This year we asked fellows to run a daily journal reflecting on their activities, workshops, feelings or trips around Mumbai. Happy reading!
3rd August
India is so welcoming that as you leave the airport, even the heat says "Namaste!" and wraps you up in a dense hug.
The most striking difference between here and home is the environment. From the lush greenery towering over the sides of main roads to the monkeys and dogs roaming about campus, the thing that sets India apart is its life.
We spent our first day becoming acquainted with the campus, local food and students at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, the venue for our Spark India adventure. After a delicious breakfast we were briefed on the program, expectations and all important information we need to know. We then got to meet some student coordinators before sorting WiFi and sim cars before discussing our hopes for the program.
Next we were introduced to the coordinators of the program from TISS and were briefed on the history of the institution. After a delicious lunch of samosas, sandwiches, crisps and chocolate cake, we were given a guided tour of the campus.
We spent the evening chilling, talking to each other and calling family, playing football with the locals, and visiting the library. We were served a delicious dinner of a variety of Indian staples before retiring for an early night's sleep to recover from the long journey and rest for an exciting day ahead tomorrow.
Laura, PhD Psychology
4th August
We started the day off in the conference room, interpreting the capabilities framework alongside the five capitals (Human, Psychological, Social, Cultural and Individual). These capitals would help determine our strengths and weaknesses and how to shape the programme around us.
We then took a minibus to one of our partners, Down To Earth, a non-profit organisation in the Cuffe Parade community. DTE educates first-generation learners and focuses on career development. While there, we chatted to Nikki, one of the founders of DTE. Nikki talked to us about the issues of child labour and child marriage, two significant issues DTE has to confront on a regular basis. The visit to DTE was brief but really insightful.
After that, we returned to the TISS campus and found all the students in jubilant spirit, participating in a celebration of health, fitness and anti-addiction. We danced and introduced ourselves to the Tissians, who were all very welcoming.
In the evening, our team met with the partner we were to be working with, Kranti. Kranti works to empower girls from Mumbai’s red-light district to become agents of social change. Overall, it was a great second day.
Alex, BA Fashion Marketing graduate
6th August
After the week's busy induction, the fellows and I couldn’t wait for the weekend. However, before the adventures could begin, we had a truly illuminating session with SafeCity founder ElsaMarie D’Silva who introduced Spark India 2022 to the invaluable work SafeCity is doing across India. Elsa gave us a fleeting look into how SafeCity operates and spoke with sheer passion about the issues her foundation works to highlight. After having all our burning questions answered, we got the opportunity to discuss the impact of Spark India 2021’s project work with SafeCity. We discussed potential strategies we could implement on our return to England, and Else gave her brilliant insight.
After a hearty lunch, our student co-ordinator Akanksha and our TISS student fellow Rahul lead the charge on an afternoon of travel and experience. We took autorickshaws to the local station. Due to my Arrival time, I had not travelled this way yet! I had an amazing time sitting on the outside seat, soaking up the organised chaos around me as we sped through the streets. We followed our guides onto a train; it was a stressful but exhilarating time. We boarded the monorail that comfortably trundles above Mumbai, giving us a stunning overview. To finish our day, we got smoothies and went to Haji Ali Dargah, a Muslim temple and tomb.
Ronnie, BA Philosophy
7th August
Today, Ronnie, Gracie, Iona and I went on a crazy adventure which involved getting up at 3:00 am to get a taxi to a part of the city called Bandra at 4:00am. The reason for this was to take part in the running event: The Mumbai Monsoon Half Marathon, we were doing the 5k, not the half marathon! When we got there, it was dark and both the number of people and the amount of rain was sparce. A lady helped us sign up and get our t-shirts before we took part in various challenges and Zumba activities, whistling waiting two hours for our 5k to start. Iona and I actually ended up going on stage and winning some of these challenges.
Then! It was the start of the 5k. As a three, Gracie, Ronnie and I started to jog through the city, we saw monuments, all sorts of different buildings and the sea! Now this sort of running race was different to anything experienced in England. No roads were closed for the purpose of the race, so part of the fun came from the constant fear of being run over and having to dodge cars, dogs, buses and street vendors. Around halfway through, the rain really started to fall, maybe the heaviest rain I've ever experienced, our t-shirts stuck to us as we had to run through water flowing quickly over the concrete streets of Bandra. We ran through ankle-high puddles and tried not to slip on anything before motoring on through to the finish, where we collected medals and food!
Gracie and I found Iona and came to the finish with her and a man with whom she had become acquaintances. After some rain-soaked pictures, we got transport back to our guest house and made it home before 9 am, most of the others were still asleep. With the cohort, the rest of the day entailed getting drenched on a shop visit and going to a mall. We had some food and drinks at the mall before watching Super Pets in English. It was an exciting experience, and we had fun seeing the adverts that played during the intermission halfway through the film. Everyone was tired and done in after the week, so most people saw straight to their beds after dinner.
Joe, BSc Environmental Geoscience
8th August
We started the day off by participating in a meditation exercise run by Professor Pathik. This was a really insightful experience because we had to envision ourselves as a river. We used nature as a representation of our thoughts and feelings. We then shared these with the group so we could empathise with each other and start the day renewed, stress-free, and invigorated.
We then split up into our challenge groups for the majority of the day. The Kranti team finished writing up a report to finalise their assessments on an app development used to teach life skills-related modules. They also reviewed the Moodle page for various bugs and looked for improvements for the Kranti online curriculum.
The Down to Earth (DTE) team re-evaluated the project's scope to be more in line with what Professor Pathik wanted. He is considering the development of an intercontinental interactive programme for 11–18-year-olds. Today, we created a needs assessment to receive feedback on this idea from DTE, Happy Feet and school-based connections in the UK.
We finished the evening by watching Gully Boy. This really interesting movie explored the life of an aspiring street rapper from the Dharavi slums. The film explored topics such as the caste system, family dynamics within an Islamic family and aspirations of undergraduate students. It was a very hard-hitting but uplifting film. Before we went to bed, we sang happy birthday to Rahul as he is turning 30 tomorrow! Hopefully, we’ll be able to celebrate further tomorrow.
Gracie, BSc Geography
9th August
We started the day off by having breakfast and meditation, this trip has been my first formal exposure to meditation, and it has demystified a lot about the practice of it. I believe between the busyness of Mumbai, which I really cannot exaggerate, and the demanding side of the challenge work has been good to take a moment and acknowledge your current thoughts.
Many times, we had to redefine our group’s challenge work, the Global Changemaker Network. With this, the conversation of what comprises a good leader was talked through. Fortunately, this was decided as a topic for all the fellows to discuss in our workshop. A lot of structure was given as to the varying types of leaders and how we can define areas of weaknesses, strengths, barriers and opportunities whilst being given the freedom to decide exactly how we wanted to develop according to what we believe is a good leader. This helped with the Global Changemaker Network challenge by allowing us to define what activities children at our partners could do to help them become better leaders. From this workshop, we can also create resources so the children can define who they want to be as a leader from a young age.
The day was a TISS student’s birthday; Rahul, the willingness of the TISS students to collaborate, add perspective and generally help us survive has been instrumental to the programme. We went out to celebrate in an upmarket part of Mumbai, with roof-top views.
Jonathan, BSc Computer Science graduate
11th August
It's Ada, your comms & marketing officer. It's 10:30 PM, and whilst typing this, we're returning to the TISS campus after the intense afternoon of sightseeing Bandra.
The SiL team started with a team meeting, planning our days ahead. The timetable is packed, and I probably don't even need to mention that the time is flying by (we're almost halfway through the programme!). Fellows focused on their challenge work, and we followed with a quick workshop on problem-solving — finally, it's time for lunch and short naps.
We left the campus at 4 PM and travelled to the Bandra Fort, built by the Portuguese in the early 1640 AD to serve as a watchtower overlooking Mahim Bay to the south, the Arabian Sea to the west, the islands of Worli to the south and the town of Mahim to the south-west. We then slowly moved to the Bandstand Promenade alongside the Bandra Beach, spotted a few Indian Bollywood stars' houses and took our bus to the famous local Bandra Town Market. This is where the real orientation challenge started. In small groups, we were challenged to buy the following items: sitaphal, rakhi and Parle G biscuits in the shortest time and within the lowest budget. Thankfully, we practised our Hindi bargaining skills during our Hindi classes earlier this week! Together with Laura and Ronnie, we took second in both categories, making us immensely proud.
We finished the day in the Elco restaurant, tasting Pani Puri and other local dishes!
Ada, Comms & Marketing intern at SiL