By: Sonali Ghosh & Nicole Marie

It’s a not so bright and early morning start for all of us as we were up late putting the finishing touches on our projects and presentations. But we are still going at it, and excited to show off our final presentations! We all grabbed some breakfast sandwiches for quickly got on the yellow school bus and off to the orphanage we went for the first presentation. Once we got there we all raced to see the newly built staircase. It was touching to see the bond created between the children at the orphanage and the visiting students. After watching the first presentation, hearing some heartfelt speeches and seeing the children perform a few dances, they then gave all the students who worked with them these lovely customized cards as thank yous. After that, we visited the pathway one last time to take photos and say our final goodbyes.

As we boarded the bus once again, we made our way over to Dehuroad to present our group’s final project. In a small cramped room with no A/C with about 30 or so people sitting around us, a projector and screen taking up most of the room, we began presenting our final project! Even as we were presenting people would be coming and joining the audience, all of them excited to finally see our creation. It was great to see all the smiles around the audience as people watched our video, the kickoff for our campaign. When our presentations were all complete, we all received roses from the Sadhana/CJAM members to say thank you to each and every one of us.

After a long day of presentations we went back home and had a few hours to relax before our last Indian dinner together as a group. We got all dressed in our saris and our best kurtas and boarded the bus one final time. To our surprise, we arrived to a venue set up with a DJ and some chefs who cooked us a delicious Chinese meal. We enjoyed a meal of chicken lollypops, fried rice, noodles, and some more chicken. We then danced to some Bollywood music and then eventually called it a night and went back home for the night – But not before we were given our certificates of completion for the couse. P.S we all graduated!

After a comfortable three-week stay fully immersed in the Indian culture, it will be a hard transition to go back home. We will all miss the vivid colours, the spices, the musical variety and the humble and generous people of India. All in all it has been an unforgettable experience for all of us!

Today we had a very early start to our morning adventure. Our yellow “magic school bus” took us to our hike up to the beautiful Karla Caves. These caves overlooked the village and have been around for an incredibly long time; they date back to 160 BC, allowing us to step back and just “kick it old school”.

After finally getting up there by bus with a very steep incline, we walked up the rest of the way passing by venders, local restos, and shops alike. Yes this is a tourist attraction, but these caves are and always have been a sacred place. There was quite a bit of activity, which included goats, roosters and humans within the same environment. By this I mean that holy rituals took place, particularly that of Buddhist ceremony. It was nice to see how even though today wasn’t a day particularly out of the ordinary or deemed special, yet these practices proceeded to function as so.

We all had a nice little hike, but once we returned, right back to work we went! We split up into our groups and carried on with our project research. The group working with the Shikshangram Orphanage mainly stayed back at the yellow house brainstorming for their potential project, and the group that I am apart of went to our placement at the Sadhana Organization beside the cantonment area. Today was exciting because we had the opportunity to start taking the first steps to beginning to design with the citizens of the cantonment. We really got intimate and interactive and asked them all sorts of questions that helped us gather information while inspiring us all the while.

Name: Sonali Ghosh

Major: 2D Design in Advertising

About Me:

I am a 2nd year Advertising student originally from Montreal, I have been living in Toronto for just over 2 years now. I love designing and coming up with new ideas and concepts that will make you think. I am really looking forward to travelling to India for design; along with being able to help others through the design process, it will definitely be an eye opening experience for all of us on this journey. Also, group work is incredibly stimulating for me, I really enjoy seeing the outcome of design collaboration and what our different perspectives can achieve.

Over the past few years I have explored a few different areas of interest, in regards to design. Possibilities for design is never ending; that’s why I love advertising, it encourages conceptual thinking with solutions that come in many different shapes and sizes. To me, design is more than just function and form, it’s the perfect marriage of the two. But more than that, it’s how it makes people feel.

Tenfold Dress

Bixi Docker