«
»

Passage to India

Greetings dear readers in cyberspace,

So over the next few weeks, this blog is going to acquire a theme (yes, gasp!). See, I’m flying out to India tomorrow as part of a medical volunteer mission. Our goal: to travel to New Delhi and Hyderabad, India to observe, learn, and inshallah (God willing) to do some good.

I’m going with a group called the IMRC (Indian Muslim Relief Charity). We’re a group of students from a diverse array of backgrounds, from all over the United States. Some are South Asian, others aren’t.

So the point is: I’m going to be blogging about my experiences in India. This trip means a lot to me on  personal, political, and academic levels. Personally, I’m going back to my family’s homeland–literally.  We’re from Hyderabad,  and that city is the center of my ancestral heritage. Politically, I’m going because I feel that Indian Muslims are disproportionately poor, uneducated, and have suffered grave injustice at the hands of Hindutva extremists. I am hoping that I will in some way be able to help. And academically: I just finished the first year of med school. I couldn’t wait to a)get out of the country, and b)use my skills to do some good and c)did I mention get out of the country?

I fly out to Singapore, and to New Delhi tomorrow. It’s gonna be a wild ride, ladies and gents. Stay tuned!

PS: the pic below is from San Francisco, where I’m leaving from. I thought it was too beautiful not to post.

This entry was posted on June 28, 2009 at 8:28 am and is filed under Uncategorized . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Passage to India”

  1. D Says:
    June 29, 2009 at 5:26 pm

    All the best. I sincerely hope that India will turn out to be much much more than just where muslims are second class citizens. I grew up in rural Andhra Pradesh, finished university in South India – I know for a fact that India is much more than that. I had muslim neighbors, teachers, co-workers, dear dear buddies – most well educated, wealthy and are in a good place in public. Poverty and lack of education is universal in India – not just muslims, it applies to every religion. Yes – bad things did happen to Muslims – several times over last 60 years, I am not discounting it. Hindu extremism is a growing concern but last federal elections put them to rest. I hope you will love Hyderabad as much as my Pakistani Muslim wife did.

Leave a Reply