Tuesday, June 10, 2008

waiting to take off

Welcome to the Niswarth Blog!

We are only a few days away from leaving Boston and embarking on a quest to learn about India and about ourselves.  

Today it feels like Mumbai here with the temperature reaching 97 (36 celsius).  In the last couple of days, I have received emails from participants and parents about Pepto-Bismol, our reading packet which includes "In Spite of the Gods:  The Rise of Modern India" by Edward Luce, our pre-program survey, how to get a veggie meal on the airplane, and the names of our roommates from the Udayachal School.  We are ready!

Yesterday there was a front page article about India in the New York Times, "Inside Gate, India's Good Life; Outside, the Servant's Slums" by Somini Sengupta.  Working with Akanksha and Save the Children India will give us access to great organizations and inspiring people serving some of the most marginalized children in Mumbai.  We look forward to learning more about Mumbai's development by interviewing professionals in the government, NGO sector and corporate world.

I am looking forward to experiencing India with Aditya, Anabel, Celia, Dominic, Lily, Michael, Tessa and Zahra from PA, and Aditya, Aishwarya, Kartikeyan, Neha, Piyush and Saloni from the Udayachal School.  Accompanying me as facilitators are Alana Rush from PA and Taranjeet Kaur from Udayachal.  In addition, there are an additional four PA faculty who will also be with us for portions of our program - Stephanie Curci (English), Peg Harrigan (Art), Andy Housiaux (Philosophy and Religious Studies), and Christopher Shaw (History and Social Science).  Towards the end of the program, Barbara and David Chase will also visit the program and attend our conference, "Shaping Mumbai's Future:  Leadership through Service" on July 1.  

We welcome your comments and hope you will visit this blog to read and to see regular updates via stories, photographs and videos. 

3 comments:

Unknown said...

nice design and cool idea-- thanks!

HeyShaLaNeyNo said...

Agreed - this is a great idea.

Can't wait to hear how things are going.

RameshM said...

It is touching and heartwarming to read about the individual experiences,expressed so well in this blog. Gives us a glimpse of the day to day activities and varied experiences and emotions encountered by these students.