Two weeks is too short to discover incredible India

Having reached the end of my two week writing stint in India I’ve realised that two weeks really is two short but I have also realised that doing a journalism project through Projects Abroad has been an amazing opportunity to start to understand this incredible country.

I love words and writing but I also love observing and discovering more about people and the communities in which they live. So doing such a project seemed like such a perfect opportunity to learn about this country that has such a rich history and such a vibrant and diverse population.

This week we were able to attend a local celebration of the One Billion Rising Movement. OBR is a worldwide awareness campaign that tries to raise consciousness about violence against women. Almost all of the proceedings were in Tamil so we didn’t really understand what was being said but it was interesting to watch the local dancing. We found it especially interesting to see that at an event promoting female liberation from the patriarchy that there were styles of dance that saw women dancing to the beat of a man’s drum but it was still great to attend such an event about such a really important issue.

Much of the week was spent writing up articles and one of the articles that was assigned to me was a book review. I’d never heard of Rudali by Mahasweta Devi before but it is a short story which had been turned into a play and a film.

It is a powerful story that covers so many important topics. From abject poverty to the Indian Caste system and funeral practices as well as the role of women in a strong patriarchal society. This story challenges readers on their ideas on poverty and feminism.

I also managed to finish my article on a school in Madurai that had won a British Council drama competition as well as one for the Voices of World website which will, apparently, be uploaded very soon.

But one of the highlights of the week was on Sunday night when Marco, another volunteer from Italy, made a dozen of us volunteers pasta. It was so nice to get together with the other volunteers and share big bowls of pasta in India. It was very unexpected but very cool.

As my stint as a volunteer journalist comes to an end I make a “note to self” to come back as soon as possible because it was such a great experience. I learnt so much about India and met so many really cool people that I won't ever forget but I also got to do what I loved the most - to observe, to write and to try and understand!