Jaipur

Jaipur is known as the pink city because of the pinkish color of the sandstone. All of shops and other common buildings are pink while the places of royalty are yellow. Jantar Mantar was used as an astrology observatory by the royalty, therefore it is yellow. It is an open area full with astrology structures consisting of the world’s largest sun dial (with a 2 second accuracy) and all the horoscopes. It is amazing to think how smart people were such a long time ago to come up with these structures and concepts with such limited technology.

Next we visited Hawa Mahal which is a beautiful old palace. The most memorable part of the monument is the high wall at which the top the women could look out to the city without being seen. Unfortunately another memorable part was the uncomfortable situation of being videotaped by two Indian onlookers. I cannot really understand the fascination some of the locals have with seeing American girls but being videotaped is extremely uncomfortable. I don’t mind if they take a picture or two or even ask to take a picture with us, but sometimes they take it too far. When professor Gupta finally asked them what they were doing they told him that they take pictures of us because we take pictures of them. I don’t totally agree with this because we were not taking pictures of any people at the monument but we do of people on the street. In some way I understand because I always feel a little bad taking pictures of people on the street because I don’t like to make a spectacle of people but at the same time the people are the essence of India and I think we are just all trying to capture that.

Later we briefly saw the Jal Mahal which is a palace in the middle of small lake. You cannot physically go to the palace but from land you can see its beauty especially when it is lit up. Then on the way back to the hotel we passed an Indian groom’s wedding procession. We were able to stop and get off the bus and go watch without interfering. The groom’s father even drunkenly invited the group to the party saying that we were all his daughters, professor Gupta didn’t think it was a good idea so we didn’t especially since we really didn’t belong there. Nevertheless, the procession was beautiful with music, costumes, bright lights all followed by the groom elaborately dressed on an equally elaborate horse.

The next day we visited Jaigarh Fort which was located at the top of a mountain overlooking the scenic hills wrapped with the winding fort wall, that resembles the great wall of china. This was maybe one of my favorite monuments just because of the serenity and peacefulness of it. Between its sheer size, location, wall and the possession of the world’s largest canon I can’t see it ever being attacked. Next we visited Amber Fort which is very close by the previous one. This fort was more so a palace and it was the most beautiful one we visited. It was elaborately decorated in glass and mirrors.

Next we arrived at what I found to be the most valuable experience here in India, the NGO village. The NGO village is a non government organization that runs an orphanage for the abandoned children of India. Their focus is not simply just to give the children safety through shelter and food, but also happiness (and the happiness was evident on the children’s faces. They even performed a dance for us and showed us some moves to the current popular Indian songs. This one girl named Den was so beautiful and so talented it is amazing to think of what a difficult life she has had. A place like that makes such a big difference in the lives of those children and I can only hope that they will be able to continue to change lives.

Leaving Delhi

We left Delhi, our home base, and left for Agra on the 15th. On the three hour bus ride we were able to observe the scenic areas of rural India. Rural and urban India are two very different places. The rural areas are much poorer but also more beautiful. Perhaps one of my favorite parts about the countryside is the fact that they actually take care of the cows. In the city cows are spotted on the side of the highway eating garbage, they don’t belong to anybody. However, in the rural areas more seem to have owners, will be tied up, and be eating other types of food.As we continued driving we passed both a snake charmer and a “monkey business.” Monkeys are put on leashes and the owners charge people, mostly tourists, to let the monkey climb on their head.We stopped for McDonalds along the way, it is funny because I eat more McDonalds or other junk food here than I do at home. However, it is always a nice change of pace from the usual spicy Indian food.

Eventually we reached the Taj Mahal. The Taj Mahal is one of the seven wonders of the world and I can see why. It wasn’t how I pictured it to be but by no means was it disappointing. Its funny because even though I was there standing in front of it I was always amazed at how beautiful it looked in the pictures I was taking. There was the cutest stray puppy running around in the grass, which we all loved. It is funny to think that that stray dog lives at the Taj Mahal. The one thing I disliked about the visit was as I was leaving the building I looked down and saw carved names in the white marble floor. It was disappointing to realize that this world wonder wasn’t pure but has been defaced by the current society.

After the Taj Mahal we went to Agra, which is basically a royal village. It is more of a village rather than a palace because it had every thing they needed to live. The king had three wives a hindu, christian, and muslim. Each had their own living arrangements. There was a mosque so the muslim wife could go pray five times daily. The buildings were made of red sandstone. It was funny because the doorways are so small (people were shorter back then) but the steps are so large. I found them slightly uncomfortable to climb and I am 5′ 10. One thing that I did not appreciate were the aggressive vendors trying to sell us their goods right outside the mosque. They even tried to trick you as you were leaving it and separate you from the group just to pressure you into buying their overpriced items.

The next morning we went on a bike ride through the bird sanctuary. I rode a traditional old Indian bike, which was an experience in and of itself. At first I almost thought I had forgotten how to ride a bike because it was so difficult. It was hard to get the bike going, you basically had to gain some momentum before you could start pedaling. Then once you got going it became a little difficult to keep the bike going straight, partially I think this was due to the slow pace of the guide. Bird watching isn’t my thing but it was an enjoyable experience.

Days 1-4, Delhi

Immediately from the beginning of our bus ride to the Indian Gate on our first day, I noticed how assimilated all aspects of life are in India. There will be nice residential or commercial buildings and then shacks right in from of it. Driving through the streets of India it is almost impossible to not take notice of the traffic. It is slightly less chaotic than I imagined, but to be fair I was expecting the worst. Drivers make full use of their horn even when nothing is in their way, ironically except for when our bus was going the wrong way down a two lane highway. Also, over the course of maybe 10 mins you drive through maybe 5 traffic circles, from what I can tell it is because drivers don’t like coming to a stop here, they are even physical countdowns to when the light will turn green. The most chaotic part about the traffic is the complete disregard for pedestrians. I don’t really understand how people get around and cross streets without having a personnel crossing guard like us (aka Professor Gupta).

The Indian Gate still is one of my favorite moments of the trip so far but not for reasons most would think. Yes, the moment is beautiful but we got to witness the marching bands practicing for the parade on January 26th, their independence day. The further we walked the more elaborate the band costumes, as each band represents a different region of India. As fun and exciting it was to see each band as they slowly emerged from the dense fog it seemed we were always in their way. At one point all of us including the band were herded off to the side as a horse procession was occurring. While waiting, being surrounded my the bands we decided to take pictures of/with them. The best part was that they were also taking pictures of us. In India the people are so warm and welcoming. From the bus people wave and smile at you. On the street many will give a friendly hello.

Indian hospitality is perhaps my favorite trait about the culture. We were invited to a Lohri festival celebration at professor Gupta’s house. Everyone was so warm and welcoming that you didn’t feel out of place at all. We danced to both popular American music, showing off some of our dance moves to the other guests, and also popular Indian music where we picked up some Indian moves. Overall it was a great cultural experience, but also some great group bonding.

A huge part of Indian culture is religion, and I am grateful for this opportunity to actually be able to understand foreign beliefs. We visited a Sikh temple that was absolutely beautiful. The people are very peaceful and welcoming traits that I greatly admire. We also visited the Akshardham Temple Complex in Noida where for the first time I really learned something about Hinduism. We went to a few exhibits that taught us about Swami whose life path and ideals are very similar to those of Christ, in my personal opinion. I found the experience very peaceful and inspirational.

However much I enjoy the culture of India, one of the main purposes of our trip is to understand how companies do business here. At PwC I learned how the firm caters its services to the different environment in India. For example, they provide eGovernance services which are not very popular in the U.S. At Dunnhumby, the second company we visited, it was interesting to learn the purpose behind their presence in India since they don’t currently have any Indian clients. They came to India for the talent pool available to help manage the various international accounts. Next we visited HCL an IT company. There we learned the popular ideal in India: employees first, customers second. In India the employees are really valued and are therefore focused on as a main strategy for improving sectors such as customer relations. The last business we visited was DSCL, which is a family owned business. As a company that has been around for over 100 years it was valuable to gain insight to the way the game changed as India’s economy opened up. They were very honest about the challenges they face and were direct in answering our questions.

Tomorrow we leave for Agra, a new area brings new experiences.