Among millions, a blank slate
This is the fourth in a series about Harvard’s interdisciplinary work at the Kumbh Mela, a religious gathering that every 12 years creates the world’s largest pop-up city. ALLAHABAD, India — Tiona Zuzul and Vaughn Tan were stumped. Walking along a crowded thoroughfare in the afternoon fog, they stopped to argue over the cacophony of motorcycles engines, distant drumming, and loudspeakers blaring Hindi chants. The sight that captured their interest wouldn’t have fazed the average observer. On one stretch of dusty road, vendors were lined up along corrugated metal dividers selling the same thing: aloo chaat, a snack of curried potatoes, which they scooped from the same large, flat pans for customers. To the two doctoral students at Harvard Business School (HBS) — Zuzul studies strategy and Tan is pursuing a joint Ph.D. in sociology — the set-up was downright bizarre. “These look like the same potatoes, cut the same way, prepared with...