Heritage Walk: First Experience of Old Ahmedabad for ITSA's International Interns

Team Member Natalia Choi reflects on her day:

It was an especially hot day today in Ahmedabad. I mean everyday is hot, but today we didn’t have as much air conditioning since we were out and about the city unlike the past few days when we mostly stayed indoors resting and preparing for our workshops).

Guide, Nirav Patel, explaining the history of the Jumma Masjid
(Mosque) on the Heritage Walk in Ahmedabad

The day started out early at 6am because we wanted to avoid some heat and crowd for our Heritage walk through the old city of Ahmedabad. [We avoided neither the heat nor crowd…] As we waited for Aiyub, our driver to come pick us up, we spotted several monkeys on the roof of a building nearby. They were huge! I expected to see the little monkeys like Abu from Aladdin, but they were close to human-size (maybe I’m exaggerating a bit, but they were not small cute creatures). Then came my turn for the rickshaw ride! Karen, Pavithra and I loaded up in this yellow-green rickshaw and our rickshaw weaved and honked our way through bikes, motorcycles, and cows toward the Old City of Ahmedabad. Because I didn’t have a layer of glass separating me from the outside, I felt that everything was even closer. I must say I am amazed that I have not been in or seen an accident yet given the chaotic nature of the streets. The cars seem to build their own system as they go. There seems to be no marked lanes, and rarely do we run into traffic lights. Here, our tour guide told us that to drive, one needs three things: good breaks, a good honk, and good luck. And from what I’ve seen, that seems to be true.

Though it was before 8am when we arrived at the temple (the starting point of our walk), there was no time for the morning calm. The place was packed with vendors selling their fresh produce, women in their beautiful saris, men biking through the crowded street. I had expected to encounter more tourists in this historic attraction, but soon realized that we were the only ones. We had become the focus of attention and many curious gazes followed our group.

We waited for our tour to begin upstairs where we had some distance to look at the site from a birds-eye view. It was nice to see and taken in everything and not be seen. Our tour guide arrived with a huge eager smile and began a presentation introducing Ahmedabad’s history dating back to the 15^th century. He was proud of the city’s smart planning (ex. buildings made of stone-wood walls which survived major earthquakes; doors leading to secret passages that only locals would know) and peaceful state (there are no “defensive” architecture). It was interesting to learn about how commerce and business helped maintain peace in the region because they formed business partners. For example, because the British relied on Ahmedabad’s textile industry, they developed and maintained a friendly relation. The Old City was divided in “pols” which are little neighborhoods that was originally organized based on profession/religion but later came to be based on class. Each pol has a gate, a public board, a temple, and a bird feeding tower. I was impressed by how people were sensitive enough to build these bird feeding structures to compensate for the birds losing their homes as the city expanded and cut down trees. Our walk took about 2-3 hours and we saw temples, a plethora of stray dogs, beautifully colored walls (very pastel-ly I thought), and then ended our tour at a mosque.

The rest of the day was spent viewing some Indian paintings and sculptures at the Institute of Indology, eating a scrumptious lunch at Havmor, a nicely air-conditioned restaurant, and resting at Riana’s great aunt’s house. Then we headed back to Riana’s apartment and dinner (a salty popped rice dish called bhel and sev puri, a taco-like dish) and returned to our prospective homes (for some, their host family’s house, for others, the ITSA apartment or Riana’s place) afterwards. Whew, what a full, wonderful day!  

Thoughts from ITSA 2012 team members on the “Institute of Writing & Thinking” workshop & "Training For Change"

May 18^th – May 21^st was a busy weekend for ITSA team members. Congregating in New York, the team took part in a “Training for Trainers” workshop, taught by veteran educators Betsy Raasch Gilman and Diana Gonzales from the Philadelphia-based organization Training for Change, a leading name in educating for democratic, nonviolent social change. Participants gained valuable skills in the areas of facilitation, teambuilding, teaching and communication. Julia Meyer was there for the ride:

“After months of anticipation, on Saturday, May 11^th, training finally began. Indu Chugani, one of the co-founders of Educators for Teaching India, led a creative thinking workshop at Bard College. As a student at Bard, I was already familiarized with the atmosphere and teaching style – classes went for the entire day and were intellectually challenging. However, the format was different from the typical discussion-based classroom. Instead of having an open discourse, students responded in writing to what they had read.  Then, in no particular order, everyone shared what they had written. While there was an assortment of exercises, some more complicated than others, they mostly followed this format: reading, thinking, writing and speaking. While all my courses at Bard had required active participation, critical analysis, and creative thought, none of them had been structured quite like the experience of L&T. I remember a couple of L&T exercises, but one in particular that I’ve enjoyed both times: Poetry Explosion.  (…) Its conclusion resembled a cubist painting: rather than simply seeing the poem from our own perspective, the various viewpoints layered on top of one another.  The subject was no longer clearly identifiable. It became both an amalgamation of thought and a divergence of ideas, taking the poem into new, uncharted territory. (…)

By the end of the workshop I was completely rejuvenated. In school I can feel my mind stretching, bending, and twisting in every direction until there’s no where else to go. It’s satisfying, illuminating, and I love it, but it can also be an exhausting, even painful experience. The workshop reminded me that intellectual thought doesn’t have to be this taxing. By the end of Indu’s workshop I felt as though my entire mind had been reopened. Strain was replaced by freedom. I had the understanding that nothing I wrote could be wrong; I simply responded with my first thought, an idea that I would normally dismiss, and explored where it could take me. (…) Indu reminded me that thinking doesn’t have to be exhaustive, but can be quite energizing. We are always thinking something; it is just a matter of freely accessing these thoughts. Any idea that is seemingly simple or dry can open a window into an entirely new mental landscape.  And with that, there is always another place to go.”

Thoughts from ITSA 2012 team members on the Institute for Writing & Thinking at Bard College

Between May 12^th and 13^th, ITSA participated in a workshop led by Indu Chugani, co-founder of Educators for TeachingIndia (EFTI), supported by the Harvard South Asia Initiative. ITSA 2012 team members from Philadelphia and New York traveled to Bard College, where they spent two intense days focusing on the role of writing in teaching and learning. Team member Arden Feil comments on the experience:

“Participating in the training with the Institute of Writing and Thinking at Bard College really helped me see just how valuable and worthwhile writing can be. At first I was a bit apprehensive about the weekend. I really had no idea what to expect, and I was both excited and nervous about the idea of meeting all of my fellow interns and partaking in this workshop with them.  The concept of Writing and Thinking was not new to me; I had already participated in a few similar workshops prior to the weekend, yet I never felt I had truly experienced the workshop. This weekend’s workshop far exceeded my expectations and brought me to understand and appreciate the value in the writing and thinking techniques. (…) What I found so amazing about this workshop was how easily we were able to form an environment where everyone felt comfortable about sharing their writing. This can be credited to our wonderful workshop leader, Indu Chugani. Her interest and specialty in topics concerning India was a very fitting way to focus the workshop and connect it back to our work in India this upcoming summer. What I took away most from the workshop was the idea of perspective and how our views can so easily be influenced by the Western media’s portrayed image. I found myself confronting the question of what is the real India, and struggling to find a definite answer. I enjoyed the process of answering questions by “free writing” and then going around the room in a read aloud fashion to share our response. Not only was it was helpful to hear the varying opinions of the group, but it made me feel more confident in my own writing skills.

            I hope to take some of the lessons we learned that weekend to India because I think they will be valuable to our curriculum. More than anything, this workshop made me realize how little I can prepare for entering a culture so drastically different to my own; however, I also know that our ultimate goal is to give our students a new way of thinking. If we can put to use some of the techniques we witnessed in this workshop I think we will be able to get past some of the cultural barriers separating us and our students, and lead successful and impacting workshops.”

ITSA in article by Newsroom America!

Click on the photo to see ITSA mentioned in this wonderful article by Newsroom America! We're honored to be counted as an organization that is changing the world for the better for women, among all the other incredible initiatives!