Bandanna, pyjama, veranda

Our Saturday geography class reveled in India: the history of the Indus Valley, the spice trade, and precepts which continue to transform secular life across the world. India's innovations cover the spectrum: zero, Arabic numerals, the first animal hospital, and Gandhi's direct influence on the non-violent protests of the American Civil Rights Movement. Let us not forget the game of chess.

How to understand a cradle of civilization, and the second most populous nation, during its transit from antiquity and empire, to the largest democracy? How to grapple with India's current issues, such as the sanitation challenges which fuel both childhood stunting and a global threat of antibiotic-resistant bacteria? What we managed was to learn to wonder.

We augmented our talk with gorgeous photographs, past and present. Several students evinced a sincere urge to fling pigments, in an homage to the Holi Festival. Pizza was accompanied by slices of mango and kiwi, and ragas of Ravi Shankar.