AGS India Immersion Programme 2017/18

Michael What follows is a fable, a highly detailed, glaringly graphic recount of one particular journey, an odyssey through the murky, whirling waters of the doldrums within my belly. It is a tale I think we can all relate to, at least fifteen out of twenty two of us anyway, undoubtedly with more to come in the not too distant future. Dear reader, if you dare to read on, I urge you to brace yourself for the stomach churning, bowel contorting, pantaloon destroying story that lies ahead. ~ Deep in the distressed depths of my dinner's usual destination, a tumultuous terror lurks, When it it rears its hideous head, my straining stomach body jumps and jerks, Like Narcondam, the great Indian volcano of old, The beast creates noises, even eruptions, best left untold, Rumbling and roaring, veering with voracious violence and vigour, Gushing with the force of the great Ganges river  Flowing with the characteristically chaotic consistency of debris , Ceaselessly, th...

Matt The "rollercoaster of India" is an overused but accurate cliché to describe the emotional landscape that one feels while travelling through this diverse country. Like a rollercoaster there are definite "highs" and "lows", experiences like a 23.5hr bus trip and visiting the helpless community of Brooklyn are all "lows" and they suck to experience. Though in saying that they provide valuable lessons about yourself and the world. "Highs" on the other hand are perhaps much more common in this country for me and they involve a feeling of not wanting to be anywhere else but here. In many of my past blogs I have focused on the negatives and "lows" of this journey so I believe it is time to explore the positives and "highs".  The sunrise on the Ganges was beautiful. Imagine a red sun slowly rising of the tree line of the far riverbank changing in colour, slowly becoming orange and then yellow, lighting up the br...

Callan As I've travelled away from my own family, and become part of a much larger and smellier one, I've come to appreciate what really matters. Who's there for you when you fail an exam? Who's there for you when you've had a rough day and have no one else to turn to? Who's there for you when you've just seen a place that brings you to tears and makes you question how life can be so unfair? Family means certainty, support, brotherhood. Family means love. My understanding of what family can mean has shifted, and my appreciation of family has finally reached the level at which it should be.   As teenage boys, we're expected to be hard, insensitive and unemotional creatures, but the calibre of the lads on this trip has been made clear to me by their honesty and willingness to open up. The debrief sessions have been an invaluable part of my experience in India, and I have learnt just as much sitting around in a dingy Delhi hotel ro...

 Leo Smith  From the moment me and the boys stepped off the train in Delhi, we thought we knew what we were in for. But oh how wrong we were. As we embarked on the short walk to "Hotel Namaskar" we saw what we saw in Kolkata, but worse. Whether it was the large piles of rubbish on the street, or the grey smog filled air. There was something about Delhi which was very unusual. Our new homes, at the hotel, consisted of small rooms with only a bed and a toilet, pink walls and black mould. In true Indian immersion fashion, we boys just tackled these rooms with a laugh and a smile, and then we moved on. Introductions aside, allow me to describe my favourite moments from Delhi so far. Firstly, the Taj Mahal. This was something that I was looking forward to from day one of arriving in India, and it was better than expected. There was something about the building and the beautiful ponds that almost removed all of us from the India we were familiar with. This feelin...

George "Where do you see beauty?"  At first the answer might seem obvious: George's legs, but when asked this in debrief, I didn't hesitate to [I'm writing this on a train and I just saw two camels, felt significant enough to mention] answer "confidence and humour". (Prior to this debrief I had been in an infamous Namaskar hotel room, the quality of which I hope to see in other's blogs, for the day all by myself, which was so INCREDIBLY B O R I N G that I really had no choice but to ponder life's great mysteries, but no worries I apparently only missed out on raspberry slice! Confidence and humour are the two things which I first notice in someone, and two things I hope others notice in me. Before I came to India, why would I have thought I'd find them here, why would a society so opposite to mine show any similarities? Yet everywhere we go we're met by people, smiling and inquisitive, ready to joke about all the things I...

Lachie I never thought I'd say this, but I actually want a salad. Proud of me mum? These last 2 weeks have been a journey in itself when it comes to food. More cookies consumed than the Cookie Monster, enough carbs to close the flood gates for multiple days and longer waits for food than that of a ride at Disney land. With 2 weeks still to go, it feels like an eternity until I can have some of my mums yummy food, and the thought of missing Christmas lunch is like taking a bone away from a dog.   From my time here in India I have observed a few things in relation to food that caught my eye. Firstly, many places bring out your food before your drink. It leaves me wondering how hard it can be to make a coffee here in India. Maybe they have to go chase the cows in the streets for the milk....? Some of the encounters I have had with cafes have left me watching them as if I'm watching a Bollywood movie without subtitles. One instance was at Costa Cof...

Waking up this morning was tough! Fortunately, the blow was softened in the knowledge we would spend most of the day on a bus, rather than needing to follow Mr Jordan around at his characteristically breakneck pace on foot. It was our final day in Delhi, a city that we will remember for its fast pace (apologies for our lack of blogs, these are coming!) and rich history. We were lucky enough to explore some of this history today, on a guided tour of the city's most famous sights. Here's a download of what we saw through the smog:   Thursday 21 December​ Sickness Update – George Skinner and Cam MacFarlane sat out the day's events but are definitely on the up. Leo Smith has felt a bit queasy, too, but nothing to report yet.   5.15am – We were all woken by the Hari Krishna procession on the street outside our hotel. Callan Adams leapt out of bed to join them in their worship, only to be sent back to bed by Mr Crook who, in fact, was leading the procession. ...

Richard Boswell                                     Over the past week the boys have been given the chance to essentially reflect on what we saw, experienced and felt in Kolkata. However, it seems that I have been having problems with doing this; whenever I have a moment to sit back by myself and truly reflect and accept what I saw in Kolkata, to put it simply, I chicken out. I have come to the conclusion that the reason behind this is that I am afraid to look inside in fear of what I might find, or more specifically how I might react. What if I feel sadness like I never have before?                                                        What if the pity I feel for the chi...