Rethinking love, life and philosophy in jogja1. Roline in her previous post mentioned about being late in writing her blog. I am clearly displacing her from that position. 2. Landed in Delhi on 14th. After attending a wedding and meeting a close friend in two different cities, reaching Delhi seemed like a homecoming. 3. One of the main reasons (probably the only one) in delaying this entry was the hope that with passage of time I should say something remarkably profound. I would not commit the mistake of promising that the following paragraphs will reveal something extraordinary, but I do hope that it reveals something familiar. 3. To reflect and write about events passed also gives an opportunity to give newer meanings to these events. I remember my first day in the wisma hotel, Yogyakarta. My encounter with my roommate from Uganda - Sam (also known as uncle Sam). I had also assumed that every white person in the lobby was a participant from Netherlands and ended up wishing them lu...

 I was actually supposed to write my blog two weeks ago, but I guess I have been infected by the rubber time virus. Also I got sick, I was busy with the project and of course I can give many other excuses to justify the delay of my blog. However, I still feel that I want to write something, since even after the summer school has ended a week ago, it doesn't feel like that to me at all.   Exactly two weeks ago, I went to the beach with some of the other participants, an event I actually planned to write something about. It was a day of enjoying summer without school. Right now, I am on Phuket having a holiday, also enjoying a summer without school. At least that is what I thought it would be. But in reality, I can't just enjoy the summer without thinking of the summer school. Summer school hasn't really ended and I know it never will. Everything that has been said, that we've talked about, that I have seen and done, it all keeps on lingering inside my head. Every now and th...

Knowledge discovery, Adventure, surprises and Fun is what I would say characterise the summer school. Meeting and interacting with people from different countries and cultures, and the never ending questions to know more about each other in quite amazing and enriching,and each day that passes by, one more thing is learnt as you interact  To me the summer school has been a period of reflection. Reflecting on human identity, nature, and trying to rethink man’s impact on nature, which at the end has left man with more questions that he can provide answers. One point of refrence is from one of the lectures by Prof. Henk who gave a quatation that’’ while man’s days on earth are limited, nature is permanent” .I came to reflect on how many people have done their best only to die and live the world at least not changed to their expectations  Turning to other crazy discoveries, I have come to understand how pluralistic the world is. Not only economically, socially and politic...

There have been days when I thought everybody here (including myself) had gone slightly mad. Why stay up talking till four in the morning, when class starts only five hours later? Why sit outside, in the blistering sun, just to serve as the main course for Mrs. Mosquito, her offspring and all their friends? Why ask a certain professor (whose name will not be mentioned here, but you know who you are) any question, knowing the answer will be abstract and will surely end with “something something rethinking"? The answers to these questions are simple: Because of the people. We stay up late, in complete disregard of the hour or the amount of drinks we've already had, because the companionship is of such an exceptional nature that we're inclined to forget next day's classes. The mosquitoes, lizards and giant ants don't bother us, as long as we've somebody to laugh with. And those abstract, incomprehensible answers...they challenge you to actually rethink your own position in life an...

This is just a narrative of my first interactive visit to a Muslim University, New experience indeed! Comedy of errors – the welcoming ceremony “Asalam aleikum” – those were the introductory words to the Summer School participants by a student of Universitas Sains Al Quran (UNSIQ), Jawa Tengah Di Wonosobo.  The summer school participants had gone to visit the ‘local’ university at Wonosobo in Central Java. The visitors were from Uganda, Netherlands, India and Indonesia, a combination that barely understands each other’s English pronunciation versus hosts whose best English speakers spoke it with a Bahasa accent making little difference between the two languages! The evening was surely bound to turn into a comedy of errors. The university had made arrangements to give us a memorable reception and we were immediately taken to the meeting room where students and staff talked to us in a smattering mixture of Bahasa Indonesia, Arabic, Javanese and English. The major l...