They're the greatest

Our days here in Delhi have assumed a sort of pleasant, relaxed routine, and if you know me at all, you know that I love routines. As I've never mentioned before on this blog, "we" consists of a group of 12 students from the Schreyer Honors College at Penn State. We're being hosted for this leg of our cross-cultural experience by students from the University of Delhi, namely the Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC). This is the most elite business school in the country, taking only the top 1% of India's high school students.

In case you were wondering, yes, we feel terribly inadequate by comparison.

Anyway! We're up for breakfast at the guest house, to SRCC by 9 (or a little after), and in the mornings we work on our assigned group presentations and papers--yes, we're doing actual schoolwork here! My group is tackling "Water." I'll leave that up to you to interpret. As you can see from the short video below, our work sessions are intense and productive:

After work session, we have a lecture from one of several professors at the college, on everything from business ethics to multiculturalism to child rights. All are quite good--the professors here are really stellar--but my favorite was the talk given by Sanjay Kumar, an English and theatre professor (what a surprise, I know). He helps traumatized and poor children write and produce their own plays about their experiences and the world around them. They're not all sad, either--the one he showed us about gender stereotypes included two boys courting a female traffic cop with a Bollywood song.

As a writer, I was all in for how he was actively using creativity to combat social problems. In fact, my playwriting professor at Penn State conducts the same kind of work with abused children. It was affirming to know that they're using the same kind of right-brain therapy all over the world.

After lunch, we take a bus or rickshaws and head out to explore Delhi. The SRCC students have become not only our friends, but our guardians and saviors. Doubtless one of us would have gotten scammed or run over by a bus by now without them helping us to cross the street, bargain with the vendors, and tell us what is and isn't safe to eat. They're the greatest, and that's an understatement.

Thursday was one such day of work and play. After--ahem!--hard work in the morning, accompanied by Professor Kumar's lecture, we were off to the Center for Social Research. This is an NGO devoted to gender equality and women's rights from birth to death and everything in between. We were introduced to the founder, "one of the best public speakers in India" (she didn't disappoint), and listened to another excellent lecture about the changing perspective of women in India.

We rounded off our day with a trip to Delli Haat, an open marketplace with pavilions representing each of India's 28 states. Think Epcot, but with shopping instead of passport stamps and rides. I'm not really a shopper, but I had fun taking pictures with my new friend Rukmini. We stopped at a food stand, where she had me sample local delicacies like crystallized ginger and tamarinds.

There have been exceptions, such as our day visiting temples, but for the most part, we've stuck to this loose schedule. I'm probably the only girl in the world who enjoys lectures and projects more than shopping, but... actually, I have nothing more to add to that. I'm probably the only girl in the world who's like that.

Rest assured, shopping was done. But that's a story for another blog post.