Category: Travel

I’ve never traveled outside of my city (Chicago), let alone been on an airplane! But I have to say, when I walked into the airport—brave and ready to be responsible—my nerves were at a six (thankfully not a ten).

Thankfully, I had met up with someone from my city who was also going to be joining the Leadership Collective. Great minds think alike! I didn’t have to go through TSA alone, which honestly isn’t as scary as people make it out to be. Maybe that’s because I did my research on the airport do’s and don’ts. I find research to be very heroic when it comes to calming my nerves.

But when I got on that plane and felt the shift as it picked up speed, I realized I was nervous about flying in a airplane for such major reasons when whole time a thunderstorm is more scary than a plane taking off.

First day in New Delhi WooHoo!! The night view of Delhi is a beautiful sight if you like Car rides.

We all ate breakfast after waking from a night worth of sleep ready to introduce ourselves to anyone who was in sight. We started Orientation off with Fun ice breakers and new games even I’ve never heard of, which I won’t disclose because I’d hate to spoil the fun for others But I will spoil how much I appreciated visiting the Indian Gate all the way to the Art walk we did in New Delhi. The Indian gate had a lot of social locals selling ice cream, snacks and etc, The Gate was located in a park once known as “Princess Park” The layout was beautiful and there was a lot of greenery in majority of the park making it not be an empty namesake, Almost! As beautiful as the Art walk I seen with burst of color each spot and stop was a wall of art showcasing the very part of the neighborhood we were standing in, if there was a cow art piece you’d most likely had seen a cow walking not even a block away, if there was issue you had noticed you would see that issue painted perfectly and imperfectly on the wall, these pieces of art plastered on the wall could alone give you a strong visual impression of The Art Walk’s surroundings finally after all of the many amazing experiences in New Delhi we had a celebratory dinner and woke early for our next journey!

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Although we stayed in Mumbai for less than 2 days it really was an exciting experience. First we went to the Museum of Solutions which taught me a lot about different forms of solutions in a playful environment. After the museum we went to dinner and it was very exciting getting to meet and talk to many new people especially sridar’s friends. The next day we went to another museum with taxidermy animals and it was interesting to get to know more about the different species. 

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Mumbai was definitely a different experience compared to the others especially the climate differences ,but it’s one beautiful city with all the lights and big tall buildings , it’s beautiful especially at night . It’s such a vibrant city that I really enjoyed .

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Ahmedabad, a city rooted in history and culture with so much beauty and it also captivated me with its rich heritage. The stunning architecture  and the  carvings of the temples showcased the city’s beauty in their culture . The warmth and hospitality of the people made me feel welcome. Ahmedabad’s blend of tradition and modernity, history and progress, left a lasting impression on me, making it a truly memorable experience , I loved every second of being here truly . 

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My Experience in Ahmedabad:

Ahmedabad was a delightful and beautiful surprise as I was not expecting it to be so full of life and cities. The city’s rich history and cultural heritage shone through its stunning architecture, vibrant markets, and delicious foods . The stunning and beautiful carvings on the temples left me in awe. The warmth of the people and locals food added to the experience, making Ahmedabad a memorable & beautiful destination that cannot be erased from my mind and it’s an experience that I’m immensely grateful to have been granted .

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On July 6th we already to Delhi and we started to practice for the orientation program.

On July 8th we had orientation program. We had a brief introduction about the program and Indians preformed a skit for the foreign participants.

Our trip started on July 9th. We started our day by visiting Bangla Sahib, a Sikh gurudwara, which was a truly  peaceful place.  The gurdwara welcomed people from all walks of life, regardless of their background, nationality, caste or colour. Next, we visited the Rashtrapati Bhavan, which is a massive monument of spanning approximately 330 acres. Then we stopped by Agrasen ki Baoli, a historical stepwell. Finally, we ended our day at India Gate.

On july 10th we visited the cigarette recycling company in Noida, We learned that discarded cigarette butts are collected by rag-pickers and brought to the facility for recycling. We saw the whole process of the recycling. As a token of appreciation, we were given handbags made from recycled cigarette butts, which we got to paint and customize with our own artwork. After returning to the youth center, we had a fun-filled clay modeling session where we showcased our artistic skills. It was impressive to see the variety of art models that emerged from our imagination. After this we had a session with Mr.Tabish we asked us to enact a drama highlighting five essential values: respect, curiosity, open minded, inclusivity and punctual. 

On July 11th we began our day by visiting to the red fort, a historical monument constructed using red stone from Rajasthan. One of the fascinating fact about red fort, it includes two gates: Lahore Gate, which served as the entrance for all the common people and delhi gate, reserved for royal families. Next we made our way for the old delhi spice market.  After lunch we visited the jama Masjid it is the India’s largest Masjid. We concluded our day with a leisurely stroll through the lodhi street art, where we were treated to kaleidoscope of colours and creativity. This was how we finished our day and we shared our thoughts and reflection to each other.

On July 12th 

We visited a mud house in Faridabad. The entire house is made up of mud and natural materials. After coming back to youth Kendra we had a tree plantation session. All students got a chance to paint the terracotta pots with messages around the climate change. In the night we had our reflection session where we shared our thoughts in the group and discussed about the problems. 

This was the entire programs we had done in Delhi.

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The city was so new for me, in the first day when I came to Delhi a team member of 360+ had came at the airport to pick me up. Traffic was in the next level, same as I had heard about it.When I reached to the hotel , all the Indian students were there with Arbeena in a room spending happy hours then I joined them. Next day we were preparing for the orientation, everybody was super excited. After orientation,

On 9 July 2025:The First location was Gurudwara that we had visited, I was amazed by the service they were providing, thousands of people were taking their meal from there and people were happily serving them food and water without any charges. Then we went to Rastrapati Bhavan (President’s house), we learnt a lot of things like when the flag is there in the top , it means that president is in Delhi but if the flag is not there , it means president is not there.There are seven monuments that aline in a straight line , they are Rastrapati Bhavan, India gate, and 5 more. We learnt a lot of things about Indian history. After that we went to Ugrasen ki baoli where we have learnt about water systems in the old time. Then we went to India gate where we had experienced a lot of crowd. 

On 10 July 2025: We went to Code Efforts where we had seen how to make best from waste. They were making paper and cloth bags from ciggerate waste. The interesting part was the story of a small kid of 8 years. We had painted the bags that was made by them. I loved the idea of putting seeds inside paper and pen that they were making.The food they had made was so tasty. In the afternoon, we had a ceramic clay art workshop where everybody was showing their creativity, I loved that because I love art and creativity.

On 11 July 2025: We went to Red fort, that was one of my childhood dream to visit. We had seen how the king and queens were living and what was there living style. Then we had visited The spice market in Old Delhi , there were so many types of spices and a lot of workers were working there. The crowd was so high. After that we had our lunch at Karim’s hotel and the food was so good . Then we had visited Jama Masjid where a big crowd came near us and taking pictures . At the end of the day, we went to see Lodhi’s art in the walls which was so creative and every painting had a different story.

On 12 July 2025: This was the most adventurous part at Delhi, because we went to A mud house in a jungle. It reminded me of my village where we used to have mud houses but due to development people are destroying the mud house and making big buildings. In the evening we planted trees and also coloured the pots in the same time rain made the day more beautiful and memorable. Then in the night we started packing our things to come to Ahmedabad.

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We started the day by visiting Bangla Sahib, a Sikh gurdwara, which was a truly peaceful place. Unlike other temples, the gurdwara welcomed people from all walks of life, regardless of their background, nationality, caste or colour. We were treated to a delicious lunch at the gurdwara.

Next, we visited the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the President’s Estate, which is a massive monument spanning approximately 330 acres. The Bhavan features grand rooms adorned with precious paintings and sculptures gifted by other nations to the Indian President over the years since independence.

We then stopped by Agrasen ki Baoli, a historic stepwell that once stored water for the village, and took a walk along Lutyens Walk. Finally, we ended our day at India Gate, a war memorial that marks the sacrifice of Indian soldiers who fought for the independence and also it was built in the exact centre point of Delhi where the separation between North and South Delhi. Interestingly, similar structures can be found in France, Italy, and South Africa, as it was built to after the World War II

After a fulfilling day of sightseeing, we wrapped up with pizza and coke at Biggin.

Thank you

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