A Busy Week
I knew that it would get busy this week with Kristi and Sandra here, but it’s really amazing how much has been squeezed into their short visit. Everyday has involved numerous meetings, we’re shuttled from one to the next, providing input on curriculums, orientations, training programs, and the new consulting project. Every night has been filled with activities as well.
Tues. night was one of my favorite evenings. Dr. Natchier took us out to the organic farm that she started last year. It’s on 5 acres of 80 acres that Aravind owns 6km from the hospital. The manufacturing lab, Aurolab, is building a new building there that will open in a year. The farm, though, is amazing. In just a year, they’re growning 60% of the vegetables that are fed to us at the guesthouse, as well as the hundreds of students that stay in the hostel across the street from the hospital. She’s really sliced a little piece of heaven for herself out there, and she said that she’s spending more and more time there. (She’s Dr. V.’s sister, and her retirement can’t be too far away.) There was a huge rainstorm rolling in and so one side of the immense horizon we watched the lightening storm while on the other side we watched the sunset through palm trees. On our way home the two combined and we had a huge, complete double rainbow. It was breathtaking, and as I stared out the window on my drive back into town, I couldn’t stop thinking about how much I loved this country.
Wednesday night, Nagarajan took this visiting German prof and me to the Meenakshi temple for a tour. He knows a lot about the Hindu faith and so he was able to explain give a lot more background on the temple. There are so many different gods and goddesses! The prof brought up that Hinduism is one of the only world religions where you see almost equal representation between males and females. That night we had dinner at Dr. Kim and Dr. Usha’s house with at least ten other family members. Unfortunately, Dr.V. has been very sick this week, with a fever and cold. It makes everyone a little nervous with his 88th bday coming up this fall.
Thursday night we went to dinner at one of the hotels. There were about 20 of us, and it was a delicious meal. One thing it very different here, which is that out of all of those people, only three drank beer – Kristi, Nagarajan and the German. It’s just such a different culture here where it’s really almost unacceptable. It’s quite different from some of the work dinners that we experience in the US. Last night was the first time that alcohol was even offered in the three weeks that I’ve been here. The dinner ended with a short performance by Sanil singing two songs. He’s got a really nice voice, and he and Murali are writing a song about Aravind that will be recorded for Dr. V’s upcoming birthday.
Last night, the HR team took us out to dinner at the Sangam hotel that had more traditional Indian food - it was delicious. Before we went out we went to Kheerti and Preethi's house to see their young children and their new apartment. Kheerti had gotten us some lychee ice cream of the same brand (Amul) that I had had earlier. I had been raving about the fig ice cream to him the night before, so he went and got us a new flavor. The restaurant was wonderful and I got to sit next to Dr. Natchiar, and I found out that she did some of her medical training at Harvard in the early 70's. She is quite a character. The restaurant was outside and there were four musicians playing traditional music which was the first that I had heard outside of the temple.
It's been great to spend time with Kristi and Sandra this week. I've certainly been able to accomplish one of my business school goals which was to get to know my professors - something that I did not do in my undergraduate experiences. They seem to have so much fun together and they've had some incredibly interesting experiences, both in India and otherwise. Kristi spent four years in Africa with the peace corps, and Sandra's filled me in on although she loves India, China is her favorite. (Well, I'll have to add that country to the list!). I think that they're got really great lives with being profs, traveling internationally to work on public health projects and great marriages. Kristi also manages to balance her family life, as she has three young sons. They just get an amazing reception here at Aravind, and everyone really appreciates the time that they donate. Of course, they seem to thoroughly enjoy the experience, too. It's really nice to see professional women who have been able to "have it all.” I feel very lucky that they have intivted me to be a part of these relationships that they've created. They admitted today that they were a little nervous about sending me out on my own to India, but they let me know today that I've done a great job and only improved their standing with the people at Aravind - it was great to hear.
Tomorrow Kristi, Sandra, Nagarajan, and I leave for Hyderabad for four days, before I join Steph in Goa, so I think that my writing will only get more sporadic. I’m looking forward to getting out of Madurai, but I’m sad to think that I’ll only have a week left when I return to Madurai. I can’t believe how fast that my time has gone. In some respects, I feel like I’m just getting started!
Tues. night was one of my favorite evenings. Dr. Natchier took us out to the organic farm that she started last year. It’s on 5 acres of 80 acres that Aravind owns 6km from the hospital. The manufacturing lab, Aurolab, is building a new building there that will open in a year. The farm, though, is amazing. In just a year, they’re growning 60% of the vegetables that are fed to us at the guesthouse, as well as the hundreds of students that stay in the hostel across the street from the hospital. She’s really sliced a little piece of heaven for herself out there, and she said that she’s spending more and more time there. (She’s Dr. V.’s sister, and her retirement can’t be too far away.) There was a huge rainstorm rolling in and so one side of the immense horizon we watched the lightening storm while on the other side we watched the sunset through palm trees. On our way home the two combined and we had a huge, complete double rainbow. It was breathtaking, and as I stared out the window on my drive back into town, I couldn’t stop thinking about how much I loved this country.
Wednesday night, Nagarajan took this visiting German prof and me to the Meenakshi temple for a tour. He knows a lot about the Hindu faith and so he was able to explain give a lot more background on the temple. There are so many different gods and goddesses! The prof brought up that Hinduism is one of the only world religions where you see almost equal representation between males and females. That night we had dinner at Dr. Kim and Dr. Usha’s house with at least ten other family members. Unfortunately, Dr.V. has been very sick this week, with a fever and cold. It makes everyone a little nervous with his 88th bday coming up this fall.
Thursday night we went to dinner at one of the hotels. There were about 20 of us, and it was a delicious meal. One thing it very different here, which is that out of all of those people, only three drank beer – Kristi, Nagarajan and the German. It’s just such a different culture here where it’s really almost unacceptable. It’s quite different from some of the work dinners that we experience in the US. Last night was the first time that alcohol was even offered in the three weeks that I’ve been here. The dinner ended with a short performance by Sanil singing two songs. He’s got a really nice voice, and he and Murali are writing a song about Aravind that will be recorded for Dr. V’s upcoming birthday.
Last night, the HR team took us out to dinner at the Sangam hotel that had more traditional Indian food - it was delicious. Before we went out we went to Kheerti and Preethi's house to see their young children and their new apartment. Kheerti had gotten us some lychee ice cream of the same brand (Amul) that I had had earlier. I had been raving about the fig ice cream to him the night before, so he went and got us a new flavor. The restaurant was wonderful and I got to sit next to Dr. Natchiar, and I found out that she did some of her medical training at Harvard in the early 70's. She is quite a character. The restaurant was outside and there were four musicians playing traditional music which was the first that I had heard outside of the temple.
It's been great to spend time with Kristi and Sandra this week. I've certainly been able to accomplish one of my business school goals which was to get to know my professors - something that I did not do in my undergraduate experiences. They seem to have so much fun together and they've had some incredibly interesting experiences, both in India and otherwise. Kristi spent four years in Africa with the peace corps, and Sandra's filled me in on although she loves India, China is her favorite. (Well, I'll have to add that country to the list!). I think that they're got really great lives with being profs, traveling internationally to work on public health projects and great marriages. Kristi also manages to balance her family life, as she has three young sons. They just get an amazing reception here at Aravind, and everyone really appreciates the time that they donate. Of course, they seem to thoroughly enjoy the experience, too. It's really nice to see professional women who have been able to "have it all.” I feel very lucky that they have intivted me to be a part of these relationships that they've created. They admitted today that they were a little nervous about sending me out on my own to India, but they let me know today that I've done a great job and only improved their standing with the people at Aravind - it was great to hear.
Tomorrow Kristi, Sandra, Nagarajan, and I leave for Hyderabad for four days, before I join Steph in Goa, so I think that my writing will only get more sporadic. I’m looking forward to getting out of Madurai, but I’m sad to think that I’ll only have a week left when I return to Madurai. I can’t believe how fast that my time has gone. In some respects, I feel like I’m just getting started!
posted by An Indian Summer - Katherine Scott @ 10:18 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home