Grand Challenges Impact Lab

2025 Student Blog


February 17, 2025

The Forts of Past, Present, and Future

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3 forts in 3 days. For the Golden Triangle tour, we made sure we got to see the Red Fort in Delhi, the Agra Fort in Agra, and the Amber Fort in Jaipur. To my welcome surprise, each of these ancient monuments only got progressively cooler. The Red Fort in Delhi was impressive, huge imposing…


Official Monkey Business: A Jaipur Temple Experience

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Today, I took my personal day off from work and chose to be in Jaipur with 17 of my closest friends. This city has always been famous to me; I’ve heard little stories here and there. I found a skirt in Bengaluru that has a Jaipur style. A few months ago, I thrifted a pair…


February 15, 2025

Introductions

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Rise Bionics is an ever-changing place. Each day at the office has a new subset of characters as employees travel around India assessing patients, taking measurements, and fitting devices. In just the last two weeks, the gym above Rise’s basement facility has been transformed. Treadmills, dumb bells, and way too over-the-top gym posters have been…


February 14, 2025

Simplicity

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Today I was in a battle. One between me and my alarm clock. As my alarm was going off, I convinced myself that snoozing for another Seven and a half minutes was a strategic decision for my well-being. Seven and a half minutes later, shockingly it went off again. I very briefly argued with myself…


India and identity

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Yesterday, while interviewing farmers in Kanakapura, I had a couple experiences that reminded me to think critically about my identity and what it means to be who I am. The day started off bright and early at 630am as we waited to be picked up to make the two hour drive to Kanakapura. After stopping…


February 13, 2025

Unexpected Turns

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Today felt like any other Wednesday here at GCIL. I woke up early, just before breakfast, and had blog readings and mentor meetings. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to give my full attention to today’s blog readings because I was invited to a spontaneous family call during breakfast. Though the call only lasted 20 minutes, those…


Half-Asleep Thoughts

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Last night, 15 minutes before the blogs for that day were going to be read, I was laying in bed half asleep when I thought to myself, “hmm… I haven’t done a blog in a while.” I jolted awake and scrambled to find the blog schedule, paranoid that my name was going to be on…


February 12, 2025

Another Day, Another Ramen

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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…


Orange You Glad I Found a Bike?

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Today I started another day of the Green Foundation work trip with a bike ride. This is my first bike ride in India, and please do not fret, I am referring to a bicycle. I found a discarded bike in the Hotel Aditya Residency, collecting dust while conveniently and tantalizingly displayed alongside an air pump…


February 11, 2025

Kids

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As I write this, it is the evening of Monday, Feb 10, 2025. I find it hard to believe that half of GCIL is over and that we are that much closer to our final presentations for our GCIL projects. So many memories have been had these past 5 weeks. This past weekend, we all…



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