Reed Fifth Grader Shares His Travel Experiences

By Susan Coney

Karan Marwah, a student in Jill Beaudry’s fifth grade class at Reed Intermediate School recently returned from a monthlong journey to India. Ten-year-old Karan traveled to India with his father and younger brother Kunal to visit with relatives and learn more about the historical sites of India. Karan has previously visited India twice but was too young to remember anything about the trips.

Karan said that the flight to India was very lengthy, more than 20 hours. While traveling, Karan kept a journal recording facts, information and his thoughts so that he could report back to his classmates about what he learned. The family took a digital camera with them, and Karan used pictures he had taken to develop a PowerPoint presentation to share with his classmates on his return.

Karan reported that they traveled to different parts of India and that the two things he enjoyed most about his trip was visiting with his grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles as well as visiting the many famous historical sites. For a portion of the visit the family stayed in Delhi, the capital of India. Karan commented that the cities in India were modernized but that most small villages are more undeveloped. He observed that in the smaller villages rickshaws were used for transportation. In larger, industrial areas modern trains, cars and auto-rickshaws, which are three wheeled motorized cars, were commonly used.

While in India, Karan’s family visited the Ganges River, a religious icon known throughout the world. The Ganges is 1,557 miles long and runs through most of India. It is known as a spiritual center serving many functions. It is a source of drinking water, as well as water used for bathing, baptisms, providing energy, industrial and agricultural use. The river is also used as a ceremonial site to release cremated remains.

Karan commented that while the weather in India was mild the day they visited the Ganges River the water was ice cold. “I’ve never felt such cold water. We didn’t go in, just put our feet in,” Karan said.

Another site that captured Karan’s interest was the modern day temple in Delhi known as the Lotus. The massive structure named after the lotus flower because of its architectural blossoming appearance provides a place of worship, a library and meeting rooms. Karan commented that he really enjoyed the surrounding outside area of the temple with its nine striking, aesthetic pools, bridges, walkways and gardens.

He was also fascinated by the contrasting structure of the Taj Mahal located in Agra. The enormous marble temple completed in 1648 employed 20,000 workers and took 22 years to construct. He marveled at the wondrous Taj Mahal saying, “I don’t know how they could have made it way back then because they didn’t have all the machines we have today.” Karan’s family purchased a small, handmade, marble replica of the Taj Mahal, which he brought in to share with his classmates.

The design of the Taj Mahal uses the arabesque concept; the principles of self-replicating geometrical and symmetrical architectural elements. Karan’s teacher, Ms Beaudry said that Karan’s replica of the Taj Mahal ties into the fifth grade curriculum by providing the students with an example of the math concepts of rotational and transitional symmetry that the class will soon be studying.