Week 4: Your News ‘Heads Up!’ Champions
ASED, Destiny, & Franklin Templeton take on Agra.
✩Before the Weekend✩
There is no static week here in India. Every week has something new in store for us.
This week, Alyssa and I have been hard at work preparing to work on the website. On the side, we taught a computer literacy class at the Community Center and it was so fun to see the women happy to learn! Seeing them learn together and helping each other out was the definition of empowerment. There is such a strong sense of community here in India and the amount of people willing to help eachother, even with the smallest acts, make such great impacts.
“Kolkatans love their food”… I can attest to that!
The ASED group, Alyssa and I went to a South Indian restaraunt called Banana Leaf with Aarti who has been working with ASED. Aarti was leaving that week so we had dinner with her with some South Indian coffee and dosas served on banana leaves.
We discussed about the “yes-no” nod gestures that the locals do here because we always get confused as to whether one is saying yes or no. As soon as Aarti said that she doesn’t do that, she immediately did the nod after. It was funny and even though I didn’t spend nearly as much time as the ASED group did with her, I will miss her funny stories and her tearing up the dance foor.
Smarita took Alyssa and I to traditional Bengali food to end the work week before our weekend getaway. Eating with our hands continues to be a struggle as Alyssa and I’s plates have spilled rice everywhere vs. Smarita and Phil’s plates that were neatly cleaned away as if food has never touched them in the first place.
✩Goodbye Kolkata, Hello Agra!✩
Another early morning rise to catch a flight to Delhi.
After going through security checkpoint, Abby, Alyssa, and I decided to treat ourselves to many samosas and veg puffs, even though it was 5 in the morning.
When we finally arrived to Delhi, we hopped in our driver’s car and Richie (from FT), and went straight to Mathura to visit the SOS Wildlife Elephant Sanctuary.
We walked with the elephants and we heard them call out in the distance. It was so cool!! It was like we were in Jurassic World. What’s really cute is that all the female elephants have a crush on this one male elephant named Raju, the same name as our friend at Destiny who makes the best tea and coffee in the world!
Wildlife SOS also has a sanctuary for bear sloths, and due to their efforts, no used bear sloth for human benefits is found on the streets again. I highly recommend for everyone to go!! Shoutout to Abby for finding this neat place and turning her tears of joy from watching videos of elephants at work to reality.
After a day of hanging out with the elephants, we drove to our homestay in Agra and finally met up with the rest of the Franklin Templeton group. After dinner, we played a couple rounds of Heads Up! (a common theme throughout this week and trip, we are pros now). The funniest one was probably ‘Skipping Rocks,’ ask anyone of us about that.
✩The Long-Awaited Taj Mahal✩
“Anotha one.” -DJ Khaled
Another day, another early rise as we woke up to catch the Taj Mahal at sunrise for a less crowded and busier time.
We learned about marble stone-making and let me tell ya, it’s a long process. It took approximately 20 years to build the Taj Mahal. To clean this marble masterpiece, a concoction of milk, honey, and water is used.
In order to make artworks of marble, pieces of stones need to be shaved into an intricate shape (artisans often shave off their finger tips trying to achieve these details), etched into a marble slab, and individually placed and adhered into the slab. Such a laborious process for a beautiful outcome!
Afterwards, we went to go see the Baby Taj, which was less busy than the Taj Mahal. The marbled details at the Baby Taj were even more intricate than the Taj Mahal.
The day ended with traditional Indian music. We have danced our way through our time at India with the locals and loved that music brought that connection! Owen absolutely killed the tambourine while the rest of us pulled out our best moves. Some of us even got a try at the sitar and it was really difficult to play, but I was more than happy to serenade the rest of the Global Fellows (it wasn’t good).
This was our last, big weekend getaway before our time in India comes to an end. The many sunsets, street views, and interactions all compile into this one, big grand experience I’ll never forget.
“Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places...” -Pissarro
