I'm an Indian Student!

I have officially finished my first week of classes!  I am taking three classes:

1. A social-economics class on India (ISS 330)
2. Hindi 4
3. An internship/field work experience

The program is structured so that we have a concentrated period of classes for 3 weeks, we visit a rural area in Rajasthan for a week, then we have a 6 week internship.   Right now, I'm working one-on-one with a tutor for my Hindi class.  I'm proud to say my Hindi has already improved, even though I have only been here for two weeks. The ISS class is a bunch of guest professors who come to speak on a specific topic to give us a comprehensive overview of India.  Last week we covered topics such as the economics of India, caste and class, and gender roles.  This overview is amazing to me - although I grew up in a semi-Indian lifestyle, I never knew these intricacies of the culture.  Having this background of both the good and the bad in the society is teaching me the preconceived notions that people live their daily life with and how India's history has influenced what people do.  Here are some interesting fact that stood out to me: 

• India's immense diversity is due to lack of mobility.  Only 4% of the population in rural districts participate in inter-district movement.  To put that in perspective, about 70% of India lives in rural villages.
• India's voting age is 18.  The drinking age in New Delhi (varies throughout the country) is 25.
• The gender roles in India have very interesting dynamics.  Traditionally, the man was the breadwinner of the family and the mom was expected to stay at home to cook, clean, and take care of the children.  On the flip side, many changes have already started to occur.  For example: 20 years ago, the average age of girls getting married was 17; now it is 22.
• India has had a women prime minster, Indira Gandhi.  Also, India's current chief minister of Uttar Pradesh (the wealthiest state in India) is Mayawati, a woman from the untouchable caste -the lowest caste, now called the Dalits.  Chief ministers are somewhat equivalent to governors of states in the US, but many times have more power over the state government.

These classes are COMPLETELY different than what I am used to.  There are no numbers, calculations, or problem sets.  It's all about discussing how people live, why they live that way, and what India is doing to change or preserve that lifestyle.  And at the end of the class (engineering friends - don't freak out) I have to write....a PAPER!  Ha.  Anyways, I'm loving the thought-provoking subjects we have been learning about.

For my internship class, I am still working things out.  I will probably be working with The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI), a nonprofit policy resource organization, and the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy in the federal government.  I'm so excited...more about that later when I have more definite plans!

Last little bit: here is a picture of our little classroom on the first day of school!