Babson’s 3rd Annual Trip to India
In January, about 40 students from Babson traveled to India to visit their classmates and experience the culture for two weeks. This is the third year in a row that a handful of Babson students have taken the time and effort to plan a country-wide trip for their classmates to visit their homeland. Read about some favorite moments of the trip:
“On this trip, you get to experience a different culture, you learn a lot about India, their people, and history. It is an opportunity to know your classmates in a different way, especially for classmates traveling with their partners. You live a lot of experiences that not only you will remember forever, but also you get the chance to live it with your friends, have fun, and share your thoughts, especially since it is a trip that drives to a lot of thinking on how your life is, and how fortunate you are.” – Mariana
“My favorite moment was walking through the Golden Temple while Nikunj explained the religious traditions, beliefs, and overall faith that brought everyone together. Here we learned how volunteers feed the people daily, and many give their time to keep the splendid temple vibrant and serviceable. We had the chance to do seva ourselves!” – Marissa
“I feel that I’m closer to some people that I use to go out with or see in school, but we’ve never had the chance to really hangout before. I would say that the bonding was very different and somehow I feel people in the trip are closer than before.” – Jorge
“As a Brazilian, it was a culture shock seeing the level of poverty. It is not the same as the western side of the world. It is a population complete full of traditions and beliefs. The slums was an immersion in the roots of entrepreneurship. We had the opportunity to understand how one of India’s largest favelas is self-sustaining with its many businesses ranging from plastic recycling to the production of handbags and leather bags. There, no one stands still. Everyone should be contributing to the operation of the community in some way.” – JP
“One of my top moments of the trip was the changing of the guards on the India-Pakistan border. Even more, I liked the moment when bollywood music was playing all the girls and women were called to the center to dance. We joined in, having so much fun dancing and jumping around. All of the hundreds of women and girls only wanted to be happy and enjoy.” – Laura
“My highlight of the trip was the “traditional Indian wedding” we threw for Jorge and his fiancé. It perfectly captured the type of personality that defines Babson students. First of all, you had Jorge and his fiancée deciding that they needed to use a part of their limited wedding budget to allocate a trip to India because they knew that it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Then you had our Indian friends, who were so touched that a classmate cared enough about their culture to spend part of his wedding budget on the trip that they decided to plan a wedding for him themselves. Lastly, you had the rest of us, going out and buying traditional Indian dress so we could join in the festivities. If that doesn’t describe the Babson community perfectly I don’t know what does.” – Lexie