Our First Day

The day broke as the cleaner greeted my room mate Mary and I with the words. “Good afternoon madam, may I clean your room?”

Good afternoon screamed I, Oh my goodness it is 12.10 pm and we have to shower, eat lunch and be ready to leave at 1:00 pm for Fulbright House, Deli and we hadn’t even opened a suitcase! Don’t worry, we made it.

The academics started straight away with two incredible presentations called Indian Educational System by Dr Janaki Rajan followed by Cultural History of India by Mr G C Joshi.


By 5.30 pm we were all struggling to keep awake so a lovely cuppa tea and a biscuit did the trick.

We were introduced to Mr Adam Grotsky, Executive Director of USEFI who told us the breaking news that India was to match the funds from Fulbright which would double the number of educators that could visit both countries to gain valuable insights to share.

Two more presentations followed before we had a ceremonial lamp lighting ceremony which was enjoyed by all. I was invited to present the first gift to our Delhi professors and then we went on to the lawn in a huge tent and had a wonderful dinner with teachers, Fulbright employees and many other invited guests. Networking was primetime and a good time was had by all.

I think we all slept better that night at least until 3:00 to 4:00 when jetlag hit.