"My life is my message" -Mahatma Gandhi

Hi everyone!
It's Alison. We're having a spectacular time here in INDIA.

Today was a very fun day. Breakfast at the hotel consisted of puffed naan, chole, porridge, and tea. Then we headed off to meet an Indian textile and clothing designer. We all tried on saris. The designer talked about how her designs were a fusion of tradition and modernity (a main theme we are focusing on this trip!). Some call America the melting pot of cultures - India too is a melting pot. However, India is a melting pot of maintaining traditions and exploring new ideas, the lifestyles of the old blending with the new generation, and the struggle to maintain one's faith and culture while assimilating to the modern era.

After meeting with the designer we headed off to see the Mahatma Gandhi Museum, located at the site where he was shot and killed. One of the quotes from Gandhi that really resonated with me is "my life is my message." Similar to his "be the change you want to see in the world," Gandhi's quote inspires me to take charge of my own life to help people in need on a mass scale. We were amused and slightly embarrassed by the irony in the day - here we were appreciating Gandhi's message of simplicity and asceticism, yet we had our big shopping day today. On our way back to the hotel from the museum, our guide, Thomas, showed us pictures of his family. We love Thomas.

After lunch, we went shopping at an outdoor market. We tried our hand at bargaining, although Thomas was much better than all of us. Although bargaining was fun and expected by the vendors, I thought about how haggling for what might be a few cents to us could really make a huge difference for the people selling the items. 100 rupees may be 2 dollars to us, but it could buy a child a few more meals. At many of the stands, children sitting with their parents pressured us to buy another item. However, the pressure was nothing compared to the begging we experienced at the Taj yesterday. There, each one of us had multiple children following us, begging us to look at their face and buy the items they were selling.Tara told us that these children often be long to mafias where they may get to keep 1 rupee of the 10 they collect.

After the outdoor market, we had a long talk with Tara debriefing our past few days. We discussed poverty and the begging we experienced at the Taj. Everyone who visits India says the intense poverty situated next to all the wealth is unbelievable and overwhelming, but you really can't understand it until you're here. Going into the trip, Morgan and I knew the statistics about the huge income gap in India as we had done an APES and history project on it - 836 million people live below the poverty line whereas India has the fourth most amount of billionaires in the world totaling 55, 52 rupees approximately converts to one dollar, etc, etc. However, seeing the hundreds of people begging for a few cents at one of the most grandiose buildings in the world really made it come to life. We discussed how we wish we could support all of them, but the numbers just seem so overwhelming.

Finding a way to provide education to the masses and providing clean water will be what leads India to further development and brings solutions to these struggles. On the education front, I wonder which path in life would be best: directly educating the kids at Molar Bund, who wouldn't have a chance otherwise, or educating the girls at The Modern School, who could be the future leaders of the country and could bring change to many more people. That is not to say one is more important than the other - both are necessary for a thriving society. I believe that our generation has the potential to solve many of these problems and the Millennium Goals. Just one person can accomplish so much, and Holton provides us with the tools necessary to successfully contemplate viable solutions to many of these problems. The Modern School is also so similar to Holton that we could establish some type of collaboration while in school to make a big difference here. I just wish we were in India longer so we could make more of a direct difference while here. It may sound naive and idealistic to believe that we can completely eradicate poverty, hunger, or war, but, drawing inspiration from one of my favorite quotes, those who think they can change the world are the ones that do. The Holton Global Ed program is a wonderful introduction for Holton girls to find compassion for others in our globalized world and to remove ourselves from the DC bubble.

After our discussion with Tara, we went for our final session of Bollywood dancing with our choreographer and best friend, Sehaj. After dancing we had dinner and packed our bags. Tomorrow we head off to Amritsar!

- Alison
PS - He in Many other mysticalities Makes insightful sayings - said Your own understandings