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UANT Photoessay for Bombay, India, Fall 2009.
First I'd like to thank UANT
for the camara used in this photoessay. It is a 5.1
megapixel Sony DSC-W1 smart zoom. You can take movies
with it too but I didn't.
A little about myself: I am an
American studying at the UPC campus of UANT and I am
in my fourth year. I went to India for something completely
different. I had heard about it from the movie Slumdog
Millionaire, and thought it would be good to do some
good by going there and seeing if I could go to school
and maybe help people too.
When I got there, I began computer
science classes. Here they let you take the classes
you want, without loading you up with things you don't,
like literature and humanities. I like the computers
although they running the Compaq Presario S5000V which
is from like 03. That was a drag but I made friends
anyway and explored the city, had a good time. I'll
admit it was dirtier than I expected, and no one cleans
up community areas. The Tragedy of the Commons problem
kept coming to mind. The solution, however, didn't.
The public transport here is pretty wild. If you can
get on you just fend for yourself. I had deoderant,
but sometimes it felt like I was the only one.
I got a job too, not really to
make ends meet, because I was good on money, but for
the experience. I worked for a tech center, and actually
fielded calls from the U.S. and U.K. Never got Australia
though, maybe they have their own tech support over
there.
A lot of people speak English
here, I was surprised. At work one day, I was fielding
calls from the U.S. and the guy on the other line asked
me where I was located, and I told him India. He swore
at me, and I couldn't do anything because they monitor
what you say. I told him that I was serious and about
studying abroad, but he didn't believe me. He told me
to "screw" myself and slammed the phone down.
My boss came to review the tape and put me on fielding
calls from Britain instead.
All in all, I said to myself
I'd try to make a difference, so I decided to adopt.
Veeral and Jindal are coming home with me to UANT until
I finish, then we will move to Miami. Honestly, there's
not much interesting in India. I would try Pakistan
if you like the South Asian thing, or just stay at UANT.
The air there is a lot drier.
PS: I found out Bombay is called
Mombay now.
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