Introduction and early first day

Hi, folks. Someone said we should each introduce ourselves.

Just to let you know, I'm Becky Howell, a doctoral student in Historical Theology working on theological controversies about usury in 16th century Germany. Which has nothing to do with being in India, but I started falling in love with India about two years ago when I realized I needed to learn more if I was going to teach Great World Religions responsibly, which is one of a number of things I am likely to do with my Ph.D. once I manage to earn it. The stories of Hinduism, Indian history, Indian movies, and a number of other things have become a great fascination of mine, and this is my first chance to actually see the country.

What have I actually seen so far? A few random glimpses of what struck me:

Dr. Sebastian greeting everybody from the people who clean the rooms to the professors (and everybody delighted to see him, which is no surprise).

Wonderful library archives that include books written on narrow strips of palm (wood I think). These are etched into the wood. They look a little bit like a pile of rulers strung together with string to keep them in order. Very fine handwriting. They have some of these in 9 different languages. We also saw a letter written by Gandhi, and Dr. Sebastian's Bachelor thesis, on the Heart of God in the Old Testament. I think most of us were as excited to see Dr. Sebastian's work as to see Gandhi's letter. Not perhaps as historic, but we have more personal connection.

There is an amazing sculpture on the lawn of the seminary commemorating a historic meeting of Indians and Pakistanis. I missed the year that this happened. The sculpture is a bunch of heads, piled into a wall. There are faces on both sides, in a sense both sides of the wall are the same, though different. While the sculpture is about partition, it also made me think about how we are living stones.

--Becky