This armchair tour starts in the southeast Indian state of Tamil Nadu, visiting three sites on the coast of the Bay of Bengal: Chennai, formerly the British city Madras, now India’s 4th largest city with 7 million people; Mamallapuram, a UNESCO World Heritage site of 7-8th century Hindu monuments; and the former French seaside colony Pondicherry, now Puducherry.

From there we go inland to visit the Hindu Brihadeshwara temple to the god Shiva, a pilgrimage site since 1010 CE in Tanjore.

Then we go west to Vellore, a city barely touched by tourists, to see a fort, golden temple, and the 2,858-bed Hospital Vellore known for its high-quality innovative care for the wealthy and persons in abject poverty alike.

We end our tour with a ride on a houseboat in the backwaters of the seaport Kochi, formerly Cochin, in the state of Kerala that faces the Arabian Sea.

Nurse-anthropologist and Penn’s Village Member Marjorie Muecke taught a course in comparative health systems of India and the U.S. for nine years, which culminated in nursing students’ experiences and observations of health care in Tamil Nadu, India. Marjorie received her Master’s Degree in Nursing from New York University, and a Master of Arts and PhD in Anthropology from the University of Washington. She has taught at UCLA, Washington, and Penn, and abroad in Botswana, India, Indonesia (with WHO), and Thailand.