India has been an overwhelming experience for even the most prepared of us. Every day we go out, our senses are bombarded by the variety that is city street life. It is wonderful, exciting, but sometimes really draining. One of my hidden pleasures of being in Chennai has been choosing times to find the quiet […]
Classical Dance: Bharatanatyam
For the last week in Chennai, we had two dance instructors from Kerala come and teach us Bharatanatyam (a traditional dance that originated in southern India). Before we would begin dancing, we would dedicate a large portion of our time into relaxing our mind and body by doing yoga. For one of my assignments, I […]
Tea with Brits
Fall break is in full swing! In fact, I’m currently in one of London’s many airports waiting to board a flight to Budapest. This weekend I explored Dublin with a classmate; we’ve spent the last few days here in London. We stayed in a rather centrally located hostel in Dublin. In London, a friend living […]
On Meeting Salma
We met the female, Tamil poet, Salma, a couple weeks back, and it was an incredibly moving experience. Her story is a difficult one. She grew up in a small village in Tamil Nadu, was locked up in her home at the age of 13, married off not long after that and kept away from […]
Wave Across Nations
October first turns the page, 8 am, my body salutes the sun next to hundreds of other western, middle-eastern ramblers. Nestled in the Himalayan foothills, each of us stands alone in our zen, yogi minds, but the collective consciousness awakens. This wave flows from the mountains, down the Ganga, across the continent in all directions, […]