in extra desks for everyone. There was hardly any tension as the conversations started. In fact, one could almost feel a camaraderie between all of the students. Many of us seemed to be concerned with similar issues, primarily equality. The differences we discovered illuminated new roads to travel, but the similarities brought a comfort that allowed friendships to form – these friendships then coming the vehicle to travel new roads. We stumbled and giggled over the awkward territory, only to reveal our humanity and the inevitability of pauses, confusions and misconceptions. These moments only build more intimacy – we slowly learned our fears and deeper concerns, climbing quickly, but plateauing at a level of closeness not typically achieved in only an hour. So when class ended, we were welcomed quickly to lunch and a tour around campus. With no hesitations, the Delhi students were more than happy to further get to know us. Something about being of the same generation connected us on a ground-breaking level, exceeding all cultural, religious, racial, socioeconomic and gender differences.
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