Fulbright IEA Seminar India 2019

With no schedule to follow, we agreed the night before that we had to set a departure time, or we would lounge away the morning. Five of us decided to sightsee in Delhi for our last day. Other folks rested at the hotel or hired a guide to visit some other attractions. We were interested in seeing some of the historic neighborhoods and buildings. All our flights depart late at night or in the early morning, so we did not have to worry about rushing back to the hotel. Rickshaws abound on the streets, but we've found that they cannot go everywhere in the city and that they frequently get lost. Also, with five of us, the padded backseat would be too small. Luckily, Karen had data on her phone and could summon an Uber when we needed to get from one venue to the next. We started at the Red Fort. This was the imperial palace of the Mughal emperors from the mid-seventeenth century until British colonization. Shah Jahan, the builder of the Taj Mahal, was also responsible for this elaborat...

Ever since I saw our itinerary for the Seminar, I've been looking forward to visiting Agra, the site of the Taj Mahal. Coming to India and not seeing its most famous monument would mean the possibility of planning another trip. Being a tourist in India, I've learned, is much easier when Fulbright is arranging everything, offering a level of access I couldn't replicate on my own. As it is, we've been gradually shedding Fulbright staff. We said goodbye to Josmi, the program coordinator, and Reshmi, the academic facilitator, last night. They've been with us since we arrived in Mumbai two weeks ago. Today, a tour company and bus picked us up at the hotel at 6:45 am. It's a four-hour drive to Agra, the erstwhile capital of the Mughal empire. The Mughals ruled parts of what is now India starting in the sixteenth century. The grandson of the first Mughal emperor, established the seat of the kingdom in the city of Agra and built the Agra Fort as his palace and defen...

I added the MGH IHP "Quick Look" to the shelves of college memorabilia. With the campus visits and internal flights over, it has started to feel like the final stretch. I'm finally on a sleep schedule resembling the one at home and going to the hotel gym regularly. We had one last piece of business to complete, a visit to the US-India Educational Foundation headquarters. The bus picked us up after breakfast and drove us the short distance to USIEF. Along the way, the view confirmed our initial impression of this Delhi neighborhood from last night's bus ride. The streets are wide and lined with trees. Security walls run the entire length of both sides of the street with guards marking the entries to embassies and government. The traffic is slightly more controlled than in other cities. Reshmi facilitates our final reflection. On arriving at USIEF headquarters, we reunited with Adam, the director who greeted us on the first day in Mumbai and finally m...

We completed fifteen campus visits in three cities. Today, we left Hyderabad to fly to Delhi, where we would have a final round of meetings. The morning was unscheduled, and the group had differing ideas about how to spend it. Some wanted to lounge by the pool; others wanted to squeeze in another round of shopping. Jay, my colleague who had accompanied me to downtown Mumbai, suggested a round of sightseeing. Hyderabad does not offer many tourist-ready landmarks. It just seems to sprawl. But, we quickly decided on two religious sites relatively close to the hotel. Today, Hindus celebrate Holi, a springtime festival characterized by splashing friends with bright colors. The celebration is more common in northern India, but I hoped I might see some of the action. I didn't expect it would lead to quiet streets and closed stores. We arrived at a lakeside park where boats ferry tourists to an island featuring a large statue of Buddha. When we asked at the ticket counter when the next d...

The last day of campus visits was devoted to information technology. In the U.S., India is known for its IT outsourcing and call centers. In fact, engineering is one of the most competitive national university entrance exams. The government is adding more and more Indian Institute of Technology branches to accommodate the demand. Faculty recruitment doesn't seem to pose much of a barrier. Administrators tell us there is another national standardized exam for doctoral students to demonstrate their fitness as professors, and each job opening receives hundreds of applications. We followed the now familiar rhythm of breakfast, board bus, battle traffic, and then arrive by 10:00 am at a campus. International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT-Hyderabad) is a public-private partnership with degrees exclusively in IT. They have no departments; just research clusters focused on topics related to computer science. Hearing about research in a field outside my expertise makes me wond...

Our group communicates via a group thread on WhatsApp. Typically we'll share photos from the previous day with each other. Because I've been writing the blog in the evening, I don't have access to these photos until after the post has gone up. By now, we've collected a sizeable common album. The photos—from other people's phones—also include more images of me. I'll add some of the photos from my colleagues below without captions, mostly because the details have started to blur, and they represent generalized impressions of our group visit to India.

Every institution that hosts us has treated us with genuine hospitality. Senior administrators present their strategic plans, faculty members accompany us on campus tours, and students share their perspectives. Just about every place also has a photographer document the visit. One of the group discovered that the Indian School of Business had chronicled us on their Instagram page. With a medical school on the list for today's campuses, I hoped that we would receive the same embrace. Reshmi, our facilitator, introduced the day to us by saying we would visit a languages institute and then a medical college "mostly for Peter." IHP does not grant medical degrees while two of the other institutions represented in our group do, but the study abroad staff seem to work primarily with undergraduates, so the medical college would be as close as I'd get to observing how health professions education operates in India. Our first stop was the English and Foreign Languages Univ...

After two days of sightseeing, I've started to grasp what life in Hyderabad is like. Mumbai is too gargantuan to absorb anything beyond a single neighborhood, and we spent too little time in Pune to appreciate the city's character. Business and technology dominate Hyderabad. Microsoft's largest campus outside the United States is here, and the CEO of Adobe is from here. Aside from the historic center, most of the buildings look new and filled with commerce. The roads are treacherous. I ventured outside the hotel compound on foot just once--to check out a local supermarket. Even then, I dared because I didn't have to cross any streets. For our first campus visit, we took the bus to University of Hyderabad. In 1998 U of H launched the first study abroad program for students visiting India. The Study in India Program (SIP) has grown to welcome some 150 students from the U.S. and Nordic countries each year for semester-long or intensive summer programs. They are well-equi...

Thanks to the alignment of time zones, I was able to reach my parents this morning as they were sitting down for dinner Saturday night and Donald as he was getting ready for bed. With consistent hotel WiFi, I've been able to keep up with e-mail and keep down the work awaiting me when I return. Today was another day devoted to tourism. After breakfast, our guide from yesterday joined us, and we boarded the bus to Golconda Fort. The sprawling ruins date from the 12th century and served as a citadel for a Persian ruler in the 16th century. Situated on a hill and surrounded by two rings of walls, the fort protected some 2,000 members of the royal family and retinue. It was not hard to imagine the stone walls covered with colorful stucco and the vaulted ceilings covered with mosaic. Our tour guide points out a feature of the fort. The tour lasted about an hour and a half and took us up to the highest point for a view of Hyderabad. In addition to the vestiges of a mosque that s...