Hannah Wasserman

Charminar, Hyderabad

We had a lovely morning at Maddie Madam’s former stomping grounds, Dolphin School in Hyderabad. 

I meant to write this last week, but was a little bit busy with birthday festivities to sit down and make it happen.

I turned 24 recently and as my Facebook feed fills with posts like, “25 Things to Do Before You’re 25” or “How to Live it up in Your 20s”, I thought I should reflect on what I’ve learned in my 20s so far.

I don’t really count 20-22 because I was in college and college isn’t real life. 23 is real life. And it was a really big year for me. It was my “Jordan Year”.

I learned a lot of things, none of which I’m going to put in some kitschy list. However, if you’re 23 and feeling like complete hopeless crap, like I was about 1 year ago, I do have one piece of advice, get out of your bubble, like now. 

Here’s what happens: You graduate from college and you move into an apartment with your friends, near where your other friends live, in a city where a you know a good amount of people. You go to the same bars and find yourself reminiscing about the fun things you did in college. Then you realize, you’re not in college any more. You were expecting more out of this post-grad thing and to be honest, you are restless and bored. Don’t wait for this feeling to subside because it won’t. You need to get out of your bubble and go try something new. I’m not saying you need to move to India, although it’s an amazing country and I highly suggest it, but you need to do something.

Join a soccer league with people you don’t know.

Take improve classes (which I did and LOVED).

Get a new job and move to a city where you know no one.

Hang out with a friend of a friend, then make plans to do it again. 

Go to a Meetup on a subject you’re interested in but know nothing about.

Try new things, be adventurous and stop caring what everyone else you graduated with is doing. Now obviously this doesn’t apply to everyone, but I’ve seen my fair share of post-grad slumps from my fellow graduates, so that’s my two cents on the subject. 

As I enter my Kobe year, or as I like to call it, my Bobby Jackson year (go Kings!), I’m psyched to take risks, be adventurous and get closer to being the best human I can be. I don’t think I’d be where I am now [super pumped on year 24!] if I hadn’t taken a big leap, right out of my bubble.

I interviewed my friend Arjun. Check it out here.

I interviewed my friend Arjun. Check it out here.

I Sat Down with Arjun Bhat– These are his Insights on India:

Arjun Bhat, founder of Travspire, offers tips to finding meaningful travel experiences in India.

Pondicherry: A wonderful former French town in Tamil Nadu.

Too much time has been spent on this subject, so I’ll make my opinion short and sweet. For those of you who haven’t heard, there’s been an awful lot of hullabaloo over this chick, Michaela Cross’, blog post about her whoas in India, that sadly ended in a mental breakdown. There have been several responses  from other white girls who have traveled in India and did not have bad experiences. Here’s my take: 

I would like to preface with the fact that I do feel bad for Michaela. She clearly has had a difficult go at it, and I hope she recovers in full. However, this discussion is somewhat irrelevant in my mind. Listen white girls, the world does not revolve around you. If you don’t like being stared at in India or you’re uncomfortable, GO HOME. If you dig India, stay! This conversation should not be happening at all. 

What is actually relevant is the safety of Indianwomen in India. So, let’s stop talking about the poor white girls, and actually talk about ways to make India safer for its own women. 

Pics from Hippocampus Learning Centers

Oh man. What I DAY I had yesterday. Like most things in India (that I’ve found so far), yesterday was a juxtaposition of wonderful and frustrating. 

I was very excited to do my first field visit at Hippocampus Learning Centers— one of Unitus Seed Fund’s investees. The great people at HLC set me up to go with another girl who was interested in seeing their work. She set up the cab to get us there and I coordinated with the field manager, Paramesh. We aimed to leave at 7am to miss traffic leaving Bangalore. All is well and good, right?

Well then the cab was TWO hours late. I repeat: TWO hours. He apparently got lost getting to the other girl’s place and decided to give up and go home (WHAT!?). Instead of flying through Bangalore at 7am we crawled through the city at 9am. Not only that, but this cabby had the audacity to take the route around the city because it “had less traffic”. Listen buddy, this whole city is just one crazy parking lot, it’s best to go the most direct route. All in all it took us about 4 hrs to get there instead of two and a half. UGH. 

Once we got there, everything changed. It was really fun to spend time in the classroom with the kids. The teachers were all super great and engaging and I was SO impressed by how much these little suckers knew. They were counting to 50, deciphering odd and even numbers, spittin’ some English vocab words, and singing some pretty adorable songs. More than anything, they were all super stoked to be there and to be learning. Seems HCL has a good thing goin’. 

Promptly after leaving the wonderfulness of cute kids at HCL, our cab saga continued. He got two flat tires, stop about a million times and hit a motorcyclist (who was okay). When we finally arrived back in Bangalore he thought it would be a good idea to try to rip us off. We had agreed to pay rs 2,200 for the day and he was trying to charge us rs 3,500, because he went 90kms over. Oh, was that while you were getting lost and going home? Or when you took a tour of Bangalore traffic at 9am? Yea right dude. We handed him is rs 2,200 and walked away. Of course he followed, arguing continued and he decided to lodge an “official complaint” against us. Good luck fella. Oh cab driver, why must you be such an asshole? I need ice cream. 

I got my “cream and cookies” and sadly walked down Brigade Road. By the time I reached my flat I was feeling much better about life, cab drivers and the prospect of getting a beer with friends. What a day. But it was nothing that a little ice cream couldn’t solve. 

There are many things that I was not anticipating when I arrived in India. No one told me about the Indian head bobble. No one mentioned I would need to practice my Indian accent to communicate with auto drivers. And no one told me about Pee Walls. 

If you spend a day walking around Bangalore, you will see at least 5-10 men peeing on walls. Just whipping it out and taking a piss. Oh the joys of being a man. However, what is SO interesting to me about this, is there are designated Pee Walls. I kid you not. You can tell it’s a Pee Wall by A. the smell and B. the fact it says “Do not pee here” (illustrated below). What I’m so curious about is how these Pee Walls come to be? What makes a good one? The one closest to my house is the wall of an all-girls Catholic school. 

Here are some general things I think any good Pee Wall has. 

1. It must be on the left side of the road, so auto drivers can pull over and get out with ease. 

2. There must be ample sidewalk space so that the man doesn’t have to be on the road while he does his business. 

If anyone else has some great insights on what makes a Pee Wall a Pee Wall, please let me know. I’m very curious. 

Adventuring in Hampi. We rode two- wheelers and got caught in a Monsoon. Saw lots of temples and of course, got in some quality time with an elephant

I have a special place in my heart for transportation. I became fascinated by its ability to make lives so much better or so much worse in a class I took at USC. Needless to say, I was pretty stoked on the Hyperloop. Imagine getting from SF to LA in 30 minutes. IMAGINE. I may also be biased because I’ve seen far too much of the 5 in my short 23 years of life. 

Anyways, there has been some negativity and hesitations about the Hyperloop and rightly so. It’s really difficult to build a brand new transportation system with a technology that has never been used before. But I think shooting this idea down as unfeasible makes you a sucky person. Elon Musk is one of my favorite entrepreneurs because he’s totally DGAF (google it mom and dad). He literally finds the biggest problems to tackle then just gets after it. If he wants the Hyperloop to be built, then built it will be! We need more people like that in this world.

Being in India, which houses a third of the world’s poor, it is easy to be overwhelmed by the gigantic issues facing society. The complications and intricacies of social problems can make you want to throw your hands in the air,  go back to your nice apartment by the beach and get a corporate job. BUT it is times like those I think about Elon Musk and his DGAF-ness. We need that kind of hubris is in this world. Next time there’s a super big problem, I think it’s best not to write it off as impossible but to think, what crazy idea might just solve it. Then make it happen. 

Mysore Palace: Complete with a light show in Hindi. Didn’t understand a word but I never say no to lights.

Chamundi Hill: 1,000 steps up, shaking legs on the way down