Coping with the heat, the new sights and smells and tastes and discovering the warmth of their new friendships is adding to the excitement for the 2015 Prime Minister’s Scholarship students from the New Zealand Institute of Fashion Technology on their five-week visit to India hosted by the Bannari Amman Institute of Technology in Sathyamangalam, Tamil Nadu.Here in their own words, the students share their experiences and some of the many ways these are complementing their learning and will influence their future careers.
NZIFT Student Blogs #1
From Angela
Welcome to India. This is how I feel about my stay here in India and at the Bannari Amman Institute of Technology. It's been an enlightening experience. India is beautiful and colorful. It awakens deep feelings of inspiration. And the people, even though they have little, are kind to share and friendly and welcoming.
The knowledge we’re gaining from our trips to the different companies is priceless. We're getting information and a greater understanding about production processes and how things work in the fashion industry, specifically in production and exports. We have only seen these processes on computers and TV or to a smaller extent in New Zealand production companies, but most of those are quite a bit smaller in size. So this was a whole other level of information and we're grateful to be able to learn so much about what is really happening in the world of fashion production.
We are also grateful for the Bannari Amman hospitality. They have been making us feel at home from day one. This is the most welcoming and courteous country I have ever visited. I'm grateful that Bannari Amman and NZ Fashion Tech in cooperation with the Prime Minister’s Scholarship grant have made this once in a lifetime opportunity possible for us lucky 20 Students. Thank you very much!
From Grace
This first week in India has been so overwhelming and surreal. It definitely took a couple of days for the reality of it all to actually sink in! It's such a beautiful country, and riding for seven hours on the bus from Chennai as soon as we had landed to where we are staying at BIT in Sathyamangalam, highlighted this beauty. Even though we were all tired, the noise, the crowd, the bright colours and the landscape were so incredible and so much to take in!
I feel as though we have become somewhat integrated into the culture here. We have been made to feel so welcome and the BIT staff have been so lovely, going out of their way for us and making us feel at home. We were welcomed by the second year fashion students with red Tilaka and cultural dancing.
Where we are staying is so nice, surrounded by coconut trees and palms and the BIT campus is huge. It's like a small town with everything you need including a book shop and a canteen. All of the students have been so friendly and we have already made connections with people.
The biggest challenge has been coming to terms with the hardship of what is some people's lives, which is so incomprehensible unless you come face to face with this reality. The brightness of the people and the surroundings despite this is clear and everyone is so friendly, smiling and waving to us on the streets.
We have already done so much. On the second day, here we visited the Bannari Amman Temple, which was such an amazing experience, so bright and colourful. To be able to witness such a powerful form of worship and sacrifice and to also take part in that and to learn about it was incredible.
We have already visited a cotton spinning mill, embroidery and manufacturing mill and the scale of these factories is just insane. It is so obvious that textiles are vitally important in this region. The colours, the prints and the intricacy of the detail of the saris we see the women wearing on a daily basis are so beautiful and unlike anything I have ever seen before. We have so much to learn about textiles and apparel here and have already learnt so much.
Overall, it has so far been an incredibly breathtaking experience (it has been a full-on week!). I am in love with the food; the chefs have been amazing and have increased the spice levels after a few days, but it is all so delicious. Words can't do justice to the beauty and experiences we have witnessed!
From Melissa
On Sunday after we arrived in India, we went to the Bannari Amman temple. It is such a beautiful place, and it was amazing with all the bright colours and statues everywhere. The next day we had a tour of the campus. I also got to see my first snake and hold one, which was so cool. On Tuesday, we had our first classes on spinning fibers into yarn, which was interesting, as we had only looked at the basics previously. Then on Wednesday, some of us visited a spinning mill while the others went to be verified by immigration the next day we swapped around. On Friday, we went to a weaving factory where they make the fabrics. I loved seeing the process of the fabrics coming together. Saturday, we saw where they were doing embroidery. This was probably my favorite thing so far because I was fascinated by the way that the pictures were coming to life on the fabric. We also went to a printing factory where we saw screen-printing and where they print bulk patterns on fabrics using rollers. I have had quite a few culture shocks here, but I’m loving every bit of my stay here. All the people are lovely and have made us feel welcome. I can't wait to see what adventures the next four weeks bring.