Here's to a Hangover Tomorrow in Incredible India! Cheers!

So, today, we went to the campus and it is BEAUTIFUL. It composed of brick buildings connected by open halls and lush gardens incorporated in the building and grounds. I think I could get used to this.

Our lecture today was courtesy of Prof. Haldipur who's presentation was called, “Incredible India”. I found the lecture to be incredibly interesting, especially the short video clips of what India’s educated is doing for its rural and poor.

Unfortunately, Prof. Haldipur got off on the wrong foot with some of my compatriots. He compared incidents in the U.S. to incidents in India painting a very negative picture of the U.S. and shedding light on wholly good India.

For example, he brought up the looting that took place in New Orleans during Katrina and said that would never happen in India and they help their fellow man in crisis. This just emphasizes how important press is and how powerful spin can be. To make these stories even more news worthy (because a HUGE hurricane isn’t enough) they sensationalize it by adding drama focusing on the negativity instead of how we Americans, too, help our neighbors in need as well. It’s disappointing to know that this is the message that is being carried around the world of our country. It kind of makes you want to say F-ck the flat world.

On the other hand, Prof. Haldipur, had these beautiful stories of Indian’s persevering and helping each other out, but most likely, again, it’s just media spin. Indian media tries to make itself look better by glossing over the negative and American media likes to dig until it finds its story of hypocrisy and negativity. You definitely won’t get your dose of warm-fuzzies from U.S. news where we seem to revel in negativity.

BUT he did have some video clips of what their advances in technology are doing for the poor. One group is making prosthetic feet for the destitute at a very affordable rate using recycled materials. Another group is providing lighting to rural families by solar power and yet another is making water more available.

New Years Eve tonight! The students are taking us out to PlanetX which is a bar that’s supposedly going to be hopping. But judging from what I’ve seen of this group, if they keep the drinks coming we’ll have a good time no matter where we go.

Happy New Year everyone! I’ll see it about 12 hours before ya’ll (except the Kiwis, you have me beat, yet again!)