By Isabel Tadmiri ‘21, Keystone Foundation Fellow

On the streets of Kotagiri, buses take the right of way. Green, blue, or pink mighty metal, they barrel down the roads. No matter if they’re hairpin or straight, narrow or wide, paved or unpaved: the roads are the bus’s roads. Buses go along, with thankfully and incredibly accurate metal-muscle-memory. A bus comes by, trees sweep their branches aside, and cars pull over to make extra space that you didn’t even know existed on such a narrow road. Their loud honks are loud, so I usually manage not to skim my shoulder on these big buses when I walk down the street to and from work, even though they are so close to me.

By Isabel Tadmiri ‘21, Keystone Foundation Fellow

Did you know that it takes 12 bees their entire lifetime to make one teaspoon of honey? I found this out recently. And maybe it’s because I imagined bees buzzing around for their whole lives together, or because I heard about Madurai fellow Phoebe’s new bottle full of honey shattering! Maybe it is because it seems like there is no end to my learning about new layers of the hard beautiful work behind drops of honey. Or maybe (as my co-fellow Reet makes fun of me, lovingly and in true familiar Obie fashion) it’s because I’m a cancer—but when I learned about the 12 bees, I teared up.