“Letters don’t have meaning on their own, so you put them together and use them to convey ideas and emotions. Hand gestures have no meaning on their own, so you choreograph a dance that then speaks to the soul. - Smt. Mangala Bhatt
I know I haven't blogged in a hot minute, but I thought I'd take this International Friendship Day (August 4th) to talk about some of the amazing ways our international friends have made us feel welcome. India really knows how to make us feel right at home, and since we arrived in Hyderabad, we’ve gone to three separate welcome dinners, all of which were so much fun in their own way.
Our first welcome dinner was with AIFS, so our resident directors, Sumana and Ishmeet, took the four of us in the program to an old-timey Parsi-style cafe called Sodabottleopenerwala. As you can probably tell from the name, it was a very charming place with a lot of quirky décor choices, so I spent a lot of our waiting time taking pictures of the hilarious signs and unique light fixtures. We tried some of their signature dishes inspired by Bombay and Parsi culture, as well as the iconic Irani tea.
The next day, we went to a welcome dinner hosted by some ladies who are a part of an EU (Evangelical Union) bible study and had graduated from the University of Hyderabad. My dad was a part of EU when he was in college at UofHyd, and it is a very tight-knit community both during college and afterwards, so I was pleasantly surprised to be greeted by many familiar faces. 14 of the girls from our international house went in three separate cabs, and there were a lot of freshman girls from different parts of India there as well. I was the only one with an Indian phone plan, and therefore cellular data, so my Uber-ordering skills were definitely put to the test. However, four canceled Ubers and three car rides later, we all got to the apartment and had a wonderful time playing get-to-know-you games and eating authentic Indian food off faux banana leaf plates.
This past Thursday, we had our official SIP program welcome dinner, which also included a performance from Smt. Mangala Bhatt, a professional Kathak dancer who has performed in over 35 countries. She turned her Kathak recital into an interactive and educational experience, as she would stop every so often to explain the rhythms she followed or the meaning of the hand gestures she was making. She was accompanied by an incredible singer and tabla player, with whom she would improvise dances and do a call-and-response of sorts with different rhythms.
Afterwards, we had an amazing street food-style dinner with different kinds of chaat, fried food, and ice cream served in mini clay pots (which we then hoarded because they were too cute to throw away). This welcome dinner was a great way to get to know not only our fellow students, but also many of our professors in an informal context. For example, my Hindi professor brought her 11-year-old daughter, and the three of us were able to bond over our love for books and bubble tea. Her daughter even offered to teach me how to write in Telugu (I’m ”challa“ excited!).
I know I’m not the most conventional definition of a foreigner in India, but it’s still nice to have people here who genuinely have our best interests at heart and want us to have an immersive cultural experience during our time here. Shoutout to all of these awesome people who gave me a fantastic “taste“ of India!
