Since 2007, the Center for the Advanced Study of India (CASI) at the University of Pennsylvania has supported 175 students! Welcome to the home base for CASI students and alumni to share their thoughts, reflections, and ongoing learnings about their internships, research projects, and travels in India and beyond.
I never thought I could feel so strongly about a certain place until I arrived in India for the very first time. Since stepping outside of Chhatrapati Shivaji Airport in Mumbai, I’ve relearned how to cross the road, tried some of the best street food of my life, totally reevaluated my concept of personal space, […]
Hello world! My name’s Varshini Gali and I’m an incoming junior at Penn from Sarasota, Florida. At Penn, I’m studying Health and Societies in the College of Arts and Sciences. This summer, I’m interning at the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) in Gurgaon, a city near New Delhi. I’m here with my co-intern Hareena, and […]
I’m sitting in a hotel room in Hyderabad, and I guess that says it all about my relationship with India. My parents both grew up in this city, but I’m a born and bred New Jersey-an. Picking up on my accented Telugu, the Uber driver who drove us from Hussain Sagar, the manmade lake in […]
Hello! I am Judy Choi, a rising junior majoring in Biology. After graduation, I hope to attend dental school. This summer, I’ll be working at the Naandi Foundation of India, where the headquarter is based in Hyderabad, Telangana. Naandi is a social sector organization focused on advancing the socio-economic standings of underprivileged populations. The foundation […]
Hi everyone! My name is Hareena, I’m from Troy, Michigan, and I’m a rising junior at Penn. I’m in the College of Arts and Sciences, majoring in Biological Basis of Behavior and minoring in Health Care Management. This summer, I’m interning at the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) in Gurgaon, India. I am writing […]
The audience is as much a part of the Indian movie-going experience as the film itself. Singing anthems, whooping and hollering, rooting for favorites, calling out fouls and simulations, and getting a halftime snack fix – few differences aside, it’s possible to forget you’re in a dark room with 3D glasses and imagine yourself in […]
Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights celebrating the triumph of good over evil, might be considered a less than fortuitous date to pilot a survey instrument for business owners in Mumbai. The crowds doing last minute shopping to puja-fy their homes, the local student body from which I pluck research assistants gone home, as have […]
