Arushi D

Ok, so this might seem like pictures ripped straight out of Google, or product placement ads, but they're pictures I took myself from different departmental stores. My childhood was filled with SNACKS. When I moved back to India after ten years, and saw these same lables 'Dairy Milk,' 'Kurkure,' 'Maggi,' and 'Amul,' it just brought back a ton of childhood memories. Cadbury was and always will be the ultimate chocolate for me. Yes, I've eaten Hershey's, Gems, Mars, Snickers, and all of that good stuff, but nothing like Cadbury's Dairy Milk. I would reward myself with those Rs. 5 Cadbury chocolate bars, every time I scored a 100 on a test, or listened to my Mom. Good times...

The most unique thing in Indian convenience stores I've noticed are those long strings of packages of chips, decorating the storefront. Seeing them now I am reminded of the days I used to rip off Kurkure packages and beg my Mom to buy them for me. The spicy chips are the ones for me, even to this day. But the variety of chips from Lays, Kurkure, Cheetoh's is astonishing, something that I missed greatly when I was away from India.

I remember running home from school, and begging Mom to make Maggi noodles each time. No matter how many days in a week I'd had it, I would NEVER get tired of it. In the US, I used to eat Top Ramen, but it was nothing close to the taste of Maggi noodles. One of the best things of coming back to India was eating authentic Maggi noodles, the irreplaceable snack. I still prefer my Maggi noodles to be as dry as possible, with no extra veggies.

Amul, as all us media students have already discussed, is the pinnacle of India's successful brands. So seeing anything Amul nowadays brings back to those delicious days of munching on Amul cheese slices. I remember I used to steal cheese slices from the fridge, and eat 2-4 each day, even when I was told not to indulge in more than 1! Of course, I didn't listen, and one day ended up falling so sick, and vomited it all out :/

The multitude of Indian snacks is something like no other, and revitalizes my childhood even more.

Arushi Dutt

       We were asked to write a message to the people in Gaza. I am really at a loss of words, when it comes to talking about this horrific situation. I don’t understand it. The pain, the sorrow, the fight. Why do human beings do this to each other? No matter how much I read into it, give my perspective, or listen to experts, the fact of the matter remains that innocent people are dying. So all I can really say is I may not understand the situation fully, but what I do understand is this is a terrible act of humanity. For that, I stand by you all. In any small way that I can, I wish to send my prayers to those lives of young women and children especially, and to their families. I wish to send any ounce of strength from me to those still struggling to make it out of this difficult time. I wish to send my love. I write from the heart…

In this time of misery and pain, there is hope, which will bloom slowly but surely…

Arushi Dutt