It's finally here!! After 24+ hours and thousands of miles including a layover in Germany, I finally arrived at my destination. Our group pulled into Bangalore airport around 1AM. Despite being so bleary-eyed, we could feel the excitement in the air. By 3AM our van pulled up to the Royal Orchid Hotel in Bangalore. This is after driving on the left-hand side of the road (always exciting).
The hotel is great! There are pretty orchids decorating a charming lobby. I checked into my clean and comfortable room (and hurray - a bed!) Sleep was on the agenda, so I hit the sack and tried to recuperate after the long flights.
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| Can't wait for sleep! |
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| What's inside my desk drawer? Do I have time to read a 700 verse Hindu epic? Ummm... |
Today we heard from two great speakers who gave presentations about India's history, culture, and the basics of the Indian education system. Mr. Chiranjiv Singh, former India Ambassador, talked about India's history, religion, and diversity among other things. I was amazed that he summed this up in about one hour! India is so diverse (religion, history, language, art, music, dress...) that it is hard to describe what binds India together. One thing that does make India, India, is its people's desire to follow the universal laws of doing what it right and true. I also enjoyed hearing him say, "Whatever I say about Indian culture, the opposite is also true..." With over 300 languages, including dialects, many religions, and other differences region to region, what unites India is unity in diversity. Did you know that there are 3,592 newspapers here in 35 different languages? When he wrote his name is 5 different languages for us, he really made his point!
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| "Chiranjiv Singh" written in 5 languages! |
Maya Menon, founder and director of The Teacher Foundation, also gave a great overview of the Indian education system. I'm excited to learn more about the differences between government schools, private unaided, and private aided schools. I was surprised that Kerala, a region in the south, has a 100% literacy rate while Indian students (as a whole) on average only receive about 4 years of schooling during their lives. Talk about a range of differences! I will get to tour schools later this week.
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| Maya Menon and Chiranjiv Singh |
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| Group shot! |
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