Hi, it’s Abbi 🙂

We started our day with an early wake-up, starting at 5:50am! Mark and Mazie brought snacks for us to eat on the drive! We all got on the bus to head to the Samanar Hills, which are a site of religious importance in Jainism. We arrived by 7am, leaving the city for the first time since we arrived in Madurai. Our guide took us first to see ancient caves from the 13th century, which featured a carving of Mahavira, a Jain deity.

We climbed a set of stairs to see another set of reliefs. At the top of the hill were the remnants of a Jain school where monks received their education. The hike was short (but steep!), and we were able to see views of the city below.

We then headed back to Inspiration for breakfast, which the staff kindly held out for us until our return. We boarded the bus again, discovering that we had unfortunately left crumbs on one of the seats, which then became infested with ants. We referred to this as the “ant seat” for the rest of the day, despite our best attempts at extermination. 

Next, we headed to the AuroLab, where we got a tour starting with a presentation on manufacturing. Aravind not only manufactures intraocular lenses (IOLs) for its own surgeries but also sells IOLs to over 180 countries, primarily in Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia. This allows Aravind to be fully financially independent. We removed our shoes and donned protective equipment to walk through the facilities, where we saw how IOLs are made. Many thanks go out to our wonderful hosts at Aravind!

We also went to the AuroFarm, which provided an opportunity to learn more about Dr. Venkataswamy, the founder of Aravind. The building itself was gorgeous, and we took a picture with this banyan tree outside, which was planted by Dr. Venkataswamy.

We then returned to Inspiration for lunch! We had some downtime before heading out to our next destination, and a few of us played cards. Our next stop was the Gandhi Memorial Museum, which presented an excellent opportunity to learn more about British colonialism in India and the subsequent independence movement in which Gandhi played a critical role. Unfortunately, we could not take pictures inside the museum, though we have this one of the Gandhi statue in front. We visited the gift shop, and then (after regrouping, which took a second), headed back to the hostel.

I also took this picture with Mazie in front of a giant dinosaur statue, which did not necessarily fit with the rest of the tour, but was nonetheless located outside of the museum.

Upon return, I asked if anyone had a frisbee, and it turned out that yes, Daniel had brought one! We played for a while, but the game eventually turned into frisbee bowling with water bottles.

At 5:30, we got back on the bus to go to dinner at the Taj Pasumalai Hotel. The hotel was gorgeous, and we were able to walk around the grounds before dinner, with Alyssa photographing a number of us standing majestically near a railing overlooking the city.

Dinner was amazing, and there were some “international options” available for order (for example, Mark got some fish and chips, which were luckily not spicy!). Over dinner, we discussed topics such as Arjun’s unnecessarily long flight plans. We returned to the hostel for the night, from where I am currently writing this blog post! I’m going to sign off now—thanks for reading 🙂