Clients of RikiRam’s musical Instrument store include: Pandit Ravi Shankar, Nikhil Banerjee, Vilayat Khan, Ali Akbar Khan, Alla Rakha, The Beatles, George Harrison, and hundreds more of India’s best classical musicians. Upon entering the quaint shop, I saw sitars, sarods, tabla, harmonium, and tanpura lining the walls along with hundreds of pictures of his more […]
Glorious Independence
I have a cliché for you that is all too true: You never know what you have until it’s gone. Since arriving in Delhi, we’ve had so many incredible experiences as a group. We’ve seen a lot of awe inspiring sites as a group. We’ve been on some really cool adventures as a group. Are […]
The mall as a reinforcing symbol of Orientalist dichotomies
After winding through the colorful and cluttered streets of India, entering the shiny, white, and supersized environment of the Select City Walk mall complex transforms the world around you. Instead of hustling street shops and local venders calling out prices, the mall contains almost exclusively western stores catered to tourists and upper-class locals. Any […]
The Mall is a Trip & a Trip to the Market
A Reflection from September 7th, 2015 Our incredible professor in Delhi, Sunil Kumar, lead us through a very conventional, western-style mall today. The inside was extremely clean, brightly lit up, air-conditioned, and consisted of expensive stores and Western brands. We walked through, used the bathroom (which was very clean, western-style, had toilet paper), and then […]
Fresh Beginnings (at Delhi University)
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 […]