February 12, 2025

Another Day, Another Ramen

During our first week with Sensing Local, we were sent out to visit various typologies, or public spaces, to observe who uses them, what activities take place, and identify any issues. Our exploration of the city has led us to many adventures, from walking through an unplanned neighborhood and finding such a calm and beautiful community so well hidden within a bustling city, to walking down a conservancy lane, or alleyway, and having to hug the wall of a building because there is a giant hole in the ground leading to some questionable water. On our first day of visiting typologies, we ended up at a nice restaurant on MG Road, knowing right away that staying within our weekly food budget was going to be hard. We were given a weekly food budget of 1500 rupees per person, which works out to about 300 rupees per meal (a little less when you factor in service fees and taxes). Seeing as ramen costs around 500-600 rupees on average, and all three of us were happy to splurge a little for it, we chose to simply subsidize our meals. Since then, we’ve explored at least five restaurants with ramen options, making it our mission to leave recommendations, with rankings, for next year’s Sensing Local team. We’ve even boasted about our lunch choices to the point that the Biome team now wants to join us for lunch. As we were driving back from our lunch place yesterday, unfortunately not a ramen place this time, I mentioned to my teammates that I sometimes wish that the progress we have made with Sensing Local was different. Especially when we have spent so many hours researching, only to be told to scrap it and start over the next day. While the research we’ve been doing has been very interesting, and we have learned so much about urban planning, working on something for over ten hours just for your mentor to barely glance at it makes it hard to stay motivated. However, we have now been told to stop with our secondary research and to go out into the city again and further explore typologies. This of course means that we get to try more restaurants in new areas. In all seriousness though, this means that we get to walk through areas we might have otherwise missed and visit parts of the city we’ve only seen from the car window. Not even with the standstill traffic can you properly observe these spaces. We also get so excited now when we are just out and about and see these typologies that beforehand didn’t hold much meaning to us. I mean, I don’t know how many times I have turned to one of my teammates to excitedly yell out “Katte!” a raised platform, with an old growth tree in the center, where people gather to socialize.

Now, in week six of the program, I’m incredibly grateful for the team I’m a part of. We manage to get our work done while also finding time to talk, eat, and talk some more. I’m thankful for this once-in-a-lifetime experience.
As cliché as it sounds, you only get one life, and I’m beyond happy to be here, surrounded by such amazing people and mentors. Even though some days and drives are long and tiring, I know this is a moment I’ll look back on with great fondness. With a full heart and stomach, I’m excited to keep working in the weeks ahead.

By,
Amaya