Our Final Week in India – Week 6 with the Bharti Foundation

Our final week here in Gurgaon started off with a hectic trip to Agra to see the Taj Mahal (it would be rude not to when in North India!). The train journey1 was just as crazy as the bus journey to Rishikesh in week 5. A lack of understanding resulted in the team buying the wrong tickets and the first hour of the journey was spent playing musical chairs across nearly all the carriages. We arrived at the hostel Saturday evening but had an early night in preparation for viewing the Taj at sunrise on Sunday morning.

It was certainly worth the effort, for when we arrived we were part of only a handful of people in the complex. The monument itself was even more spectacular than we had been told, however the ongoing maintenance work prevented any of us getting new Facebook profile pictures! Another highlight of the trip was bumping into another Economics student from Newcastle who had just graduated… Small world!

An equally stressful journey back returned us to Delhi on Sunday where another quiet evening was needed to prepare us for work. The last week has been the most stressful with the report needing to be complete for Frida2y and the small matter of presenting our findings both to the Vice-President and CEO of the foundation. We quickly realised that presentations in India are very different from back home. There is no etiquette for waiting for questions till the end and a phone will be buzzing every 30 seconds, however these proved to be nice breaks when presenting and the feedback we got was incredibly positive.

We finally finished the report after a painfully slow process of making sure the formatting and grammar was perfect, this had to be done because there is a very large chance the report will be published!

It was extremely sad saying goodbye to everyone at the office, as we have had the opportunity to work with the most amazing, dedicated people who have gone above and beyond to make us feel welcomed. We have all learnt so much from the experience and the chance to work on such a meaningful project that will help the QSM team in the future is the best thing for all of us.

The 6 weeks has been full of ups (and maybe a couple of downs)… from Chris falling in a giant puddle to working with the amazing students during the field work. We’ve been so lucky to experience the most happening place in the world that is Delhi!

Over and out,

GEO Bharti Interns