Today we are flying to Bangalore. The airport that we flew out of is closed every day from 10 am to 5 pm. The airport is closed during this time to combat human trafficking. In our prep class we learned that Varanasi is the hub for human trafficking around the world. And the other day we watched an amazing documentary and had a discussion about human trafficking with Gudiya. Gudiya has basically dedicated his life to helping human trafficking victims and stopping human trafficking – it was very inspiring to get the opportunity to talk with him.Before coming to Varanasi, my knowledge of human trafficking was limited to the Taken movie series, a few things that my parents had told me, and some basic research I did for a presentation for speech class. Varanasi has really opened my eyes to how people are taken to be trafficked and just how deep of a problem human trafficking is and the corruption that’s associated with it.
I am excited for our trip to Bangalore. I am most excited to get professional henna done. One of the girls at the Guira office in Varanasi gave us a small henna tattoo; however, mine ended up being more of an abstract art piece.
On the way to the airport, I got an even better picture of how underdeveloped Varanasi is. On the part of the highway that was more elevated, there wasn’t any guard rail instead there was multiple bags of what I’m assuming to be sand placed all along the edge of the road.
When we arrived in Bangalore I was surprised by the amount of palm trees that I saw. It really reminded me of home. Another thing that reminded me of Arkansas was how early everything closed in Bangalore. Here everything closes at 7. Both places are quite different from my home state of Texas where many places are open 24/7.
It was very cool to see the granite fences in Bangalore. This is because granite is such an abundant natural resource in India which makes it very cheap. When people can’t afford to buy wood fences, they make them out of granite. Some of the telephone poles and sidewalks are even made out of granite. Some other interesting things that I learned about Bangalore include that it is home to the largest armed forces compound and that they have murals on the streets. Local artists paint murals on the walls to discourage people from peeing on them. What’s even cooler is the fact that this isn’t done by the government, it’s solely a movement done by the people.
Bangalore is the most beautiful and developed city that we’ve been to so far. It’s also the most westernized which is interesting to me because they successfully managed to keep the British from having a great influence and rule over Bangalore. Bangalore appears to be the most westernized because it is home to many large IT companies. There isn’t a lot of trash in the road here and there’s not a lot of homeless people sleeping on the street. There also isn’t an obscene amount horn usage in traffic. I’m wondering if the people are just more respectful and polite here or if there are guidelines/traffic laws limiting horn usage.
The apartments that we are staying at are in Diamond District. They’re quite nice. We’re staying in a middle class area and the apartments reflect that. However, I am still surprised by how nice the apartments are. These apartments are nice by United States standards as well – they were clean and the rooms were quite big. From Vikas’ descriptions, I thought that we would be living in the slums or would be in much poorer conditions.
--
Don't miss your opportunity to study or intern abroad!
Learn more about studying abroad as a Walton college student at: http://walton.uark.edu/global/
