It is my last week in India and I am so grateful I got to celebrate Diwali and the Hindu New Year with my family. India has changed so much in the past 20 years, sometimes it's hard to believe this is the same country I grew up in! From cell phones to luxury cars, from McDonald's to Subway sandwiches, the western brands are part of the daily lives. The way India has evolved is even more visible during the festival season - long gone are the simple firecrackers my mom used to give us bundled up in her handkerchief. Exotic fireworks are now imported from China. The homemade sweets are replaced by Hershey's and Godiva chocolates. Change is the only constant in life, and there is nothing wrong … [Read more...]

In one of my posts earlier, I wrote about how in India it always smells like something. Now that I am actually here, I am realizing that it's not just your nose that has to work overtime - India puts all your senses in overdrive! Your ears are bombarded with sounds every minute of the day, your mind with fears and joys that you hadn't experienced in a long time and most of all, your eyes are soaking in colors from every direction. True to my promise, I have been spending a lot of time out in villages. I am not talking about cowboys with GPS systems and iPods here, I am talking about villages where electricity is available a couple of hours a day, and people who don't know what the … [Read more...]