Our days in India were so eventful that I did not have a chance to post on the blog while we were there.  However, I recorded some of my thoughts in a notebook so that I could reflect upon them.  The following were my day to day thoughts.

Day 1:

After waking up early following the thirteen hour plane ride, we walked around New Delhi.  It was surprisingly chilly and foggy.  We were en route to the American Center, where we went through our first of many metal detectors on our trip.  For much of the trip, the high level of security gave some places a different feel than if security had been less noticeable.

At the American center, we were lectured about the center itself and the relationship between the United States and India.  I learned that the United States and India do have a good diplomatic relationship, despite the strong bond between India and the Soviet Union due to India’s socialist past.  We then went out for a delicious vegetarian lunch, where I experienced Thali for the first time.  I also had some buttermilk, which was much less enjoyable.  We also visited the Parliament Museum, which I found to be rather boring.  At night, a few of us took the metro into New Delhi for a drink.  The metro was surprisingly clean and modern.

Day 2:

First thing in the morning, we visited the India arc.  The presence of the ITBP added to the experience at the monument.  We watched this group parade in front of schoolchildren along the road.  The friendliness and excitement of these children to see us touched me.  I have a full conversation in English with one of the older students, who was extremely polite and well spoken; I was graciously welcomed to India.  After watching the a dance off between Melissa and a couple of the schoolgirls, we boarded the bus, and headed to the auto expo.

The auto expo taught me about the Indian auto market.  Many of the companies focused on fuel efficient, small models.  I also saw the “Nano” for the first time, which is projected to be the cheapest car on the market.  I don’t know how successful the car will be in America; I’m not sure if it will even be street-legal with the bare bones safety features.  As the day went on, the expo became extremely crowded; the biggest exhibits became completely overrun by the rush.  After we left the auto expo, we visited the lotus temple.  The architecture was amazing; the gardens, bright blue pools, unique building, and silence inside the temple created a truly serene environment.  Later, we had an all you can eat dinner with some friends of Professor Gupta’s friends.

Day 3:

On the third day, some of the members of our group took a bike tour through Old Delhi.  This gave us a first person view of a very old fashioned, crowded, and poverty stricken region of the city.  Much of the bike tour took us not through streets, but on alleyways.  The meat district was incredibly unsanitary.  We passed a bucket filled with the brains of slain animals and watched as huge, bloody slabs of pork were thrown in the back of a pickup truck and covered with a tarp.  We also got a 360 degree view of the city from a rooftop of a resident of the area.  On a bike was the perfect way to see the city.  It was better than walking or in a car because were able to quickly move around without getting hassled, yet also saw many places not accessible by car.  The bike tour ended at a delicious eatery that was small and hidden.  After the bike tour, we immediately went on the eight hour bus ride to Lovely Professional University in Jalandhar.  It was great seeing the environment change outside the bus as we traveled from Delhi through Punjab.

When we arrived at LPU, we were greeted graciously by Ebuddies and some staff.  Unfortunately, my ebuddy was not present.  I enjoyed the mildly spicy vegetarian dinner, talked to the other ebuddies, and danced around the campfire.  It was fun.  We later headed to the “hostels”, which were split between men and women.  I did not appreciate the high level of security or the strict limitations on the freedom of students.  Not being allowed to smoke, drink, or eat meat, as well as having curfews even?  Attending a school is not appealing to me.  Moreover, the metal detectors, locks on the outside of the doors, and armed security guards made the dorms seem like a prison.  On top of this, because the hallways were open to the outside and there were screens above the doors, winter breezes heavily chilled our room.

Day 4:

We attended a seminar after a quick tour of the campus.  It was still relatively foggy and chilly.  The discussion raised some interesting issues for LPU.  The difficulty of an emerging private university in India was made apparent.  Despite this, in ten year, LPU grew to the largest private university in India, and plans to add another 15,000 students in the next few years.                While I was impressed by the growth, I felt that overall, the school had too much of a profit driven attitude.  This was apparent when I asked the question about helping students pay for school based on need.  The vice-chancellor stated that there is no need based assistance, and no moves towards expanding the role of the university in social responsibility.

Our opinions were greatly valued during this discussion.  Overall, we were treated very well at LPU.  Later that day, we took the bus and met our ebuddies at a temple in Jalandhar.  Despite my freezing feet, this temple was one of the highlights of my trip.  We visited different little shrines within the temple, all with a unique story behind them.  It was a very interesting glimpse into the Hindu religion.  Also, Annie and I had a discussion with Professor Gupta about different embodiments of God across religions.  The parallels between all major religions involving the value of moral living and belief in one God personified in various was astounding.

After the temple, we visited two other business ventures of the Lovely group, a sweets shop and an auto dealership.  We then returned to LPU for dinner and another night around the bonfire.

Day 5:

On the way back from Jalandhar, we stopped in Chandigarh to visit Infosys.  I was extremely impressed by the campus there.  The buildings were all new, clean, and well designed.  I was also very impressed by how well they treat their employees, providing them with a gym, pool, racquetball courts, and guitar lessons.  The importance of keeping employees satisfied was a common theme across all the business we visited, especially in light of the fact that the employees themselves were the most important asset of the companies.  Human capital is an interesting concept, as it is very different from traditional forms of business such as manufacturing.

I loved the food at Infosys, but a large part of this could be that it was the first time I was able to eat meat in days.  Overall, I was very content with how we were treated at this company campus.  In retrospect, it was the most meaningful of the company visits that I experienced.

After Infosys, we met Dean Dhillon’s family at a golf club for a reception.  They were all so friendly.  They were not only very interested in what we had to say, but also were interesting in themselves.  For example, the Dean’s father told us stories about the time he spent in the British armed forces in Lebanon and Israel.  The food was great.  Possibly most importantly, this day was one of the first opportunities I had to have in depth one on one conversations with the Dean, who I have come to admire.

Day 6:

On Wednesday, we visited the DSCL company site.  They were very nice.  I appreciated the effort they put into making us feel at home (ie black coffee and chicken sandwiches).  This company marketed themselves to the rural and farming populations of India.  I found this interesting because Mom-and-Pop stores have an overwhelming dominance over that market.  Moreover, I was impressed that DSCL had both production of materials such as sugar, as well as stores.  They were also very efficient in dealing with waste, such as using excess vegetable remains for fuel.

Later that night, we visited the residence of some of Professor Gupta’s family.  Fishers on the bus? What a great way to start the night.

They were such good hosts! I had a lot of fun celebrating Lohri, although I honestly didn’t know what the meaning of this celebration was.  We danced around the fire to authentic Indian drumbeats, rode rickshaws, and were served rounds of appetizers.  I was too full to eat dinner (which is not very characteristic of me) simply because I ate so much of the hors d’oeuvres!  It was delicious, and the Professor’s family was unbelievably nice.  It was good to know we would see them again later in the trip.

Day 7:

We went on to visit the PriceWaterhouse Coopers office.  This was in a beautiful, modern building, which was surrounded by many other gigantic office structures.  The people at PWC were very knowledgable about role of India in the global market.

Part of the lecture we had at PWC greatly frightened me.  To make a long story short, the one speaker theorized that professional Americans would be losing their jobs to their Indian counterparts, while fields that cater to old people, such as nursing, will grow in America.  This future does not appeal to me.

We got out of PWC relatively late.  The traffic in Old Delhi was supposed to be bad, so we took the metro to get close to the Red Fort.  We barely made it to the light and sound show.  The Red Fort is amazing; I would love to have fully explored it during the day.

Day 8:

On Friday we visited the company HCL.  It was another IT company, smaller than Infosys in market shares.  We were there only for a short time.  They reiterated many of the ideas stated by other companies, such as the value of human capital, resulting in keeping employees engaged and feeling connected to the company.  Some of their specific strategies for this sounded fun, such as the online contests for Ipods.

That night we had a dinner party at the home of the “local entrepreneur,” whom we met at the Gupta residence.  Their family was in the diamond industry. Their house was pretty impressive, with tons of intriguing little statues and figurines.  Moreover, it towered to 4 floors (if my memory serves me correctly) and had a large outdoor balcony.  The people there were a lot of fun.  I got to talk a lot with a few of them, and even dance with one of the ladies.  These hosts were very receptive to us, and I could tell they truly enjoyed our presence.  They loved flip cup.  Everyone in our group who stayed a little later had a great time.

Day 9:

After driving home late, and in totally blinding fog, we woke up to drive to Agra.  It was quite a long bus ride.  We stopped at McDonalds for lunch.  Ironically, the only times I got felt sick on the trip was when I ate McDonalds.  Finally, we got to Agra and parked the bus about a mile from the Taj Mahal.  We rode a camel cart part of the way to the grounds.  I found the workers here, especially the camel driver and then the junk selling children, to be incredibly nagging for tips or sales.  While I understand that this is the way they make money, I felt that they were more like beggars than workers.  Once entering the Taj Mahal complex, the group split up, and Annie and I went on to explore by ourselves.  The building itself, as well as the grounds, were unbelievable.  The main building was so huge yet so detailed, making it an incredibly beautiful work of architecture.  In order to get a full, genuine experience of the temple, we took our shoes off.  This proved to be a mistake, as someone made off with my sandals.  I should have worn the shoe-covers.  Despite this, the Taj Mahal was a great part of the trip.  Upon leaving the Taj complex, we again were sacked by begging children.  They even chased the bus as we drove away!  We then embarked on the 5 or 6 hour drive back to the hotel.

Day 10:

By Sunday, we needed to have some time where we weren’t too busy or traveling.  Fortunately, we got this, and at the perfect time.  Later in the day, we visited the Akshardham Temple.  It was possibly the coldest and foggiest day yet.  The temple was absolutely amazing, especially since this huge complex was built in only 5 years.  However, I think the weather hindered the enjoyment of the group.  I found it interesting that there is similar temples around the world, in places such as the United Kingdom, Russia, and Chicago.  The sculptures around the temple were very detailed, and told interesting stories.  While I am sure our guide would have provided me with an answer to this question, I wondered why so much money and effort went into the subsidiary parts of the complex, such as the various interactive statues and videos during the indoor tour.  I would love to know the total cost of the building.  In terms of the religion itself, I agreed with many of the morals it valued.  I also liked that they respected and revered intellectuals, prophets, and thinkers from other religions and cultures.  I very much enjoyed the boat tour; it showed us a brief history of India in terms of scholastic advances.

Day 11:

On Monday, I awoke, packed, and headed out to finish my shopping.  Through much haggling, I got everything I wanted, and at the right prices.  We went to KFC for lunch; we only went in because it looked more like a trendy club than a fast food restaurant.  When we got back to the hotel, we had a final dinner reception.  We were given the clocks! It was a great time, but it was sad to see the trip coming to an end.  Once again, thank you Professor Gupta for putting so much time and effort into this, and giving us the best experience we could have in India in such a short time.  After the dinner, we set out for the airport, where we went through the tightest security I have ever experienced while flying.

All in all, a great trip.