This weekend I joined forces with Karen, Lennart, Miika, Phui Yi, Arpita, Padmini, Emilio, Juhi and Tarun Jagwani (02) to take part in the group interviews for the Indian National Committee Weekend. It was actually quite interesting to meet around 120 aplicants from literally all over India (except the Seven Sisters) and to see in them things that had hints and a lot of similarities with how I felt and how I was when I applied for the first and second time to come to UWC. All the applicants also went through interviews with Parag, Zia, Hritik, Subarna, Cyrus, and other teachers from the school, as well as alumni.
All of them want this, they've travelled anywhere from Pune nearby to God's Own Country (Kerala, as Arpita happily would point out) in the far south India. All of them have strengths, you just have to pay attention, but unfortunately only some of them will make it through the selection process. I found some of the most creative responses to super-random questions, met a female breakdancer with Parkinson's disease, and was also an illiterate fisherwoman with breast reduction. It has hilarious at times, very boring at others, and quite shocking as well. However exhausting these three days turned out to be, it's definitely something I would do again. I learned so much about myself and how much I've changed from being here.
I also got closer to the coyears of mine who were doing the selections with me. I found out so many things about them through toilet paper and jokes, and I also learned a little bit about how they think.
Finally, I also had the chance to speak to alumni from quite a while back and heard about how wild things where when they were here.
Yeah, this place has changed, but so have we. Over a weekend or ten years.
