Oct 13 PRE INDIA

Met with the two interport students from Chennai and Prof. Annakutty tonight. They talked about their schooling and other aspects of India. “School” is high school for them and “college” is college or university. Most kids stay at home and commute to school because they go to school in the closest/home city but some stay in the dorms. The dorms are like boarding school with times to study and check in with attendance. Girls have to be in by 6 pm. Craziest thing about India is that they have arranged marriages. People do not date AT ALL. No PDA, no kissing, no premarital sex. Movies don’t even have any kissing in them. With arranged marriage you don’t even see your husband in most cases until the day of the wedding. They do not marry outside of their religion and also take caste and financial security into account. The people getting married have some say in whether or not they get married. The kids are mostly friends with the same gender because when they go to school as kids in elementary school they only go to a same gender school. Education varies but it is not free. The caste system does not really apply in society anymore but for college 66% of slots are saved for the lower caste. Within the lower or untouchable class there is a wide range of wealth. The main jobs in India are computer engineering, architecture, doctor or moviemakers. Lots and lots of movies. Every major city has a Hollywood. In Bombay is Bollywood. Haha Kids never leave their family. All extended family lives together or close by. Family is everything to these people. Looked down upon to leave or live anywhere else. But one of the kids said he has been to America and will probably go to graduate school in the States. Girls who become wives end up living with the husband’s family. They see spending so much time with their family as they only have so much time with their parents and they do everything with them. Drinking age is 21 and there is not much underage drinking. Prof. Annakutty is much older and is part of the Gandhian times so she has many different views, more historical views of India because she has seen India develop since its independence only 60 years ago.