I have been back home in the United States for a couple weeks now and have had time to reflect on my time in Pondicherry.  I cannot help but be thankful for the opportunity, the experiences, and the memories that I will carry with me forever.  I amuse myself thinking how easily I integrated into […]

Many of you are aware of how I spent my free time this summer in India. Some are even aware of what work I did while in India. Fewer are cognizant of The Aravind Eye Care System (AECS) that I worked for, and my impetus for coming to India. AECS is the single largest surgical […]

Though based in Pondicherry, I had the opportunity to get a “taste” of other Indian locales during my time there. I visited Bangalore, Goa, and Chennai for brief interludes. In a surprising twist, I found India’s large cities similar to NYC’s ‘that never sleeps’.  Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, and Chennai are plagued by a constant hustle […]

While immersing myself into the Indian lifestyle, specifically in Tamil Nadu South India, I became engrossed with the local penchant for the film actor Rajnikanth.  I even made it a goal that during my time in Pondicherry I would see a Tamil film starring Rajnikanth.  If you don’t know him, then you have not interacted […]

“India is a land of contradictions,” was the insight I received from a previous intern a few weeks before I departed on my own internship abroad.  I acknowledged this as a superficial warning about the classic head nod implying ‘no’ but really indicating ‘yes’ — I was already aware of this phenomenon!  However, this observation […]

I can officially say that this is the longest time I have ever spent in a foreign country, let alone India itself. With every passing day the awful heat becomes a little bit more tolerable, the mosquito bites become a little less present (and itchy…sorry mom, can’t resist), and I gain another pound from the endless […]

It’s hard to think that I have only known my fellow Aravind interns for less than a week—it feels like it has been so much longer. We’ve already had so many cool experiences together that I can’t really imagine spending my summer here with another group of people. We explored a huge array of sights […]

Hi everyone! My name is Bela Parekh and I will be interning at Aravind Eye Care System this summer, based out of the team in Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu.  I will confess that the first time I ever came to India 10 years ago I tried to create a blog with my siblings….we maybe wrote 3 […]