February 27, 2007
In India
I know I've been back from India for almost nearly two weeks, but I still need to do a bit of a recap since so many interesting things happened while I was there.
First and foremost, I was flying. I'm not sure how many hours exactly but my route went like this: Rochester, Minn. to Chicago to New York to Hamburg, Germany to Dubai and then finally on to Calcutta. Considering all the flights, I had to assume it was going to be either me or my backpack that would arrive safely. Luckily (I guess) it was me. My pack did not arrive for another four days.
The first four days of my visit were spent in the town of Kharagpur which is about two hours west of Calcutta (or Kokatta as it is pronounced and spelled there). I was a speaker at Kshitij 2007, a conference and expo for the students at India's most prestigous technology institute, IIT Kharagpur.
Day and night students were involved with various contests and lectures. I felt very honored to meet Nobel Laureate Paul J. Curtzen and India's only astronaut Rakesh Sharma.
My one pair of clothes aside, the whole conference was amazing. However, being one of only a handful of westerners on the campus, anywhere I went I became quite a spectacle.
In the picture above, I felt like I was finally able to 'one-up' my Indian poparazzi and take a picture of them. Funnier yet, was the fact that I was not allowed to walk anywhere. Instead, I was chauffered by an assortment of cars and bicycle rickshaws everywhere - and I mean EVERYWHERE - I went.
More India updates coming soon. By the way, check out my calendar for upcoming events. I'd love to see you soon.
First and foremost, I was flying. I'm not sure how many hours exactly but my route went like this: Rochester, Minn. to Chicago to New York to Hamburg, Germany to Dubai and then finally on to Calcutta. Considering all the flights, I had to assume it was going to be either me or my backpack that would arrive safely. Luckily (I guess) it was me. My pack did not arrive for another four days.
The first four days of my visit were spent in the town of Kharagpur which is about two hours west of Calcutta (or Kokatta as it is pronounced and spelled there). I was a speaker at Kshitij 2007, a conference and expo for the students at India's most prestigous technology institute, IIT Kharagpur.
Day and night students were involved with various contests and lectures. I felt very honored to meet Nobel Laureate Paul J. Curtzen and India's only astronaut Rakesh Sharma.
My one pair of clothes aside, the whole conference was amazing. However, being one of only a handful of westerners on the campus, anywhere I went I became quite a spectacle.
In the picture above, I felt like I was finally able to 'one-up' my Indian poparazzi and take a picture of them. Funnier yet, was the fact that I was not allowed to walk anywhere. Instead, I was chauffered by an assortment of cars and bicycle rickshaws everywhere - and I mean EVERYWHERE - I went.
More India updates coming soon. By the way, check out my calendar for upcoming events. I'd love to see you soon.