Millo at Large

On the morning of day four, Shubalaxmi, the school’s principal, took my mom and me to a southern Indian temple. There, I learned about many gods and goddesses. My favorite was Shiv, because of Nandi, the bull that relays messages to Shiv. An honorable mention goes to Hanuman Ji, of course, for being a great mediator.

We arrived at the school, and I was ready to test my science experiment on density before class. I was performing the flying tea bag trick, where someone lights an empty tea bag, and it flies up into the air. Finally, after perfecting the demonstration, I was waiting for classes to start.

I arrived at my 6th-grade class, lit the hollowed tea bag, and everyone watched with jaws dropped to the floor. I then turned to the chalkboard to explain. The experiment has to do with air density, but I knew they were too young for me to use words like “density,” “molecules,” and “buoyancy,” so I drew it out. I first started by talking about how hot air dots (aka molecules) are further separated from each other compared to cold air dots. I accompanied the explanation with body movements; I would get smaller when talking about cold air and would get bigger when talking about hot air. Then came the explanation that hot air rises and cold air settles down. I used the example of ice and water and drew how the molecules in ice are further apart, but the water molecules are closer together, causing the ice to float.

For once, I knew the students understood; they all smiled and nodded their heads, which made me feel very accomplished. I also prefaced the example with ice and water as one of the only situations where a solid is less dense than its liquid form. Following that, I gave a lesson on how gasses are the least dense, liquids are in the middle, and solids are the most dense.

It was lunchtime, and all the teaching made me hungry. Earlier that morning, I was invited to have lunch with a group of teachers. This made me very excited because I felt like the teachers were starting to like me. We enjoyed some traditional Kutch street food, which was so delicious. They taught me that in Kutch, texture in food is very important, which made it seem like Kutch is the place for me because I love texture!

Once school was out for the day, it was time for the second part of school to start—the Gujarati Medium school was in session! My mom and I were invited to their assembly to play some fun games with them. They started off with an amazing dance, which left my mom and me in awe!

The dance finished, and they called me up for a round of musical chairs. I knew the expectations were high; I had to win, as I was going up against kids half my age! The downside was the chairs—they were up to my ankles, so I knew I had to stay low to the ground. After 10 rounds of running in the grueling heat, it was only me and one other boy left. I took a deep breath, knowing I had to win this. It all was a blur until I heard the music stop. I rushed to the chair only to find it already occupied. I got second place, which, to be honest, is much better than I thought I would do. I shook the winner’s hand while the crowd erupted with cheers.

The day was long but very rewarding, reminding me that not giving up throughout the day can open up more opportunities to make other people’s day.