17 January 2010 Day 10

High

Riding an elephant was the high point of the day, definitely.  It was a great life experience, one that I will always remember about my trip to India.  How many people can say they’ve ridden an elephant?  Not many.  It was very cool to be up so high on the elephant.  I felt like I was riding around in the tree tops.  I’m glad to be able to say I’ve done it.

Low

When I say it’s dirty here, maybe it will drive the point home when I say that every time I blow my nose what comes out is black.  Be it smog or soot or dirt, the stuff is black.  And what is more, it smells like a campfire in my nose when I blow it.  This just can’t be healthy, to be breathing this in all the time.  I’m here for less than two weeks but there are millions that breathe this is their entire life.

Learning

I experienced the law of supply and demand first hand in the bargaining I’ve done for soveneirs.  Last night as all the vendors were packing up, I bargained with this woman to get an embroidered blanket for Rs. 500 (about $10).  When I got it back to my room, I realized that it would make a great gift so I went back the next day to get another one.  I knew I would be willing to pay Rs. 500 since that’s what I paid yesterday so I started offering Rs. 300 so that in the bargaining process I could arrive at Rs. 500.  However, today in the middle of the day with a lot of selling still ahead, the woman wouldn’t go lower than Rs. 630.  I had to walk half way down the street and keep coming back to get to that price.  So I finally paid it because I wanted the blanket and didn’t have all day to play these games.  As soon as I paid and started walking away with my blanket, another woman came up behind me to sell another of the same blanket for Rs. 400.  I didn’t want another one so I had to pass up the deal.  At night, when demand for the blanket was low and I was the only customer around, the price was low, Rs. 500.  During the day when there were lots of shoppers around, demand was high so the price was higher.  The woman could afford to lose my business if I wanted a lower price because there was still the potential to find someone else to pay the higher price.  When my demand was met when I bought the blanket, the overall demand decreased and so did the price.

16 January 2010 Day 9

High

There were so many highs today.  First, it was a beautiful sunny day.  Seeing the sun was as rare as it is in Central New York.  Delhi had been foggy or smoggy nearly every day of the trip so to have the warmth of the sun beating down was a welcome relief.

Another high for the day was seeing all the green pastures and fields on the way to Agra.  I hadn’t realized that we had mostly been in urban areas to this point but now I could see fields with crops growing.  There were some very lush areas.  This was a big change from what I’d experienced of India to this point.

Finally, seeing the Taj Mahal was amazing.  The architecture and design of the Taj Mahal itself as well as the surrounding buildings and structures is so detailed and precise.  When you factor in the technology of the time, it becomes even more phenomenal.  What I was really impressed to see is how the stones were designed to glow with the light of the moon.  When our tour guide held a flashlight to the stone inside the dark mausoleum part of the building, I began to have an even greater appreciation for the architectural genius of the place.  Seeing the Taj Mahal during the day must not do it justice since its full potential can only be realized in a full moon.  It must be breathtaking.

Low

The bus breaking down on the way was a real drag since it prevented us from seeing more while we were in Agra. I didn’t mind the wait so much since I had a lot of sleep to catch up on but when you’ve traveled so far to a country, you want to maximize your time as much as possible.

One other low point was eating at McDonalds  . . .  again.  However, I tried the Paneer Salsa Wrap this time and it was very good.

Learning

I’m almost embarrassed to admit it but I always though the Taj Mahal was a really super duper fancy hotel in India.  I guess I had this wonder of the world confused with one of the places that bears its name.  So to actually see the Taj Mahal and find out the Taj Mahal is a tomb was a major revelation.

I was glad to go the craft shop selling marble because they explained the extensive process of getting the colored stones into the marble.  It made me appreciate just how difficult is was to incorporate the black, red, and green stones that adorn so much of the Taj.

On a much lesser note, I finally found out why there are moth balls in many of the sink and shower drains in India.  The reason is the obvious one, to keep out rodents and cockroaches.  The reason this has puzzled me so much is that I’ve never seen them in the actual sink drain before and I’ve never seen them so widely used.  They were in our hotel drains and I’d seen them in several other bathrooms on the trip.  Actually, the smell of the moth balls still permeates some of my things that I brought to India.

15 January 2010 Day 8

High

The highlight of the day was partying with Professor Gupta’s family.  More dancing, more good times with great people.

Maybe this should to under learning but I’ve been surprised at how much the men like dancing.  My experience in the U.S. at dances and weddings is that the men are pretty reserved and the women usually dominate the dance floor.  It’s refreshing to see guys be so confident in their moves, it made me more comfortable to dance myself.

On top of that, I just couldn’t have felt more welcome at the Gupta home.  Everyone was committed to ensuring I was taken care of and having a good time.  I also go to speak to two of the ladies about their families.  One had an arranged marriage and the other didn’t.  The one that chose her husband met him while traveling started talking on the phone, then decided to get married.  She went on to explain that married life has had its challenges as she’s managed living with her in-laws, a career in banking, and caring for her one year old child.  These challenges must be universal because I could say those are all challenges I’ve faced in marriage too in one way or another.  Despite differences in our culture, gender, backgrounds, and nationality we can still find common ground in our experience as human beings.  At our core people are people.

Oh, I nearly forgot.  Another huge high for the day was finding homemade paper to give to my sister-in-law.  She’s an artist who loves working in paper and specializes in drawing flowers.  I found poster size sheets of handmade paper with flower petals pressed in them at Khadi Gramodyog Bhavan, a government run store in New Delhi.  I’m so terrible at buying souvenir gifts that to find something so perfect was overwhelming.

Low

The only thing I can think of was the disappointment of the HCL ODP site.  WE went out of our way to see what they claimed was a necessary view of their main operations and all we saw was a bunch of people at computer screens.  Even the presentation was largely uninteresting.  It took a lot of extra time to get there and then to get through security.  It was really only a small annoyance in the grand scheme of the trip

Learning

One learning point that I’ve experienced since I’ve been here but only no have put my finger on is service.  I stared to mention this in an earlier post and I think I have more to add on the topic.  Many of the places we’ve gone, we’ve been waited on.  At first it was nice as a luxury, then it was a little uncomfortable since I knew I was perfectly capable of doing it myself, and now I’ve gotten into a complacent acceptance of it.   Many, if not all of these tasks, I do for myself in the U.S. but in India there are people to do it for me. You can even pay someone to take you a few blocks in a bicycle rickshaw. I don’t think there’s any U.S. equivalent of such direct manual labor for hire. My conclusion, whether correct or not I don’t know, is that these services are available because labor is so cheap in India. Even those of modest means can pay for someone to bicycle them down the street so they don’t have to walk or get their shoes dusty. Even in the corporate offices that we visited, it’s still surprising that they can pay people to pour coffee or tea and set out water bottles and collect the dirty dishes. I haven’t been to many corporate offices in the U.S. but I don’t think they have these types of employees. When I first arrived, I was a little surprised by all the service we received and at the time I thought it was just some special treatment because we were guests or because of our large group but now I realize that this servant class of worker can be found just about everywhere.

Granted we do have service jobs in the U.S., you can pay to have a dinner catered for example and you can find people to shine your shoes and even middle of the road hotels sometimes have staff to take your plates or serve you breakfast from the buffet. Still, the spirit of the service I’ve received in India has been a step beyond that. In India it’s more like “leave your plates on the table, we’ll take care of that” where in the U.S. it’s “bring your plates to the dish return counter when you’re done with your meal.” I guess what I’m trying to say is that I felt like we had higher levels of service in India for lower status events/situations than you would typically receive in the U.S. and I’m still not 100% sure why that is.

14 January 2010 Day 7

High

We went to a religious site where they built enormous statues of the Hindu gods that were, if I had to guess, between four and six stores high.  What was so enjoyable about this stop on our tour was the beauty of the garden surrounding the statues.  So far I haven’t seen very many green spots on this trip, so it’s a treat to take them in when we come across them.

Another high point was the Pricewaterhouse Cooper speaker on the education industry.  I thought he was one of the best we’ve had on this trip.  He was engaging, fun to listen to, knowledgeable and confident.  This isn’t the industry of my case study but I was eager to ask him questions because he made me want to know more about education in India.

The last high of the day was back at the hotel, hanging out with some of the other people on this trip, just talking and relaxing together.  I got to know the people I’ve been spending the last seven days with better and got into really good, deep, and personal conversations.  I really enjoy this level of conversation and often it’s hard to come by.

Low

The low came at McDonalds where we stopped for dinner.  This wasn’t my choice for dinner but others were craving a familiar taste from back home.  My feeling is that I didn’t come all this way to India to eat at a restraint I could go to any day of the week in the U.S.  Not only that, but also I don’t even eat at McDonalds in the U.S. because the food is so lousy and bad for you.

In any case, I thought I thought I’d get the most of the experience and order the vegeburger value meal, something unique to an Indian McDonalds.  My meal came with a soda and without asking me, the server just gave me Coke with ice.  I would have preferred some other kind of soda and the ice made me too nervous to drink the Coke anyway.  Then I start eating my vegeburger.  The burger itself wasn’t bad, pretty strong on the curry though.  Then a few bites in I look at the lettuce on the burger and a lot of it was not fresh.  I’m talking wilted, soggy leaves here.  Apparently, McDonald’s food is lousy no matter where you go.

Learning

Regrettably, my learning experience for the day also comes from McDonalds.  Comparing Indian McDonalds to American McDonalds is pretty interesting.  When you first walk in you’ll notice that the décor is very nice, especially compared to the world outside the doors that’s dirty and has liter strewn about.  I had learned in Strategic Management that McDonalds is a luxury brand in India and that was true of my observations.

The next difference you might notice is the menu options.  There is no beef so the Big Mac doesn’t exist here.  In place of beef, you’ll find vegetarian options like the vegeburger I had or a paneer (an Indian cheese equivalent) salsa wrap.  Portions are also smaller.  I’m not sure if the size of the burgers is smaller but they may be.  A medium fries and drink are definitely smaller than in the U.S. so don’t expect as much food in your meal when ordering in India.  I tried Britney’s chicken nuggets and even those aren’t quite the same.  I find it intriguing that so much varies in their stores abroad when I thought McDonalds tries to have a high degree of continuity in its products worldwide down to the look and feel of their stores and taste of the vegetables in their food.

13 January 2010 Day 6

High

The high for today is easy.  Celebrating Lohri with the Gupta family was so much fun.  The way everything was decorated was beautiful and everyone was all about dancing around the fire.  I love dancing so this was great to be surrounded by other people who enjoy dancing as much as I do.  What added to the enjoyment of the night was seeing familiar faces from Professor Gupta’s family that we had met earlier on the trip.  I felt like a reunion when I saw his brother who we met the first day of the trip and Sahil, his cousin who went ton the bicycle tour with us.

Low

After spending a good chunk of the day at DSCL and asking an exhaustive amount of questions, and my entire team asking really good questions, no obvious problem or turning point emerged for the basis of writing our case on Hariyali Kisaan Bazaar.

The company decided to enter rural markets.  We already heard at LPU that this was a market that’s untapped and has huge growth potential.  Before we left, I even asked the president of the company directly if the company had any forks in the road that they were approaching.  The answer was that the company has already gotten through many of them and was now on a straight trajectory.  It seems as if everything’s tied up in a nice neat little package.  One thing that may be useful is that after quite a bit of digging, I found out Hariyali stores need to capture 2% of the market to be profitable but are getting less than that.  In other words, of the 300 stores, some are profitable, some are breaking even, and some are not profitable.  What the company is doing now is to evaluate each store’s performance and how they can get them to all be profitable.  This is definitely worth exploring more for the case study since it meant that this entrepreneurial effort is not out of the woods as far as being a successful venture.

Learning

The presentations on Hariyali stores was excellent in teaching me about how this business went after a segment of the population that was under served and showing signs of growth.  Moreover, the growth from this rural market is expected to be so large that they expect that they can capture the percent of the market they need to be profitable and still coexist with mom and pop stores currently in place (at least in the short term, long term they may grow large enough to start forcing out competition).

**You’ll notice that I’m not including links to my pictures for today or any of the following days of this trip since I lost the flash drive that I saved them all on and hadn’t uploaded them to Facebook yet.  I suppose this fits well under learning.  Don’t put all your eggs in one basket and back up, back up, back up. A hard lesson but a lesson learned.  Thank God for Facebook tagging.

12 January 2010 Day 5

In order to be more structured in these posts and avoid missing important learning points of the trip in the recounting of mundane details, I’m switching to a new format. From here on out, I’ll focus on the high or highlight of the day, the low, and something new I learned.

High
Seeing the Infosys campus was incredible. I was so impressed by all that they offer their employees including a beautiful cafeteria, gym, gaming rooms, music rooms, swimming pool, bank, and grocery store aside from just being an esthetically pleasing place. It was inspiring to experience a company that seems to value their employees and want to take care of them. This also extends to their families that can use the facilities on the weekend. Of course, I don’t know how this actually plays out for employees. I’d be interesting to speak to one to find out if they have the time to utilize these facilities and services and if these perks come at the price of grueling hours. At face value these benefits made me want to work for a company that can provide such extensive fringe benefits. It made me want to work hard in school so I can be competitive enough to get a job where the employer will take care of me once I’m hired. I heard the statistics about how many Infosys applicants are made offers, less than 3%. That means a huge amount of competition and trying to stand out enough to be in the top 3%. Seeing a company like this, makes me think that it would be worth the effort now so that I could be happy in the job I do.

Low
I think the low for the day was all the time on the bus and getting back to the hotel late. Even with two seats to myself, I never really got comfortable on the bus. This doesn’t mean I couldn’t sleep because I can fall asleep anywhere but I was never comfortable.

Learning
Today was the first day I realized that I’ve gotten awfully comfortable being served here in India. From the person pouring hot milk on my cereal in the morning to the person serving me tea or coffee in the afternoon to the young boy who’s shining my shoes to the person butlering hors d’oeuvres before dinner, I’ve gotten very used to people waiting on me.  It’s been really nice since I have to do pretty much everything myself back home.

In a way, I feel like we get special treatment or respect in India because we’re American.  At the Auto Show I was asking a Suzuki representative about their motorcycles and he gave me his full and complete attention and answered my questions with the utmost respect.  After the exchange, I couldn’t figure out why because I’m just a young guy.  I wasn’t even dressed in a suit.  I just got the feeling that it had to do with looking Western and that maybe he thought I was wealthy based on that.  I wish I could put into words but it’s more of a feeling I get wherever we go.  Maybe it’s that when I try to think of if roles were reversed and there was a group of Indian students touring the U.S., I can’t imagine them getting the same respect we’ve gotten here.  Could you find 3 or 4 U.S. companies that would so generously host Indian college students, provide lunch and refreshments, do a whole presentation on their business then entertain questions?  If I had to guess, the answer would be no.

I don’t have proof or even anecdotal evidence but I just can’t help thinking that our Indian counterparts would not be as welcomed or respected in the U.S. as we have been in India.  That could be a product of a developed nation verses a developing nation or something else.

The Golf Club where the Dean's family generously hosted a reception for us.

The MBA students at the Golf Club

Pictures from Day 5 There’s not many since we couldn’t take pictures at Infosys.

11 January 2010 Day 4

This morning the LPU students and staff gave us a tour of LPU’s campus and spent most of the morning in a conference room listening to the University Vice Chancellor talk about the University and answer our questions about India and LPU.  One of the most important things I took away from what he said was, “There’s no one way to live.  People live in different kinds of ways.”  This really gave me pause as I began to consider that there may be nothing wrong with some of the poverty (or what I’m considering poverty) that I’ve perceived on this trip.  Some of the poverty is certainly a problem, like the children begging in the streets but previously I was lumping them in with those who own small shops and vendors stands on the sidewalks just because they look poor to me.  The Vice Chancellor’s comments helped me to start differentiating the truly abject poverty that’s problematic here.

Another speaker we heard from was Vishal Sarin, a senior lecturer in economics at LPU.  I thought he did a terrific job putting numbers to the kind of growth and economic development India is experiencing.  Some of the more impressive numbers were India’s 8% GDP growth by 2006-2007 and only slightly smaller percent growth in regent years, stunted by the economic recession.  Also, the figures for the growing middle class and the 47 million person surplus of working age people in India compared to the 17 million person shortage in the U.S.  Talking to Professor Sarin after his lecture, he commented on how poverty is defined.  If a person is content making Rs. 20,000 a year, he said he wouldn’t consider them poor.  While this view isn’t completely satisfying to me, it does help me understand that everyone I see who is selling their wares on the street next to a pile of garbage may not be suffering but satisfied with their lot in life.

The last speaker was Mr. Navein Junega, director of Academia Industry Interface.  As he was speaking, I became very curious how LPU funded buying 600 acres of land when we’ve been hearing how expensive Indian land is.  The answer I got was that they have a good history of paying their loans so banks are more than willing to lend to them but since they’re the first private university in the country, the money had to come from an existing source, namely their “promoter,” the Lovely group.  What I take away from this is just how successful and how deep the pockets are of the Lovely group.

We broke for lunch and I finally got to meet Pawandeep, by e-buddy.  Not only did I get to meet Pawandeep, but also some of her friends.  It was so nice to finally put a face to the name and be able to ask questions and get answers about Indian culture in real time.  Unfortunately, our time together was brief because circumstances prevented her from coming into town with us.  I’m still not exactly sure why but she said that she wasn’t part of the LPU group going with us.

Following lunch, we departed for Jalandhar and the most popular Hindi temple in India.  Thankfully, I had also been paired with Eliza as an e-buddy and she became my guide through the temple along with Caroline and her e-buddy, Deepna.  I’m glad I had an Indian with me to help me participate in the rituals and understand the Gods they pray to.  Adrienne lent me her scarf to cover my head (our e-buddies said this was customary in the temple and shrines) and I’m pretty sure it earned me a “special blessing” in the form of a garland necklace of flowers from the priest at the first temple.  I was impressed by how much our e-buddies knew about their beliefs and with the level of delight in which they explained them to Caroline and me.  I asked them what their prayers are to the Gods.  Quite similar to my own prayers, they ask the Gods to watch over their families, for calm, and for money.

Next we stopped at Lovely Auto Sales where we learned more about the auto market.  Lovely Auto sells Muruto Suzuki cars and Bajaj motorcycles (two wheelers as they call them).  They chose to sell Muruto because they had the largest market share, about 80% at the time Lovely was getting into the auto business.  This was a wise decision since Indians are looking to buy cars they can get service and spare parts for easily.  The more popular a brand is the easier and cheaper they would be able to do repairs since the market would be so large.  That being said, customers’ first question when buying a car is how much fuel the car uses.  It sounds like cost of ownership is a huge factor when Indians buy cars.  Even so, there’s a threshold since in the middle part of the market that Lovely caters to, people don’t want to spend enough for an electric or hybrid car.  Another aspect of the market related to the growing middle class and increasing wealth of all Indians is that all motor vehicle sales are on the rise.  Bicycle owners are upgrading to motorcycles or scooters, motorcycle/scooter owners are upgrading to cars, and car owners are buying bigger cars or additional cars.

The Lovely group has certainly positioned itself to capitalize on the growing buying power and expenditures of the Indian people from going on to higher education to upgrading their vehicle.  This family owned company has been ahead of the curve in terms of foreseeing what industries were/are about to bloom in India.

The Lovely Sweet Shop was our next stop, just down the street from Lovely Auto Sales.  Sweets in India include cookie confections made from milk and sugar as well as salty types of cookies.  The shop was packed with patrons buying sweets.  The frenzy inside to buy sweets and the workers outside, packing the goods in shining wrapping paper all looked like something out of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  The sweets we sampled were very good and like nothing I’ve had before.  Others in our group agreed and had to decline more samples because they had already eaten so many.  We met with the Lovely brother who runs the shop discussing strategies he could use to bring his sweets to the U.S. market.  My idea was to introduce them at state fair booths since people are looking to try something new and exotic at these events.  He got many good suggestions from our group including universal disapproval of his own idea to market them at 7-eleven stores.  Everyone agreed his product was more suited for marketing as a luxury item that should be sold at a boutique-type shop.

Following Lovely Sweets we were off to a restaurant for dinner.  The restaurant had exhibits of ancient Indian culture with live demonstrations.  Caroline and my e-buddy insisted we try water balls.  After trying to politely refuse, I finally gave in.  I was already getting nauseous as I watched an Indian family ahead of us inhale these small pastry shells filled with a cold, watery, spicy liquid.  They ate them whole even though they would take up nearly all the space in your mouth then sipped the remaining liquid in their dish.  When my turn came, I got it down as fast as I could.  Up to this point, I didn’t realize the liquid was cold.  That was the first surprise.  The second surprise was the spice burn in your throat after you swallowed.  I’ve been able to stomach everything we’ve been served on this trip but this was nasty.

Finally, we went in for some Punjabi food.  It was the same large-metal-dish-with-five-metal-cup setup but the sauces and vegetable mixes in the cups were different than we’ve had before.  Gujrati food is still my favorite for its sweetness but this was also good.  The rice pudding for desert however, was a little strong.  There’s some spice that shows up in many Indian deserts.  If it’s too strong, I can’t enjoy it.  I’ve been asking around as to what it is but haven’t found anyone who can identify it.  Very different than anything I’ve tasted.

Even though it had been a long day, it wasn’t over yet.  We went back to LPU for another bonfire, dancing and early Lohri celebration with our e-buddies.  Lohri is a Punjabi holiday to mark the end of the harsh winter.  We were served peanuts and “sweets” (tiny sweet cookies with sesame seeds) to throw into the fire while making a wish or asking for a blessing.  We moved around the bonfire in a circle, everyone throwing their food into the fire.  Our e-buddies sang the songs to mark the day.

Our e-buddies also organized a round of musical chairs, complete with prizes for the winners.  I was really taken with how they went out of their way to make sure we had a good time.  WE danced around the fire for a while longer then headed back to the dorms (hostiles as they call them).  I’m not sure if I mentioned this earlier but the LPU students explained that the bucket in the shower is how to bath with hot water.  Since hot water doesn’t flow through the shower head, you fill the bucket with hot water from the tub spigot and dump it over you with the cup.  That bucket in our hotel room had a purpose after all!

Pictures from Day 4

10 January 2010 Day 3

I was up at the crack of dawn today to go on a bicycle tour through Old Delhi. On the way, I noticed all these lumps of cloth on the sidewalks and quickly realized that they were people, sleeping. Some stretches of sidewalk had 10 to 15 bodies spaced a few feet apart all in a row. There are also these little fires on every corner where men are crouched around them keeping warm. I’ve never seen anything quite like this. And when I say little, I mean, no more than 8 or 10 inches across and mostly just coals smoldering than actual flames. Granted, we kept hearing that his was the coldest this area has been in two decades or more but these fires in the streets still seemed somewhat commonplace to the Delhites.

The bike tour turned out to be a phenomenal experience for a couple of reasons. One, I love riding a bike, especially on new, challenging routes. This was certainly new and probably the most challenging biking I’ve ever done. I’m no cycling pro but I’ve done a fair share of biking both on and off road but nothing compares to this. The first challenge is avoiding hitting people that are in front, behind and beside you. The second challenge is the traffic that’s also on all sides of you, coming in both directions. Third, you’re not going very fast in places where the streets are really congested so keeping the bike balanced takes real skill. Lastly, some of the alleyways we ventured down were so narrow you had to make sure you didn’t hit the walls.

The second reason it was such a great experience and I would recommend it to anyone who wanted to experience the India is that you got a very up close and personal feel for the people and city. I was literally rubbing elbows with the local people and taking in all the sights, sounds, and smells of this very new and foreign country. One of the first sights, sounds, smells, was a butcher area where there was animal blood running in the street, bins of raw meat all around, and a man carrying a rack of ribs as big as a card table balanced on his head. We had been touring mostly as a group so I had felt somewhat insulated from the environment around me because I had the security of 28 familiar faces. On the bike tour we traveled in a single file line so I was in much closer contact to my surroundings and I didn’t have Professor Gupta nearby to translate when someone spoke to me in Hindi.

I was trying to imagine what this troupe of Americans on bicycles looked like to the Indians in the streets. We must have been quite a spectacle for all the stares we received. However, no one seemed to mind because we received friendly greetings the whole way (although the girls in our group did get some cat calls and oos by masses of men in the street). I saw a lot more poverty and food vendors that didn’t appear to have any standard for cleanliness. A good example of this that I saw time and time again with street food vendors is one of the vendors washing bowls or utensils in this murky colored water which was then dumped into the street. To help balance out my perspective on India, we did pass a very nice housing district that was clean and the homes cared for. It reminded me of some of the neighborhoods I’ve seen in Los Angles. It was very refreshing to see that Delhi has nicer parts with property values of Rs. 200,000,000 ($455,000).

A nicer section of the city

I’m also starting to realize that the standard of living here is not less than it is in the U.S., it’s just different. The measure of wealth is different so it’s difficult to compare. Our tour guide told us how famous the markets were that we passed through but to me, they look like the most impoverished areas of any major U.S. city. I’m also glad that I got a taste for how our tour guide sees India. He’s not a native so he has an outsider’s perspective like me but he’s come to appreciate the beautiful architecture and beauty of the buildings we passed when all I see is that they’re run down and dirty. He pointed out the columns on one building and the intricate design of another. He saw through the dirt that I was so fixated on. Another break through for me was that I actually saw pile of garbage being collected into a push cart. I was beginning to think there was no garbage collection at all.

After the bike ride we were back on the bus to go to Lovely Professional University. As we traveled, it felt so odd to be driving on the left side of the road. I still haven’t gotten used to it. On the way, I saw men peeing on the side of the street the whole way. This has been a very common occurrence throughout the trip.
We received a warm welcome off the bus from our e-buddies and staff from LPU. It was a bit awkward at first, but one by one we started introducing ourselves and pairing off with our e-buddies. I didn’t get a chance to introduce myself before we were ushered inside for a formal welcome and dinner. I quickly found out from another e-buddy that mine, Pawandeep, was not able to come because she was preparing for an exam the next day.

After dinner, we went outside for a bonfire and popular dancing that was remarkably similar to dancing in the U.S. The Indian students seemed to have many actual dance moves whereas the American students just move to the music. It was hard to think of dances in the U.S. to teach the Indian students since we don’t really have them. I think we did impart some U.S. culture on the Indians students although we took away a lot more from them.

Pictures from Day 3

9 January 2010 Day 2

The day got off to a really good start.  We went to the India Gate, the national monument of India honoring Indian soldiers. 

There was actually a lot going on around the Gate as preparations were being made for the 26 January parade commemorating the signing of India’s constitution.  We saw a military marching band and a whole brigade of soldiers practicing marching.  The best part was when Melissa starting dancing with some school girls in full school uniform.  Other school girls and our American students joined in and it was truly a cultural exchange.  What I really liked the most was watching the Indian men who were observing this interaction and smiling.  I felt like I was being accepted in this country, given some kind of approval that it was okay for me, an American, to be visiting here.  It really helped me relax that my presence here was not being taken by everyone as threatening somehow.  I’m not quite sure why I felt that way in the first place.  Maybe it’s just being on my guard since I’m obviously different from everyone else around me or maybe I know too well how Americans sometimes look at foreigners in America (it’s not always very positively).

Next we were off to the 2010 Auto Show.  My group and I spent most of the day in the Suzuki pavilion.  There was so much to do.  They had performance after performance.  On a side stage, they had a Canadian juggler.  Then on the main stage they had performers dancing with umbrellas and banners.  Jess got to test drive one of the new models in a complete car simulator and we all jumped in a photo booth before leaving. 

As I roamed around, I kept asking myself what the car makers get out of their expenses here.  I’m sure half the people looking around had no intention of actually buying the cars on display if and when they come to market.  My guess is that it’s good exposure for new products but at least some of the cars we looked at weren’t even coming to market.  They were just concept cars.  My other guess is that car manufacturers have to show up to at least be represented as a player in the market.

A couple of things I noticed are that fuel efficiency is on the minds of manufactures in terms of making plug in cars or using fuel cells or just getting the most miles to a Liter and there are a lot more makes of car offered in India, for example Tata and Skoda.  I was also surprised to see Landrovers on display since my first thought is there wouldn’t be any market for them on the crowded Indian streets I’d seen so far.  I suppose I was forgetting that my perspective on India was still fairly limited and there were many other geographic regions of the country that would be more conducive to driving a Landrover.

By afternoon, the car show got extremely crowded and I just got pushed through several exhibits because people were shoulder to shoulder making their way through the pavilions.  I don’t think I’ve ever been to an event so crowded.  I literally left like I was in a river of people getting tossed around by the current.  Thankfully, outside there was still a lot to do and our group took in a dirt bike show presented by Honda.  Very cool.

After the auto show, we stopped at the Lotus temple on the way back to the hotel.  I was struck by the austereness of the temple compared to the lavishness of most of the Catholic cathedrals I’ve seen.  The architectural design of the Lotus temple is just beautiful from the outside.  Inside is very plain with the unadorned gray stone/concrete extending upward around you.  In contrast, Catholic churches seem to fill every vacant space with some icon or picture of a saint or depiction of a bible story.  Regardless of the decoration or lack there of, I felt the presence of God so strongly in the silence inside the temple.  It was such a contrast to the hustle and bustle of the world outside and every blaring horn on the streets.  Even looking skyward up to the peak of the temple brought a powerful sense of the infinite.  I would have liked to spend half a day just sitting there in the presence of God but I don’t think the rest of the group would have felt the same.

Back at the hotel, I finally got on-line and it was big relief to be able to send e-mail home as well as feel connected to the rest of the world.  I even got to chat with my wife on G-mail.  Certainly no substitute for a phone call but it was better than nothing.

We went out for dinner and I picked the sweet Gujarati food over the spicier Rajashtani meal.  I was extremely happy with my choice.  I really like the sweetness of the food that I had not experienced yet in anything else I’d eaten in India.  My favorite was a milky dip with chilies in it.

I was really overwhelmed navigating through the bazaar at night.  It seemed like there was more happening around me than my senses could take in and process all at once.  There were people and vehicles coming at me from every direction.  It was helpful to see this seemingly impoverished area during the day come alive at night as a business district.  To me, it was a total transformation.

Pictures from Day 2

8 Jan. 2010 Day 1

Woke up, took a cold shower (if they had heated water in the hotel, I didn’t get any). Breakfast was fine, even the corn flakes with hot milk.

Professor Gupta took us on a tour around the block where our hotel is. My eyes were really opened because I got to see people warming themselves around small fires burning on the side of the road or on the sidewalk. I saw the girls coming to school on rickshaws or riding side-saddle on a motorcycle or scooter or crammed into busses (more like minivans reminiscent of 1970 VW busses).

We saw people getting their milk for the day at the dairy shop and most surprising, got to feel the traffic whizzing by us, honking constantly.

Later in the day we drove into Delhi to go the American Center. On the way I noticed that there are vendors on the sidewalk every 20 steps. I also saw cripples and poor people begging on the street, children going around asking to shine your shoes. And the dogs. They roam free. If I didn’t know better I would think they were considered as sacred as cows for how undisturbed they are by passersby.

I thought starting the tour at the American Center was good in that it gave me the perspective of two Americans who have been living in India for an extended period of time. The two women who spoke to us about their jobs at the American Center were once in our shoes, setting foot in India for the first time and absorbing everything around them.

The next stop was the Parliamentary Museum where I got a very helpful overview of India’s history from their multimedia exhibit. It told in picture and word what I read in t “Understanding Contemporary India.”

Somewhat haphazardly, we meandered across the street and visited a Sikh temple. I really appreciated hearing that the Sikh’s offer free meals to anyone who wants to come. I was getting very overwhelmed by all the poverty I’ve seen already and am glad to know that there are people here that are trying to address this obvious problem.

The day concluded with a grand welcome by the staff at our hotel. I felt like an authentic Indian after I received my garland of flowers and red dot on my forehead. The spirit of hospitality from the hotel personnel was amazing to provide such a welcome for our group. It felt very warm indeed.

Back at the hotel, I tried paying for the phone call home I made yesterday but the language barrier caused confusion over how much I owed. The women at the desk insisted that I owed 40 rupees. When I explained that there was a receipt somewhere behind the desk with the exact amount I owed, she looked for it but couldn’t find it. I reluctantly paid the 40 rupees even though I thought the call cost closer to 26. I figured it was better just to pay it and be done with it. After paying, I asked for a receipt so I had proof that I actually paid. The woman told me I could get a receipt tomorrow.

Back in my room, I still couldn’t connect to the internet which was very frustrating since I wanted to at least be able to e-mail my wife at home and maybe even buy a calling card on-line so I could forgo having to deal with the front desk for making calls. I couldn’t figure out if it was something with my computer or with the wireless network. Either way I felt very disconnected from my world back home.

Pictures from the first (full) day of the trip. You’ll notice a picture of the girls going to school, the milk stand, and some “nice” exposed public urinals. I guess privacy comes at a price.

Day 1 Photos

And a video of me and my first impressions of India as I walk the streets. I think I should have added that it smells like the nutman in NYC but mixed with garbage because it wasn’t a really good smell.

Day 1 Video