Author Archives: sabikc

Meeting Urmi Basu and visiting New Light, her shelter for trafficked women and their children: …Visiting Loreto Sealdah and meeting Sister Cyril, traveling by bus with her students to watch them tutor in the Village Program: …Meeting the men and … Continue reading →

September 27, 2011 Dear Mrs. Chrestian, Mrs. Lionel, Mrs. Nandi, my friends in the staff room, faculty, and especially students, It has been nearly six weeks since my stay with you, and I think of you and St. John’s Diocesan … Continue reading →

The congruencies and disparities between India and the U.S. are absolutely fascinating. When I applied for this fellowship, I said that I believe learning happens in a comparative context, but in the aftermath, I’d add that some comparative contexts are … Continue reading →

It’s Saturday morning—I arrived home last Sunday, late afternoon, after 44 hours of travel. (Thirteen hours in Dubai (see Flickr account for pix of Dubai–Disneyland on steriods or for Battlestar Galactica fans–Caprica. No kidding) and nine of them waiting through … Continue reading →

Also known as: Niladri’s Sunday Morning/Monsoon Walking Tour Also known as “Art, Culture & Niladri” Kolkatamorous: (adjective) the state of being in love with Kolkata. In French, Kolkatamoureux. This word can be traced back to Monday, 8th August 2011, when … Continue reading →

If I needed proof of the truth of Martin Luther King’s statement that “the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice,” I needed only to come to Kolkata (only!?) where the response to great need, … Continue reading →

My next post will be about Loreto Sealdah, the Village Program, and St. John’s second schools—all amazing programs to help the very poor. It has been a real privilege to see these places, and the people who have created them, … Continue reading →

When I began teaching high school, one of my most delightful discoveries was the sense of community among the staff. I’d been teaching on the university level for 7 years, and I had made some wonderful friends there–and we certainly … Continue reading →

It occurred me today that a couple of the things that confound Americans, namely what look like amazingly erratic traffic patterns and the infamous Indian head bob, are deeply emblematic of Indian culture, and they highlight a fundamental difference between … Continue reading →

Rabindranath Tagore came from a wealthy family (the “Calcutta Medici.” His grandfather, Prince Dwarkanath, was the first independent merchant of British India) and over the course of his lifetime, in spite of dwindling fortunes, he built five different houses near … Continue reading →