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.
Since I can no longer have these desserts after starting this doctor-prescribed gluten-free diet post surgery, I figured the best way to mourn the end of my Indian sweets journey is to blog about all of the ones I’ve tried in the past five weeks, and to shed some insight on the tastiest! Before we […]
New perspectives from working in a remarkable organization.
I have been to Jaipur twice in the last week. The first time was with other CASI interns. The second was for work at the beginning of this week. I feel like I have seen two completely different cities, and two completely different interpretations of Rajasthani culture, on these trips. While visiting monuments and forts […]
Working in India has been a whirlwind of “firsts.” First time living abroad, first time working in a large organization, first time with a job in which English is not the only language. Back in Pennsylvania, workplace expectations for scheduling meetings, talking with supervisors, keeping people updated, and other relationships are so omnipresent that I […]
This week marks a midway point for Judy and me. Although we’re more than halfway through our time in India, we are just finishing up our first project and starting a second one. After spending more than a month in the lush, cool greenery of Araku Valley, we’re back to the loud, dusty, bumper-to-bumper lifestyle […]
French fries or Dosas? Hollywood or Bollywood? America or India? These are questions I grew up hearing and navigating in ways that did not offend anyone around me. Some people define the term ‘ABCD’ as American Born Confused Desi (Desi means native to India). This generally refers to the idea that people of Indian origin […]
For the past five weeks spent in Araku Valley, I’ve lost myself in the lush forest, friendly villagers, vivid sunsets, and cardamom-spiced local coffee. After the first part of our internship, documenting indigenous coffee farmers living in tribes in the Eastern Ghats mountain range, Veena and I returned to Naandi headquarters in Hyderabad last Friday. […]
