My Internship at the Public Health Research Institute of India (PHRII)
Traveling is fun but even the most passionate travelers have a professional life with duties behind the scenes. For the past five years, this meant studying for university, but since completing my Bachelor’s degree I have had to take more concrete steps towards a career that will fulfill me for the rest of my life. That is why I decided to dedicate three months of my gap year to do an internship at an NGO and research institute in Mysore, Karnataka, where I could gain an insight into the field of public health all while exploring one of the most beautiful corners of the country.
Here is how it went!
Getting to India
“I will be there by the weekend, hopefully,”
I typed with shivering, tingling fingers, oxygen levels seemingly dropping by the minutes. “I will let you know once my flight is confirmed,” I added and hit ‘send’. After more than three months of non-stop travel it felt strange to write professional-ish emails from the barren rocky peaks of the highest motorable road in the world. How different my life would soon be from the unpredictable survivalism that dominated my decision-making over the past weeks.
I graduated from Duke Kunshan University in May 2024, with no job or graduate school offers lined up. I was too busy with my research projects to apply for any while working on my undergraduate thesis. ‘Molecular Bioscience’ it read on my glossy brand new diploma. It did not mention I used none of the gene editing and immunoprecipitation skills I had learned in my classes when collecting data for my thesis in the tribal areas of southern Pakistan. In fact, all data was collected orally, going from village to village asking people about their health and having conversations with female flood survivors. It was at that time that I realized I did not want to restrict my career to the laboratory. I wanted to combine my technical knowledge with my passion for people, science with anthropology to help entire communities and give back to the ones who have taught me more about this world than anyone else. But I did not know how. Traveling was the only thing I knew that could make me feel closer to the mission I felt drawn to and escape from the mundane realities of a natural science student.
Following graduation, I wasted no time to hit the road again. I hopped on a train in Shanghai and traveled across China for two full days until I reached Xinjiang. From there, I went to Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Karakalpakstan, all the way until Turkmenistan. In those three months, I broke free from the rigidity of university life and caught up on all the adrenaline I had been craving in the laboratory. I experienced the best hospitality from the people of Central Asia, which over time made me doubt what I had to offer in exchange. How could I give back without having achieved anything yet? Simultaneously, it dawned upon me that summer was over soon and I had to get back on my feet. Work, study, gain experience, however I could achieve that.
During that time I learned about PHRII. I felt immediately drawn to their mission of improving the health of rural and socioeconomically disadvantaged women through research and welfare. When I found out about their internship program, I knew immediately this would be the perfect fit for me. And so, after a handful of email exchanges and Zoom meetings, I soon found myself on a flight to India.
Divorcing myself from the nomadic lifestyle I had lived for the past months was not easy. I vowed to go on one last trip this summer after touching down in Delhi, so I traveled up north to Himachal, Kashmir, and Ladakh. Little did I anticipate how exhausting this last leg of the journey would be, taking me to places where the air was thinner than the Uzbek silk scarf I was wearing. I admired the strength of the Tibetan monks, who crossed the 18,000 ft mountain passes with ease, while I battled all the symptoms in the book that can arise at high altitudes. My trip to the north concluded with a visit to the hospital on Sunday evening, a time when I had planned to be in Mysore already. Now you see why I never book flights in advance!
Week 1
When I arrived in Karnataka I realized it was a completely different world from the Himalayas. Instead of icy glaciers I was now surrounded by coconut palms. People ate dosa instead of kebab, and barely anyone understood a word of my Urdu, which I had practiced so meticulously in Kashmir. The south appeared so different from the South Asia that I had known and I realized that as I learned about professional life at a research institute, I would also have to get accustomed to a new culture.
I hailed a rickshaw from the train station in Mysore and showed the driver the location of the Public Health Research Institute of India (PHRII). Upon arrival, a friendly guard opened the gate and led me to my living quarters. There was a spacious room with facilities I only could have dreamed of in previous months, and a fully equipped kitchen. I immediately started the stove fire and prepared a pot of flower tea that I had brought from Uzbekistan. The next morning I was introduced to the team. As I met more new faces than I could keep track of I realized that PHRII consists almost exclusively of women. So much so that the Muslim staff members even removed their hijab upon entering the office. And perhaps that was the reason for this laid-back work environment. Office hours were from 10 in the morning until 5 in the afternoon, including lunch break, and the atmosphere seemed relaxed, with everyone sharing their thoughts freely to work towards the common goal of making the community a better place. It truly felt like a feminist utopia.
The first few days were mostly orientation. I was introduced to all the projects happening at the institute and got started working on a project on gender based violence (GBV). I also joined a visit to a woman’s home in the rural outskirts of Mysore, who was interviewed regarding her reluctance to follow up on cervical cancer screening. I was assured that this was merely the beginning, and soon I would get more involved in all the work. At the same time, I was also getting settled in my new home for the next few months. After living out of a backpack and changing places daily for such a long time, the comfort of unpacking my bag and snuggling up in my own bed felt like Heaven. Although I was so desperate to escape the rigidity of everyday life in the beginning of summer, I now felt great relief in establishing a routine. I found pleasure in cooking healthy meals every day and hitting the gym and sipping hot tea while working on my personally decorated desk. Staying in one place not only helped me focus on the projects but also on my health. It was only when I found true comfort that I noticed the huge toll full-time traveling had taken on my body…
Week 2
“So, what exactly is the problem?” I asked on the ride back to the city.
“There are so many problems,” the lady next to me began to ramble. “Problems after problems…”
“First of all, the capacity is lacking. How can we expect people to undergo screening if there are not enough facilities to do so? Secondly, the follow-up rate is very low. What is the point of testing for HPV if nobody comes for subsequent cervical cancer tests? We are also not using the most effective method to detect virus since that would be financially unviable. Instead, we pool multiple samples together and run the test. If it comes back positive, all women sampled in this batch must be tested again individually. We simply do not have the same capabilities as those in high-resource settings.”
“Stigma surrounding STIs and cervical cancer is another concern that was raised but it is not the most pressing one. Rather, a lot of women fear the scary diagnosis and would prefer not to know. Another problem is the invasiveness of the cervical exam,” she went on.
“Lastly, there is a severe lack of education surrounding HPV and cervical cancer. People, including local healthcare personnel, are widely ignorant about the gravity of this infection and therefore lack dedication to this project. Even the healthcare providers show little interest in conducting widespread testing or vaccination campaigns. We need to go from place to place and raise awareness of the preventable risks of cervical cancer.”
This was our conversation on the way back from a community visit to a town in Mysore District. The PHRII team and I were joined by two visitors, one from a national health agency and one from a US institution. They had traveled to Mysore to address the abysmally low rates for HPV vaccination and cervical cancer screening in India. I was told that all across the country screening and vaccination rates are below one percent, whereas in developed nations they are as high as 95%. Even other low-resource countries across sub-Saharan Africa report significantly better statistics than India. As our recent meeting with the ASHAs – lady community health workers – from the area revealed, few healthcare workers are fully aware of the risks of HPV and cervical cancer. How could they possibly convey the message to the women in rural Karnataka?
For this meeting, we traveled about half an hour outside of the city to a small town named Jayapura. The team and I walked into what seemed like a simple classroom, where we were greeting by a crowd of women in pink sarees – the ASHAs of the region. They had gathered for a training session, during which the PHRII team gave a presentation about HPV and cervical cancer. The session was quite long, about four hours, and completely in Kannada. Following the presentation, a focus group discussion (FGD) took place, during which the team inquired about the challenges the local community workers face in detecting, treating, and preventing cervical cancer. The PHRII team later on translated the findings to the visiting delegation, none of whom understood Kannada. As I found out, traveling across India is like traveling an entire continent with thousands of languages and cultures that can be completely foreign to one another.
“We cannot use high-resource settings like the US or Canada as an example. We need to compare the progress of India with similarly economically positioned countries,” one of the visitors explained.
“One of the countries we were looking at was El Salvador. They are doing much better than us.”
“Even significantly poorer countries are doing better,” the other visitor chimed in.
“How come the rates all across Africa are so much higher?”
“They were getting a lot of funding from GAVI and the US government. All the global health campaigns are focusing on Africa these days. That is why.”
“India is a rapidly developing country that has made incredible progress over the decades. Who says we need to beg the US for money? We can do it ourselves.”
“The problem is that India is too big. With a population of 140 crores, where do we even begin?”
I leaned back in the comfortable car seat and listened to the heated exchange from a mental distance. Problems after problems, indeed. How frustrating public health can be. If there was a simple solution to these problems, global health inequality would have been tackled ages ago. That is why professionals in this field have to view problems from hundreds of different angles, I came to know. Nonetheless, this meeting between public health professionals and the local community only consolidated my conviction to work in this field. The work is tough and sometimes disheartening, but I want to give my best. And it is eye-opening experiences like these for which I came to PHRII.
That weekend, I also traveled to Bangalore for the first time, which is around three hours by train. It turned out to be Ganesh Chathurti, a major holiday dedicated to the Hindu deity Ganesha. I spent my first night in a hostel, where I got to witness the special puja ritual in the morning. Hostel staff brought in a statue of the deity, performed the ritual, then gave out ladoos and put tikas on everyone’s foreheads – including the dogs’! Later in the day, families would take the statue out and ceremonially submerge it in a body of water. Many chose Bangalore’s Ulsoor Lake for that. I was told the statues are all made out of biodegradable material which dissolves in water.
Week 3
My third week at PHRII was characterized by long queues at various diagnostic testing centers. Working in an environment surrounded by healthcare professionals I finally found the motivation to treat some of my own health issues, some of which I had been suffering from for a year already. I had seen multiple specialists in different countries but none of the treatments I was prescribed worked, and due to constantly being on the move I was unable to schedule any follow-up appointments. After such a long time of manageable but constant pain, I was beyond relieved when the last antibiotic cocktail worked and I finally became pain-free. All thanks to Dr Raghavi, the gynecologist at PHRII!
I also joined another field visit that week. In the morning, I got into the small PHRII van with a couple of staff, which drove us to a nearby medical college. I was confused when we got off and entered a school bus full of medical students. The journey through Karnataka’s lush greenery took around an hour, as we passed toll booths and eventually made our way into a village. We pulled up into the open premises of a government school and entered a classroom full of girls in uniform. I later learned they were a ninth-grade class and had gathered for a day-long presentation of adolescent health conducted primarily by the students and faculty of the medical college. The topics of the hours-long talks ranged from puberty to consent (good touch versus bad touch), personal hygiene to mental health, and were conducted in Kannada, although the bilingual slides helped me follow the content. Overall, it seemed like a heavily sanitized version of the sex ed classes I received in third grade and then again in eighth grade. By heavily sanitized I mean no explicit mentioning of sexual activity or discussions of safe sex. It was clear that the method promoted to the girls was strict abstinence.
“You may feel attracted to boys but remember this is not true love, it’s only hormones,” the presenter said in English.
In the West, the discourse regarding in-depth sexual education in academic circles is overwhelmingly positive. Proponents argue that educating adolescents about safe sex is more effective in preventing teenage pregnancy and STIs than abstinence-only education, which is favored in more conservative circles. In essence, teenagers will do what they want, so rather than attempting to control them, adults should teach them how to do it safely. That is why by the age of eight, I already knew what sexual intercourse was, how conception works, and the various methods to avoid pregnancy and various diseases – way before I could even imagine engaging in such activities myself. Witnessing the abstinence-only lecture that the village girls were given, I could not help but think about my female friend in Pakistan, who found herself stuck in a cycle of unwanted pregnancies and illegal abortions, or my soon-to-be married friend who asked me everything about contraception as the couple did not plan to have any children soon but was completely clueless about family planning. I was baffled to take on the role of an educator without holding any medical qualifications, teaching people with double the years of formal education than me something I learned in elementary school. I was already picturing these girls to grow up as clueless about sexual health as my friends…
Nonetheless, I came to realize the necessity for abstinence-only education. Most parts of India are very conservative and premarital sex is considered a much greater taboo than in most western societies. Teaching ninth-graders details about sexual activities may lead to backlash from the community as it may normalize premarital relations, which goes against cultural and religious norms. As the interviews from the GBV project I was working on revealed, premarital sex is so taboo in many communities that as soon as a boy and girl express interest in each other, they rush to perform wedding rituals. This becomes a problem when the parties involved are minors, since child marriage is a punishable offence in India. Furthermore, early marriage locks young people into a commitment for which they may not be prepared and with people who are not suitable with them or their family backgrounds. Early “love marriages” interfere with the traditional practice of arranged marriage, which is thought to create stability in society. Lastly, respondents of the GBV study expressed that early “love marriages” endanger children’s education, particularly in low-income communities. Due to this risk, such influence on their youth is a major concern of community members. This falls in line with the message conveyed at the government school: “stay away from relations with boys, this is not real love but just hormones.” This example highlights the need for culturally appropriate education. What works best for one community may not be appropriate for another one, and the involvement of locals is a necessity for any intervention campaign.
Following the medical college’s presentation, the PHRII staff went on to give a talk about HPV and cervical cancer. As the previous week’s discussion with local healthcare staff revealed, lack of awareness is a major challenge to cervical cancer prevention and a contributing factor to India’s low screening and vaccination rates. Using slideshows and posters, the staff explained what HPV is and how it leads to cervical cancer, and how a simple vaccine can prevent major health problems in the future. The aim is that through mass education, girls will take the initiative themselves, leading to increased resilience from the bottom up. Being face to face with young people was certainly a major motivating factor for me to work in this field.
Week 4
Week 4 was when I really got to work on things, particularly the gender-based violence project led by Dr Kiran. By that time, I had already reviewed and coded plenty of transcripts of the interviews conducted with community members of slums in Mysore and Bareilly. This work is very tedious: one has to read through the entire transcript, which may be as long as 100 pages, and assign thematic codes to the various sections of the text. The questions asked in all the interviews are the same, and applying the same codes to the same parts of the transcript becomes very repetitive. Although individual answers vary, the themes are recurring, especially within the same locality, gender identity and religious groups. Furthermore, direct translations from the local languages to English tend to be rather clumsy, and the way in which people casually speak also varies across cultures, making it difficult to extract the intended meanings out of statements. After weeks of doing this work on the side, I became very exhausted.
Luckily, that was when Dr. Kiran and I met to plan the outline of the paper. Together, we discussed the themes we observed in participants’ answers and came up with ways in which we could structure the qualitative portion of this paper. Some of the themes we identified were strictly defined gender roles which confine women to domestic labor and men to wage-earning. Overall, women possess less autonomy than their male counterparts due to marriage and family dynamics, financial circumstances, and masculinity perceptions. Commonly stated reasons for violence against women include alcohol use, financial struggles, disobedience and the neglect of duties, as well as disrespect towards in-laws. Rape is typically blamed on women’s clothing and the possibility of marital rape is accepted by few. Differences were observed across demographics. For instance, traditional gender norms tend to be more rigid in the north compared to the south and women tend to be more pessimistic than men about the wellbeing of their own gender. Overall, participants reported a decrease of GBV over the years, crediting education and law enforcement. Discussing this information not only allowed me to observe trends more clearly but also made me look forward to the next stage of this project, which will be writing the qualitative portion of the paper. But until then, I will have to keep coding transcripts since at this point I am only about halfway done.
I also came to know about another project happening at PHRII, which deals with the experiences of various female cancer survivors in and around Mysore. One morning I joined a small delegation on a visit to a government hospital. After touring the premises, I was led to the oncology ward, where we waited for eligible participants to interview. The criteria included women who had finished their treatment and came for follow-up visits three months later. Unfortunately, on that day there were no eligible participants available to interview so instead, I decided to use this time to learn more about the healthcare system. In government hospitals, the registration fee is only 10 rs and all treatments are free for patients below the poverty line. However, compared to private hospitals the government ones are very crowded and uncomfortable. What shocked me the most was parents taking their child to do his natural business right outside of the bathroom!
This week I also committed to exploring more of the city. Unfortunately, getting around Mysore without one’s own vehicle is rather annoying, and it took me quite some motivation to call a rickshaw to take me to places. I decided to check out Meena Bazaar, one of the city’s main markets. When I arrived I could not believe what I saw: a huge Muslim-majority neighborhood with grand mosques (plus one of the biggest churches in India) and lots of delicious non-vegetarian eateries! I was also relieved when I found out that most Muslims in Mysore were fluent in Urdu, allowing me to communicate easily. It honestly felt like I was back in Pakistan! But an even bigger surprise awaited me: the day I visited happened to be Eid Milan un-Nabi, the birthday of Prophet Muhammad! As soon as the sun set crowds flocked into the brightly decorated streets to greet a grand parade. This celebration was completely unexpected and made me so glad I decided to visit on that day. The colorful, cheerful crowds were an appetizer for what would expect me soon…
Week 5
I joined the team for another visit to the hospital. That day we were significantly luckier as we encountered a participant who met the criteria. The woman was a breast cancer survivor and hailed from a village in Mysore District. We handed her the questionnaire, which consisted of 26 pages full of questions about the survivor’s mental health, sexual health, and support system. The interview was conducted in Kannada but I was given a summary of the results. The survivor reported having a good support system and facing no stigmatization in her community. Her only concern was the travel costs to the city, her only expense as treatment is free, which made her feel like a burden to her family. I was told that such patterns of good support and little stigma are prevalent in rural communities around Mysore. The woman showed us a pack of medicines that she was given. Upon further research I found out they are breast tissue-specific estrogen-blocking drugs that are used as hormone therapy even after removal of the breast tissue.
Week 5 was also full of presentations. The week began with a staff meeting, during which everyone shared their process on their projects, and ended with a research fellow’s presentation of her project on antimicrobial resistance in UTI-causing bacteria across Mysore City. The highlight however was the visit by a US-based organization that fights against cervical cancer. I was taken aback when I entered the office that day because everyone was wearing fancy sarees. Later that day I was invited to join the team to a hotel, where they had prepared a presentation in the ballroom. PHRII first introduced the organization, followed by an introduction to the initiative against cervical cancer currently taking place in Mysore District. The project is in collaboration with local education institutions and healthcare providers, whose representatives had joined as well. The joint delegation explained the dynamics of the campaign as well as challenges faced. Through close cooperation, the different institutions share knowledge and resources in order to screen patients, vaccinate, treat, build awareness, and train staff. For instance, they created folders to share all education material with each other while institutions can borrow each other’s equipment, saving efforts and money. The latter proves to be a major hurdle as wide-scale screening is resource-intensive and due to high costs, local institutions cannot always use the most state-of-the-art equipment.
And that is where another major component of public health work comes into play: fundraising. Plenty of public and private funds are allocated to healthcare but it is each project leader’s responsibility to convince stakeholders why their project needs them most. While statistics and hard data are important to describe the scale of the health burden of the problem to be tackled, it is personal stories that illustrate how certain challenges impact humans on an individual level, and how exactly donors can improve people’s lives. One of the most effective ways to do this is digital stories, in which survivors use their own voices to talk about their experiences over a collection of candid photographs. The presentation showed the mayor of Mysore viewing survivors’ stories and vowing to help people of his community. One impactful story was that of a woman hugging her goats, who were her only support during cancer treatment. This is when I realized the importance of Arts and Humanities in various applications of professional life and how my passion for creativity could contribute to public health. Following this, I decided to read up on and help out in my colleague Deepshika’s project, which deals with creating digital stories of breast cancer survivors. It is not only a type of work that I have fun doing but also something that may have a profound impact through the emotions conveyed through it.
Following the presentations, the PHRII leaders and the guests from the US held a short puja to initiate their collaboration. Then, we crossed over to the other side of the conference hall, where a huge buffet was waiting for us. I could smell the chicken biryani from far away, alongside some excellent vegetarian dishes, but what really took the crown for me was the pineapple mint chaat. Needless to say, as soon as I got home I rushed to buy pineapple and mint and seasoned it with plenty of salt, chili, and chat masala!
Week 6
The week started off with a routine staff meeting and my weekly discussion with Dr Kiran about the GBV project, on which I made significant progress recently. Afterwards, she asked me to help her film a segment for a donation appeal video. This was a great opportunity to apply the practical skills I had learned in my cinematography class, which I took as an elective in college last semester. Three point lighting? We got the ceiling lamp as the fill light, the window in the background as backlight, and a bright lamp used for clinical examinations as a key light! I always appreciate opportunities to combine my skills from different fields.
Meanwhile, the entire team had spent the past weeks scouting all of Mysore for a new property to move into. Once the decision was finalized, I joined a small group visit to the property. It was a spacious two-story residential house with a long hall and seemingly countless smaller rooms, three of which would serve as lab spaces. We toured the entire property and picked some guavas from the trees in the yard. Only a week prior I had gone property hunting myself and found an apartment that I love. This is one of the fulfilling aspects of adult life, becoming responsible for the place around you. My landlord helped me equip the kitchen properly and we hung a rope from the door to the window to hang all my clothes instead of a wardrobe. A cleaning lady comes three times a week to help me keep the space neat.
But that was not my only achievement this week. I also finally rented a bike! A cute little Honda Navi, to be exact. I quickly mastered not only Mysore’s Dasara traffic, the rush for the city’s biggest holiday season that had just begun, but also countryside roads. Wednesday was Gandhi Day, a national holiday, which I used to go on a day trip to Brindavana Gardens north of Mysore. Craving more of the calm countryside vibes, I continued to ride along empty roads, at high speed, passing through endless coconut farms and tiny villages. But when I got lost in an elderly woman’s fields I eventually decided to turn around and head back to the city before sunset.
And that is how I discovered a new passion. Life is so perfect with a bike!
That weekend I also went on a trip: my boyfriend (yes, that somehow also happened in between) invited me on a short trip to Chennai, the bustling capital of Tamil Nadu province. We took an overnight sleeper bus with the comfiest beds one could imagine and did the same thing on the way back. We met some of his friends from university, ate our way through countless food streets, and explored the UNESCO World Heritage site of Mahabalipuram by the beach. But I did not leave Chennai empty-handed. I had been told the region is known for India’s most beautiful sarees, and I was also told I would have to wear a saree in the following week for Disarm. So, with the help of a Tamil friend, we shopped for the most gorgeous Kangana silk saree in Chennai.
Week 7
This week was so fun! While I continued work as usual – mostly coding transcripts – most of this week was consumed by Mysore’s incredible Dasara buzz. I was informed in advance that on Thursday there would be an office party, so I prepared over the weekend. While I got my saree blouse stitched, I attended the free concerts that took place in Mysore this week. I didn’t quite know who would be performing on Monday but I decided to attend anyway. I made my long way through the Dasara traffic until I reached the venue, which was located outside of the city. Turns out the singer, Dhvani Bhanushali, was part of many trending songs that I had been listening to for years. The next day was absolutely incredible because famous rapper Badshah performed. The vibe of this concert could not be matched by anything. Wednesday was the highlight of the week as legend AR Rahman performed. Unfortunately, the venue was so incredibly crowded that I could barely see anything. Still, all my friends back in Pakistan were jealous that I got to experience this famous music legend live.
Thursday was the big day of our office celebration. A day before most people celebrated Dasara but our only option since we would have a long weekend following this. I woke up early to apply matching makeup, nail polish, and jewelry, then headed to the office where I asked my colleagues to wrap my saree – a solid 15 minute process! We proceeded to perform puja rituals and then went on to bless all appliances in the office, including all laptops, lab equipment, kitchen appliances, and vehicles. Even my bike got blessed! After the rituals, we had lunch and played games in the office, then all of use were gifted a box of sweets. Soon before the celebration concluded I got a great surprise: my boyfriend was coming to Mysore from Bangalore for the weekend! I decided to welcome him with home-cooked biryani so I went to the bazaar to shop for ingredients but there I was met with another surprise: I met a kind shop owner who hosts German volunteers as a hobby. As he showed me around his shop, which reminded me of Germany in many ways, a TV crew passed by and asked us for an interview. What a day!
The Dasara celebrations that followed over the weekend were simply out of this world, a massive procession that felt like the German holidays of Carnival, St. Martin, and Christmas combined. We arrived at the road closure at around 1pm and it was already beyond crowded. We almost sat down on the floor when some people gestured us towards the “foreigner area”, a specific area with chairs, free snacks,and meals designated for foreigners. My boyfriend, being Kashmiri, is frequently mistaken for a foreigner, which can get annoying but was to our benefit this time. We sat there for six hours, watching a lengthy parade, until the statue of goddess Chamundeshwari passed. Afterwards, we had time for a quick dinner at an excellent Afghan restaurant before we rushed to see the torch parade. We had secured entry passes but they didn’t let us enter the stadium until the end of the parade. What we saw there was absolutely insane and a grandiose conclusion to the Dasara festivities.
Week 8
This week began with a lengthy puja ritual to inaugurate the new office building. Again I brought my saree, now very tired of wearing this complicated garment. I had watched countless tutorials on how to wrap a saree but gave up and accepted the fact that I will always have to depend on some aunty’s help. After stuffing myself into the tight dress, I joined the ceremony, which was being conducted in the middle of the barren office room with the presence of a priest. Suddenly, the priest arranged firewood and started a bonfire in the middle of the room. Throughout the ritual, people added more things to the fire, producing a big dark cloud. Not long after, my eyes began to tear and I developed headaches, so I left the room, but the smoke penetrated the entire property. Then I remembered that smoke always rises to the top, so I lay down on the floor and took a nap. I was genuinely baffled how people managed to stay directly next to the fire for hours.
Apart from the puja ceremony, the office week proceeded as usual and I focused on finishing up all the transcripts for the GBV project. What was out of the ordinary was the fact that my boyfriend stayed in Mysore the entire week. We would have lunch together and spend the evenings exploring Mysore. Together, we visited Chamundi Hills, tried out countless restaurants, hit the gym, and rode through the countryside. The week concluded with a long day out in the fields from sunrise to sunset on Sunday, where we fell asleep by the river, enjoyed hookah in the rice paddies, witnessed a wedding at a church, and took a boat ride in a bird sanctuary. His stay truly added color to my routine here in Mysore and I was sad when he eventually had to return to Bangalore. This was yet another lesson for me to live in the moment because beautiful experiences don’t last. Still, I am glad we were able to explore so many new places in Mysore, which I will continue to enjoy over the next weeks.
Week 9
This week I finally finished coding all the transcripts for the GBV project! I never thought this day would come. I immediately met with Dr. Kiran and we discussed the next steps. First, we selected a framework that would suit this study. Then, I began working on the introduction section. Fortunately, I had already done a good literature review beforehand, so some parts of the section came out smoothly. To my dismay, though, the project took a much broader turn, encompassing perceptions of gender norms in general, so I had to review plenty more literature as I was writing. This took forever, especially since it took me a long time to understand technical terms from sociology, a subject I had never actually studied. On top of this, we were in the middle of shifting offices, so progress was quite slow.
After office, I took advantage of the remaining hour of sunlight to explore new places in the countryside. I discovered some islands in the Kaveri River. First, I went to one island that was full of coconut palms and peacocks and I watched the most magical sunset. However, I didn’t dare to go too deep into the jungle as I was afraid of snakes. The next day, I found an island with an unfinished bridge, which was temporarily connected to the mainland by wooden planks. There seemed to be an ashram on the island and locals were transporting goods while walking on the narrow planks. The currents underneath seemed quite strong, so I didn’t dare to cross, but I kept the place in mind in case I felt more adventurous later on.
Week 10
This was the week of Diwali and most people were out of the office this week. I myself only came to the office for two days and realized I was the only fellow who did so. Actually the perfect time to travel, however, I didn’t have enough energy to explore something new, so I went to Bangalore to visit my boyfriend, who was very busy with his remote job despite the holidays. Hence, I ended up working on my introduction section as well. Every day from 6AM until midnight children were out playing with firecrackers, which were so loud they sounded like bomb explosions. Needless to say, I got barely any sleep that weekend. I explored part of Bangalore on my own and stumbled across the busy bazaar of Chickpet Street as well as some Sufi shrines. When I went inside I witnessed a strange ritual of a sheikh holding limes on people’s heads and splashing water into their faces. Many parents brought their children to have this ritual performed.
The biggest surprise however was when I visited a beauty salon near the house and the owner asked if I could model for her! We made plans and I brought my camera. She dressed me in a gorgeous silk saree, did a three-hour-long makeover and a fancy bridal hairstyle. We took plenty of photos, for which I refused to accept any payment. We had a fun time and the lady invited me to visit her home in Andhra Pradesh.
I returned to Mysore Saturday night and couldn’t wait to go for another bike ride the next day. On Sunday, I decided to visit the historical town of Srirangapatna, which is known for its big mosque, temple, a fort, and Tipu Sultan’s death place. Afterwards, I drove north across the river to a hilly area. There I found a small town with many ancient temples and a Sufi shrine. For sunset, I went up a nearby hill, which overlooked the ancient temples as well as a lake. On the way back, I had the best dosa ever at a roadside restaurant north of Srirangapatna.
Week 11
This was the first week in the new office. It was farther from my home than my previous office but I memorized the route very quickly. The move-in has been quite chaotic and I found myself writing to the buzz of drillers in the background. Eventually, I finished the introduction section and moved on to the results section of the paper. For this, Dr. Kiran advised me to first create a table to organize all remarkable quotes. This meant I had to skim through all the transcripts again and look for the “best_quotes” code. This took me the entire week!
On Saturday I decided that as my time in Mysore was slowly concluding, I should visit one of the main attractions in the area. And so I started the 60km drive to Nagarahole Tiger Reserve. Unfortunately, I was not able to make any safari reservations online and when I arrived, there also were no spots free. However, it was the drive that made the journey worth every mile. On the way, I saw numerous vendors selling hair oil on the street. They became more and more numerous until I passed through a village where literally every single home was selling hair oil! I stopped at one and bought a bottle from the ladies, thinking I should give this miraculous hair growth serum a try. Then, the ladies running the shop invited me for lunch and tea. They kept ordering fried banana snacks for me and refused to let me pay, insisting I was their guest. They spoke excellent Hindi and answered all my questions about the community. It turned out they belonged to an indigenous hunter gatherer tribe called Hakki Pikki. They used to make a living hunting in the jungle for food until environmental degradation and protection laws forced them to quit their lifestyle. Now everyone in the community makes and sells herbal hair oil. Their products are very famous and tribal people travel all across the country to sell them. The young woman I met married a vendor from Punjab, whom she met during her travels.
The tribal women advised me to visit a Tibetan village near the national park and I’m so glad I did. Hidden in the middle of the countryside was a vibrant Tibetan community with monks, stupas and monasteries. It looked just like Ladakh but with palm trees instead of mountains in the background. I stopped to have momos at a street stall and the nice auntie, named Dolma, went around the village with me and tried to help me find accommodation at the monastery. Unfortunately, there was no room left, so I decided to drive back to Mysore on the same day. On the way, a police officer stopped me, but not for the usual reasons: he was hitchhiking! And that’s how I ended up giving a ride to a police officer on my tiny little bike.
Week 12
I finished organizing all the quotes from the transcripts and got to work on the results section of the paper. This was the most fun part, as I got to summarize the findings from the study and back them up with quotes. I felt like finally, all the work of the past weeks was coming together to create a solid, evidence-backed report. On the other hand, I also began to realize that slowly but surely, my time in Mysore was coming to an end. I spent the weekend discovering some more places. First, I visited a temple surrounded by water in the KRS Backwaters. Then, I checked out a Jain monument on the northern shore of the backwaters. It was very important to me that before leaving Mysore, I would explore all corners of this magical place. The next day I drove along the southern shores of the backwaters, did a lot of dirt paths, and checked out a camping spot on a peninsula. Then I drove all the way to my favorite spot on the southwestern coast. On the way, I passed the village where the train that goes on rails over the water starts from. I entered the train station to take photos of the landscape but the villagers quickly surrounded me and asked to have their portraits taken! They explained to me they were all farmers and traveled to the towns to sell their produce. Others were just waiting for passing trains to sell their produce to passengers. I bought a slice of papaya from one of the ladies and it was the tastiest papaya ever! I drove a bit farther into the countryside when it began to rain very heavily and I had to take shelter in a barn, where a sweet granny showed me all her tattoos. How I wish I knew Kannada!
Week 13
While the moving process still continued and I was working on my paper, I got ready for my very own moving process as the rent of my apartment had expired. It was a very nice place that I had grown quite attached to, so I would have loved to extend my stay but unfortunately, it was already rented out for the same day I moved out! I found a hostel nearby and I booked until the end of my stay. Too bad my roommates were all yoga students who set an alarm for 5 am every morning. I came into the office extremely tired until I decided to switch dorms.
That weekend, we interns and fellows had a little get together at the movie theater. We watched Wicked, which was a very captivating story. The next day, I finally gathered the courage to walk over the planks and visit the ashram on the island in Kaveri River! It took me about twenty minutes to cross the planks one-way. When I reached the island I realized it was supposed to be a holy site dedicated to all religions in the world. It was quite a walk from the planks to the main temple, and the path was full of signs with spiritual quotes from the holy texts of different religions. The temple itself did not bear marks of any faith in particular and it was surrounded by info signs about a dozen major religions in the world. The theme of the ashram was that all religions believe in the same God and that one should strive to be a good person above anything else. In a country with religious tensions, it was very heart-warming to see such a place. On my way back, the locals invited me for a free meal but I refused. Then, I drove back to my favorite spot on the southwestern coast of the KRS Backwaters and captured a magical sunset. In one of the villages, I stopped in front of a house to pet two adorable kittens and the entire neighborhood came out to greet me. In the end, I bumped into one of the PHRII staff members, whose home village was in this beautiful area.
Week 14
My last week at PHRII was bittersweet. I tried to finish as much work as possible, and seeing the progress I had made over the past three months made me proud. On the other hand, the idea of leaving the office and the beautiful city of Mysore deeply saddened me. I had finished a good part of the paper’s manuscript, which is already over 20,000 words long! I’m afraid it will be too long! I agreed to stay in touch with everyone and continue working on this project in my free time after I leave. It is work that can easily be done from anywhere in the world, however, it was the field work exposure that made my time at PHRII so special. I learned about all aspects of public health work and observed a good role model of how organizations should interact with local communities. I am confident that this experience will be invaluable for my future career.
I am writing this on Thursday, the last day of my internship. I will be in town for a few more days and hope I get to explore a few more places and say goodbye to all my acquaintances here before I head back to China…
Update: during my last two days I went on two longer rides of nearly 200 km each. First, I visited an ancient UNESCO World Heritage temple in Somanthapura. After my visit it was still early, so I decided to check out some waterfalls that were advertised at Dasara Exhibition. The next day, I made another attempt to join a safari in Nagarahole and luckily it succeeded. I saw plenty of elephants, wild bulls, and more, albeit no tigers.
