Road Trips!

[yolland]

Haha that's interesting! Was this when you visited India or did you live there? I'm originally from Chennai but have only traveled by train over there.

I spent a year in Chennai as an undergrad (Chepauk campus, '91-'92), which was when I took the trip along the west coast, then returned twice as a grad student (poli sci) for several months each, based in Pune both times, but I traveled around quite a bit and it was at the tail end of the latter stay that I went from Chennai to Kolkata. I've only been back once since, in summer 2004 when I was based in Bangalore.

Chennai has changed a lot even from the first time I was there, sometimes for the better, sometimes not (particularly in terms of air and water pollution), but I'll always have a special affection for it because it was the first part of India I got to know and I still have more friends there than anywhere else. I'm hoping to go back next academic year, though it's getting harder and harder to get research visas nowadays...

 

[Zoots]

Cool! Where are you from originally?

 

[yolland]

A very small town called Itta Bena in west-central Mississippi. I'm not Indian if that's what you're asking(?), I'm Sephardic Jewish and my parents immigrated here from Greece and the Netherlands in 1950. South Asian political culture is my research specialty though, hence the trips. This will probably sound inane, but my father took an extended business trip to India when I was a kid and never stopped rhapsodizing about the experience, so I kind of had it in the back of my head when I started college that India was where I'd like to do my study-abroad year, and after that experience I was certain I wanted to stick with the topic.

How old were you when you moved away, and where have you visited on your trips back?

 

[Zoots]

A very small town called Itta Bena in west-central Mississippi. I'm not Indian if that's what you're asking(?), I'm Sephardic Jewish and my parents immigrated here from Greece and the Netherlands in 1950. South Asian political culture is my research specialty though, hence the trips. This will probably sound inane, but my father took an extended business trip to India when I was a kid and never stopped rhapsodizing about the experience, so I kind of had it in the back of my head when I started college that India was where I'd like to do my study-abroad year, and after that experience I was certain I wanted to stick with the topic.

How old were you when you moved away, and where have you visited on your trips back?

Yeah I was wondering if you are at all part or fully Indian. Cos I've seen you talk about India before. That's pretty cool though that you spent time there as an undergrad. I mean to me it's just refreshing to see an American going to India to study.. you know, as opposed to the several Indians that come here to study, lol.

I got here to do my Masters in 2000. Been working full time since 2003. So I've been in the US for 8 yrs now. I haven't gone back and visited as much as I'd have liked to. My last visit was in 2005 and I was only able to go for 3 weeks, including the travel days. So I didn't have much time to visit many places. My parents, sister and I went to Bangalore cos part of your extended family lives there. I would love to go up north or something next time. After all I did live the first 10 yrs or so of my life in New Delhi.