AGS India Immersion Programme 2017/18

Lachie Dickson While all the others have the freedom to explore a city of contrast, beauty and interact with the amazing people this city has to offer this afternoon, I sit here alone. Close to a bathroom. The only seat I can trust my backside on. However, I try to not dwell on these circumstances. It has left me with some precious time to reflect on what a journey it has been. The questions I have asked myself, the processes with which I struggle to comprehend and the happiness that is evident amongst society. What does India have that we are missing? I have asked this to myself throughout this trip. Very little emerged to the surface from this question. But it has left me often comparing and contrasting India to NZ in ways I didn't imagine before undertaking this Immersion. Travelling through India, conversations with locals amongst the boys occurred regularly. Little English made things difficult, but with the people's great enthusiasm and interest in us, within 2 mi...

Callan   At home, time hangs over all that I do. Counting down the minutes until the end of a period, timing my arrival at a party so that I'm fashionably late, setting my alarm early enough so that I have enough time to roll out of bed and get to school. Time is always on my mind. A week ago I lost my watch. Up until that point I had still been engrossed in that man-made measure of where the sun is in the sky, the numbers ticking over, edging closer to lunch, the next activity or the arrival of our train. I was so concerned with time that I found it slipping away. Now I find myself spending less time staring at my wrist, and more time observing and appreciating what's around me. Amongst all of the incredible people that we've met, and the unforgettable experiences that we've had, my sense of time has become blurred. I've let go of that attachment to time that had been holding me back. I recognise, however, that this freedom is a luxury that will not last. I cannot ...

Nikau Te reo o te iwi  Coming to Mumbai certainly sits high amongst the many highlights of my own experience of this tour; however one thing in particular I believe that has served to be very helpful for me would be my learning of the basics of their mother tongue Hindi . Being a fluent speaker of te reo I hadn't struggled too much with picking up pronunciations of certain tags and phrases passed onto me by the different characters and individuals I've had the pleasure of interacting with. Although I am not 100% sure that my spelling of these phrases is correct, I gather the sounds made while reciting them wouldn't be too far off from the real deal. So, here goes something: As far as a simple greeting goes I have thus far managed to begin conversation with my hands pressed together at chest height, saying a simple namaste /hello- done in sync with a head bow as a sign of respect towards the person I am addressing. I would then follow this with mera nam Nikau he...

Zachary Morrow Our trip is almost at an end and yet I feel incomplete, I feel unfinished and my questions are unanswered. In Jaipur one moment stuck with me, my rickshaw driver asked me "What is the one thing that is not possible in India?", Josh Roberts and I both had no answer, "Nothing is not possible in India, anything is possible" he said. His answer made me puzzled because many people in India are very restricted. Many   women cannot travel outside and when they can they are to be with a man, many children grow up as orphans on the streets with no education always hungry for food, many young girls must leave school early to pay for there dowry at their future wedding, it seems that, for some, in India nothing is possible. On further thought the rickshaw drivers statement has merit. The NGO's like Future hope, Free set, The Jungle Crows and the Magicians that we have visited throughout the trip have showed hope for all in Indi...

Miller Amongst all the places I have travelled, India is by far the most religiously diverse, not only in variety of religious faiths but also in what religion means to the people.   Back home I've found religion is only important in life when you're at a sermon (or other religious session) or when arguing over interpretations of religious texts; in India it is quite the contrary.   India treats religion differently as it does not partition religion from day to day life as NZ and the West does.   Especially for the poorer people, religion is what keeps you going, the reason you continue to fight when all seems lost.   I feel as though this is how religion should be, it should promote reasons to love and hope and to carry you through tough times as opposed to being no more than a thought to cross your mind every once and a while or to use as a scapegoat to try and poach one's freedom.   I know that for some in India the latter way of...

Will Pretty The largest religion in India is Hinduism, also the third largest religion in the world. The reason I felt the need to blog about something that I have no involvement with is due to the profound impact it has on the nation and its people. Having now spent 3 weeks travelling through India, seeing the vast contrasts this Immersion is designed to show, I have come to the conclusion that without religion the nation would be completely different. In India, religion stands for hope . Religion, or in the primary case, Hinduism, was described to me by our tour guide yesterday as a philosophy, rather than a rule of life that you get following most other religions. The philosophy being that because your body is 70% water, during this life, as long as you do everything to bring you good karma, in your next life you will move up a caste and be reincarnated to live a more wealthy and prosperous life by up to 70%. Coming from the knowledge of reincarnation, this answe...

Josh Hamilton Having gone ¾ of the trip without sickness -  I could say I was feeling slightly confident that I wasn't going to get sick. Maybe that is what got me. I had tricked myself into the state of 'over-confidence' - I had let that get the best of me. Unfortunately, my day for being sick was Christmas. Throwing up on the train and throwing up outside the front steps of our hotel, on Christmas, was not something worth celebrating. I was not to leave the hotel for the rest of the day. This was tough. I felt divorced from the groups Christmas cheers and celebrations, I was kept in a solitary confinement whilst the group was seeing the economic capital of India, and I was sick to my stomach whereas the group was eating from the best restaurants in the city. Why did this have such an impact on me? This is because I have become accustomed to Christmas' around other people – and as I knew the sacrifice I was making to miss Christmas with my...

Leo Smith A year ago, when Mr Skeen informed me that I would be travelling to India, he told me to enjoy my Christmas as a year later here India, it would be very different. And here I sit, at the hostel one year later, wondering if it really was Christmas yesterday. Christmas was weird to say the least, while it was a very fun day, there were somethings which just didn't feel right. However I'll dedicate this blog to the highlights of my Christmas. 1- the food. Now I can't say that the food on the train to Mumbai was any good, however the food when we arrived in Mumbai was second to none. For breakfast I had a guilty pleasure of eating chocco flakes, and I left it there in preparation for lunch. And boy was it worth it. The three plates of chips my table had as well as the pasta I personally had were some of the nicest things I must have ever eaten. The only downside of it was that I didn't hear Mr Jordan say that we had a rugby tournament a...

Richard During the last couple of days a few negatives that restricted my chance to "chill" in Jaipur consisted of my shoes getting stolen outside a Hare Krishna temple and a nasty spell of time in which my stomach decided that it didn't like any substances that I consumed resulting in it ferociously expelling it from the gut, whether that be from the mouth or the rear end but I'll save you from the intricate details. A big positive however that I experienced during my time Jaipur was the chance to get close to my rickshaw driver, Ima. I was able to share this privilege with fellow tour members Reuben and Cam. Ima is an interesting man to say the least, his idea of reassuring includes that of telling us his 'quote to live by', this being "Drink 'n' drive and smoke 'n' fly" . So as we began our first journey, I presume you can understand why us lads had never felt more safe???   Another thing t...

Matt Christmas in India was always going to be a strange experience. An overnight train, endless curries and 30 degree temperatures doesn't sound like an ideal Christmas but I thought I would blog about the five people who made my Christmas better and a day to remember for the rest of my life. Fifty Two: Fifty Two is a man of mystery. In our compartment of six only five of the six beds were taken with seat 52 remaining empty. We were fearful to occupy his bed as the last thing we needed was a conflict at 3am if he jumped on at some unknown station along our route. And thus as we drifted off to sleep on Christmas Eve the bottom bunk left unoccupied despite the superior sleep one receives on the lowest bed. But as you may have guessed Fifty Two never turned up at all which provided our group with more luggage space and a nicer bed for Josh Hamilton to retire to when Delhi Belly brought him down. The Candyman: Now here in India the men selling food and drink on the trains have a bit o...

Have loved not only reliving my own India tour through all your blogs but also been able to experience a whole new side of India through your boys own thoughts and journey. Not long to go before you land back in (hopefully) sunny Auckland and the trip is all over. Enjoy these last few days and especially take some time out in Goa to not only relax but also be by yourself and reflect on this past month and what it has meant to you and what you want to take from it. Tom, Reuben, Shane and Mark you are legends and a half! Looking forward to catching up when you are back and hearing in person the many stories from good ol' India. William Allen (2013 India tour)

Another massive day here in Mumbai – we cannot be accused of not making the most of our time here! Once again, we have been touched by the people here and their generosity and kindness to our group of wayward travellers. In particular, we have to say thanks to the Magician Foundation (India) for the time we have spent together (today was our last day with the Magicians). They are doing incredible work, very similar to Khelo Rugby, in using engagement through rugby to encourage children to stay in school, practise good hygiene, and stay away from drugs and alcohol. Their efforts have come a huge way since we last visited in 2015 and they now influence over 1800 children with only 4 full-time staff. To hear more about their work, head to magicianfoundation.org Like I said, we have had a big day so apologies for the late post. The YWCA receptionist has just switched off the lights on the hotel's Christmas tree so I think he is trying to tell me to go to bed. Upon telling him I...