First Glimpse of Ahmedabad
Hi everyone. I’m JD, a rising sophomore studying Computer Science. Vansh and I along with 5 over Caltech students had the amazing opportunity to travel to India and participate in the 10 day cultural immersion program at IIT Gandhinagar. I will pick up where Vansh left off.
For breakfast and lunch we mostly ate at the canteen at IIT. I’m a vegetarian and I really like Indian food, so for me I loved the food here which was simple yet delicious and fulfilling. For breakfast we had idli (lentil and rice cake) with some kind of masala sauce along with buttered and jammed toast and boiled eggs. Vansh’s plate is pictured below.
The program didn’t officially start until tomorrow so we spent the rest of the day touring the campus and city. Two very friendly students, Parthvi and Shrankla were responsible for showing us around so they took us to the Swaminaryan Akshardham temple pictured below. The Hindu temple mostly told the story of Swaminaryan, a central figure in theSwaminarayan faith. Followers believe Swaminaryan is the manifestation of Narayana who descended in human form to destroy evil.The temple had elaborate exhibitions including walk through dioramas, an IMAX theatre, and a laser light show. It felt a little too commercialized and extravagant for a temple but it was still impressive nonetheless.
For dinner, Parthvi and Shrankla took us to a South Indian restaurant famous for dosas, a fermented crepe made from rice batter and black lentils. A very large dosa is pictured below.
That’s all for now. Vansh will talk about the first official day of the program.
