January 23, 2025

Home Away from Home

Today, Bhargavi assigned us a role-playing exercise. She provided some readings and videos for us to consume before heading to BMS to conduct the role-playing exercise. I’m the type of person who can’t focus at home and get my best work done at cafes. I walk to a nearby cafe with a fellow GCILer and run into more of them at the cafe. I ordered Vietnamese coffee, which reminded me of my home routine. As time ticks down and the time for the role-playing exercise gets closer, I get more and more anxious. Public speaking makes my heart beat out of my chest. We get assigned our roles and work on our script. My partner and I got the role of the RWA (Resident Welfare Association), which is responsible for the gated communities in Bengaluru. Other roles include farmers, activists, academics, industrialists, etc. The scene is that we are all at a meeting discussing the water crisis in Bengaluru. As each role presented their interpretation of their role, I could see that everybody was having fun with it like I was. When it was my team’s turn to present, I noticed that my audience was just a sea of friendly faces, people who I literally live it. The stage fright decreased significantly. This thought reminds me of the day I went shopping in a shopping square near our hostel, the BDA complex. The shopkeepers asked me if I was American and told me they had also seen a group of Americans come last week. I tell them, “Yeah, I live with them!”. The whole point is, being on the other side of the world, Bengaluru also feels like home these days.

By,
Amy