On Thursday my house, the Global Learning Community, hosted an Indian cultural event and it was so much fun!

This was our first time hosting an event like this, and for a first try I’d say it went very well. The coordinators reached out to me and some other students who marked India as a country of interest on our housing application, and I was very happy they did!

For those of you who don’t know, I actually traveled to India in 2012 and had the time of my life. Since then I’ve become a huge fan of Bollywood movies and the Indian culture in general.

The flight was about 18 hours each way!

Rickshaw ride – I really wish I had more photos of me in this outfit!

Me in front of THE Taj Mahal!

Dressed in Indian attire for our last day at Sangam

I offered to make the flyer for this event and was so happy that they let me. I am very proud of how it turned out! It meant the world to me to see it hung up all over the house and to receive compliments on it.

My flyer was sent out as an email – I had no idea they were printing it out as well!

I also brought some of my Bollywood books/magazines – and of course a Bollywood movie!

A GLC coordinator had just returned from India, which is why they wanted to have this event. It was neat to hear his perspective as an American going there and then hear from two Indian students about their experience coming to America.

The main takeaway was that India does have many nice, developed areas – even though American shows typically only depict the poorer parts. Likewise, one of the Indians was surprised to find out that there are homeless people in America. She even said that India has way nicer movie theaters than America and was describing how luxurious they are – so now I really want to go back to India for that experience alone! She was from Mumbai, which is a city that I really want to visit.

After that we watched 3 Idiots – which is without question one of the best Bollywood movies ever made! It was fun to watch the movie with the combination of Indians, who knew and love the movie, and the others who were seeing it for the first time. Basically it was just fun for me to watch the movie with other people who were interested in watching it!

I was really the only one from my trip to India that got bit by the Bollywood bug and I haven’t came across anyone in Tennessee who is a fan of them – so up until Thursday I have been watching them on my own or with (usually reluctant) family members.

“Zindagi” means life in Hindi

We also got to enjoy some chocolate that the GLC coordinator had brought back with him from India, and it was delish! Though now I have a real craving for some Indian cuisine.

Overall I’d say this event was very much a success and one of my favorite college memories so far!

The house plans to host more events like this for other world cultures and I will be sure to attend as many as possible and help out whenever I can.