Various religions, various beliefs, and various lives. At the end of the day, I believe “Hope” overcomes any obstacle.

One of the prominent components which makes up India as the full of rich culture and tradition might come from the various religions and its education. Hinduism, whose population occupies more than 80% in India, has certainly shaped the current India in various ways. For example, as you drove a car in Delhi, you are likely to meet some of the cows wandering around on the streets, even on the driving roads. Not only cows, Indian live with some of the animals. I have met camels, buffaloes, monkeys, peacooks, dogs, elephants, and horses everywhere during my trip which made me feel like the country itself has a huge zoo which let them live freely.

     Sikhism, according to Wikipedia, which is the fifth-largest organized religion in the world, grabed my attention because of the unique appearance since I landed on Delhi. According to Professor Kahai, who taught E-Business course at Binghamton University, SUNY, the reason why Sikh does not shave any hair on the body primarily relies on the idea of holiness of God. In the North India in old days, the olderst son of Hindu family was raised as Sikh because he would be the one who protects the family and lead the next generation. Hence, it is against Sikh doctrine to have blade against the holy body, which reminded me the holy Jesus Christ’s well-known picture.

     In terms of child education for the various God in Hindu, there are the series of comics called, Amar Chitra Katha.  Amar Chitra Katha describes the various kinds of Indian epics, mythology,history, faily tales and gods. These books are often read by kids, and used by adults to teach some of the fundamental knowledge about all the aspects of India. I actualy brought the comics for Ganesha and Hanuman, and I learned how they were born and thier stories behind. I find the idea of using comics are very effective because continuous pictures gives clear idea of the story rather than reading sentences sometimes especially for kids.

      Last thing that I want to share is the most inspiring presentation that I had in India. He was the Indian veteran named Maj Devender Pal Singh, who is well known as “Blade Runner”. He lost his right leg in the Kargli War in 1999, and put the artificial leg instead ever since then. What made us surprised was that fact that he is a runner, who enjoys running and even complete full marathon at the moderately good record. I want to finsh with the quote what he made. “The most important thing in your life are three things which are called, ASK: Attitude, Skill, and Knowledge. However, it is your attitude which matters most.” He said to me with his eye fully sparkled, and I never forget his passion for his life, which overcame huge obstacle, under the name of the hope.

Indian Astrology and Astronomy -How Astronomy and Astrology are highly valued in Indian history and culture.

One of the another exciting part during the Indian trip was Jantar Mantar, which was built in 1716 A.D by Maharaja Jai Singh II who was the king at that time at Mugal capital of Delhi. Jantar means “instruments”, and Mantar is usually translated as “formula” or “calculation”. Hence, “Jantar Mantar” means something like “instrument for calculation”. It contains 15 astronomical instrument complexes, and these monumental instruments give a precise measurement of the time, declination of the Sun, and the Azimuth. The observatory is often used for scientific purposes by various kinds of historians such as astronomer. My most favorite instrument was what is called, “Rashivalaya Yantra”, which is a group of 12 instruments representing all the 12 Zodiac Signs, situated on a rectangular platform near the southern wall of observatory. I was so into walking around the Scorpion and see how Scorpion Sign reaches the local meridian.

     Not only in daily life but also Horoscope is largely practiced in India. On 10th, which was the first day of group arrival, we had the guest speaker who was familiar with the Horoscope chart by Sawaj Jai Singh II Maharaja of Jaipur. The char is consisted with the rectangular along with Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, Ketu, Jupiter, Rahu, and Moon. Often Indian business leaders see what Holoscope is telling when it comes to making a critical decision which largely affect thier business. Believe or not, it seemed that more Indian people are familiar and acceptable with the custome of Holoscpe than what I had expected. On top of that, the tradition of using Holoscope in wedding is also largely practiced. For example, according to our Professor Gupta, it is common to use Holoscope to see whethe if the groom and bride matches accordingly to their Zodiac signs before the marriage. If not, the couple might break up the relationship or change the part of the name to change its destiny. On the last day, I had the great chance to hear my future fortune from one of the fortune-tellers. I was told that I would be working for someone else, marriage and have one son, and live outside of Japan, which sounded little creepy but I am looking forward to see how my life goes.

New Delhi’s reality- what are some of the challenges behind the country where its population will surpass the China in next 20 years.-

First thing that I was surprised at was the massive traffic where a great number of cars were tucking each other to get into the line, and its polluted air which were so hard to breath deeply that caused me asthma and allergic on my nose. In Delhi, traffic are awful. Beginning from the tracks to small scooters, there are so many vehicles sneaked into among cars which is why you would hear so many beeps and horns when you are on the car. There is almost no line on the roads, which suppose to regulate the cars into lanes where cars are supposed to drive, and some cars have no side mirror. Side walk is not well constructed yet so that people are walking right next to vehicles. At night, group of people have a little camp fire outside because outside is cold and there is no heater inside the house. When your car stop in the traffic, some skinny little girls came up to our car, and selling balloons or flowers. Now India is known as one of the emerging country where outsourcing is largely implemented, information technology and service is well developed, highest consumption of trading gold, and the whole world pays attention as well as China. However, the challenges that India is facing needs tremendous work because of its highly large population where all the  infrastructural supply and population demand are not explicitly fulfilled.

     One of my privileage to mention here against these donwsides is that thre are so many entrepreneurs trying to make a change in terms of education. Most Indian leaders, as far as I have seen in this trip, feel one of the most important industries for next generation is the education for young people which occupies more than 50% of the total population. There is a company called, Career Launcher, which provide the prepatory education especially for college entrance exam online. Not only in the education industry, there are so many businessen who sees this challenges as opportunity and starts new business. I personally had a careful look at how all the construction and real estate company was doing business through the trip because my dad own a small real estate company in Tokyo, and I was trying to the ger something out of it so that I can share the story to my dad when I am home. According to Kanwal Aggrawal, who owns the automobile and general financiers, there are so many lands which is not yet recorded  by the central bank in New Delhi. Education and real estate, water supply, electricity, mobile platform as well as construction are considered to be the million dollar business in the next generation.