As we flew here to Kolkata, we could see the Himalayas and Mt. Everest peeking through the clouds! It was amazing! You’ll have to look pretty close at the picture of the clouds to make out the peaks on the horizon. The view was breath-taking!
As we drove from the airport to the hotel, the buildings looked as if we were in Paris. French windows with wooden shutters and intricate wrought iron along roofs and sills. Even though the buildings were stained with soot, you could tell this place was a beautifully romantic city. It still kind of is. The poverty is still the same as in Delhi with the rich and poor sharing the same foot of space, but there’s something different about Kolkata. I feel like I’m on vacation here. It’s less stuffy. No more diplomat houses and capitol buildings. Part of my immediate affinity to Kolkata is probably due to just being used to a typical urban Indian city. The architecture is pretty spectacular here. We’ll be going on a city tour tomorrow, so I’ll post better pics soon.
The teacher and student panels were really interesting. Most of the teachers feel Indian education needs to change to add more application techniques in the classroom. Students also said there is immense pressure to go to an IIT school or go abroad to an Ivy League, MIT, or Stanford. Many students spend an additional 6 hr/day preparing for IIT exams and neglect their 11/12 grade classes just so they have a chance in getting good marks. This is really different from the students in Delhi who said they had no pressures and neither did their friends. We’ll be visiting another school in the next few days, so I hope to get another slice of student life.
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