The Maharaja Burger
This is India’s version of the famous Big Mac burger in the states. It’s modified to fit the diet customs in India; instead of beef they use chicken for the patty. We stopped by a McDonald’s on the way to the Taj Mahal to pick up some lunch. It was definitely a refreshing change from all of the Indian food we had the past few days. I was super intrigued by the McDonald’s in India. This was especially true because one of the classes I took Junior Year was International Business and in the textbook I read about the Maharaja Burger which was India’s modified Big Mac. It was a treat to see something in a textbook in real life. To be honest it was no Big Mac like in the U.S but it’s close and still tasty. A must have for foreigners to try! This was quite a culture shock; to see a very clear American icon adapted to Indian culture. Globalization is very clear once you’ve stepped out of America and see how far companies have travelled and created establishments for their own.

Taj Mahal

Located in Agra, India, the Taj Mahal stands as a mausoleum for the mughal emperor’s third wife. Filled with stories of romance and heritage, the Taj was truly a sight to see. With thousands of visitors you can sense the enormity and fame of the Taj even if you know little about it. The Tour Guide was very helpful in explaining the history, stories, and architecture of the Taj. One of my favorite things he did was taking unconventional artistic photos with our cameras. He used trick photography to enhance the pictures such as reflecting off sunglasses and playing with the distance between subject and background to create illusions. The Taj Mahal’s architecture was very interesting as it took only 22 years to make and is made of hand carved marble. It was quite astonishing to think that in those 22 years everything was made without any help of machinery. If you look closely the Taj was made with extreme detail. Some interesting things about the Taj is that there are no paintings on the Taj Mahal; the flowers are made with semi-precious stones carved into the marble and the four pillars around the Taj Mahal are angled outward in case of any natural disaster it can fall away from the tomb site. Quite an amazing sight to gain more in sight to the heritage and history of India!

I always consider myself as someone who is very open to try new things and experience new cultures. Meeting new people and adapting to unforeseen situations is not something that frightens me. Coming onto this trip to visit India,  I was prepared, excited even, to be immersed into a new culture. The format of the course however, was not the most appealing to me at first because i originally had the intention of simply enjoying myself in a new country in short of being able to actually study abroad. The coursework consisted of article readings, short videos and clips, corporate business visits, and cultural tours and lectures. In addition, we also needed to prepare a video presentation, case study, occasional blogging, and writing assignments. The “work” had no appeal or so it seemed. I was in for an unexpected journey to India.

The week started with intensive presentations and exposure to business practice in India. Some of the exposure included visiting PWC, Dunhumby, Oxigen and meeting business students at Fostimma and JRE. I personally was not ready to absorb all the information being thrown onto me but it was that kind of situation where it was do or die. With every event we attended, the professors followed up with discussion and questioning to stimulate our thinking and understanding about all the things we were learning from economics, education, and policy making to diversity, spirituality, and culture. Professor Gupta and Kahai facilitated excellently brought up interesting perspectives and points to think deeper. I was challenged in my own thinking and knowledge of the business, culture, sociology, and systems. Turns out that the “boring” parts of this course is starting to look a lot more interesting than I had previously thought.
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While applying to study abroad in China, I found out about this program and I thought it would be a great chance to visit another of the BRIC countries. I had heard nothing but good things about the program, and it just seemed to fit. It would be a good chance to see how I would react and adapt to a new culture; professor Gupta was my professor last semester so, I felt comfortable going on the trip. In addition, I would receive credits for this course.

My take away from this course has exceeded my expectations. I have seen firsthand the lay of the land, and what problems the country is facing. Whether it is infrastructure, education, or any other sector, opportunities are in abundance in India. Something I realized during my time here is that you don’t need to completely reinvent the wheel to be successful; just taking something that works in another part of the world and translating it to work in India can make you successful.

I took marketing 101 with Subimal Chatterjee, and he always had examples of India products and advertising. Something that stuck with me about his lessons is that he always said the way to succeed in a market like India was to reverse engineer a product to a more simplified and cost efficient version of the original product. The majority of consumers in India are below the middle class and if you can offer a product that they need and can afford, that in itself can be revolutionary.

I made a bunch of new friends which helped broaden my network on a local and international level. The relationship you develop with the people on the trip is unmistakably different than what is provided in a classroom. For example, I didn’t know Sarah was as outgoing as she was even though I had a class with her prior to going on this trip. (She won the most adventurous person on the trip) Also, the e-buddies can be an invaluable tool if I ever decided to open up an operation in India. I will have a pool of talent I can draw from to help me establish myself and even partner up with.

The first attraction that we visited was a Sikh temple – Moti Bagh, where it was told that a Guru with supreme archery skills shot 2 arrows which reached the Red Fort (6.5miles away). “The Guru’s first arrow announced his arrival in Delhi and the second arrow carried a chit saying, ‘It is not magic but skill of archery’.” Here we learned about Sikhism from professor Kahai, and we saw the traditions associated with this religion.

(Picture of structure, knives, and paste we ate.)

We then went to the Lotus Temple of the Baha’i faith. This is one of the most beautiful structures I have ever seen; even the surrounding area complements this structures beauty.

(Lotus temple pic)

We also went to the Kingdom of Dreams, Hindu temple (Big Shiva Statue), Taj Mahal and several other places. They are all just as beautiful if not more that the last.

(Small picture of taj mahal, Big Shiva Statue, kingdom of dreams, etc.)

The trip however left me wanting more. Despite doing all the wonderful and new things in the 12 days I was in India, it created a hunger inside of me that yearns to discover what else India has to offer. I still want to visit Mumbai, and Bangalore, travel further south, visit some rural villages, and even further explore the triangle we mainly spent our time in. Going to India made me realize that it has so much more to offer than what I had initially thought. And as wonderful as the experience was, I cant help but want to see more!

When we got off the rickshaw and began walking towards the building, I could already tell that what I was about to see was amazing. As we approached the entrance you can see a swarm of people also waiting to get into the magnificent building. What was surprising to see was that many of them were Indians who have actually travelled to Agra to see the Taj Mahal rather than tourists from other parts of the world. Nonetheless you can see that everyone was excited to be here. I, myself, knew that this is one of the things that I was waiting to see the entire trip.

When I got to the actual building I was not disappointed. It was absolutely beautiful. The architecture used to design the building was simply amazing. I especially appreciated the attention to detail and the time and effort used to make sure each gem was perfectly chiseled to fit into the walls of the building. The reason behind the building of this wonder is just as magnificent, if not better. A king had the Taj Mahal built after his wife died to show his respect and appreciation for her. The story is actually pretty remarkable and needless to say physically seeing it was an indescribable experience.

Before I left for India, I knew that the because the program was so short each day was going to be filled with a lot of things to do and this meant long days. I knew immediately that waking up early was something I would have to get used to simply because usually during my winter breaks, I use the time to catch up the sleep I missed out on the semester before and quite frankly, I enjoy sleeping in. That however wasn’t going to happen. The first day however I surprisingly woke up before my alarm clock was due to ring at 6:45am. Now, I could easily attribute this to jetlag, but I think I was actually just more excited to start the program. IT ws my first full day and to put things plainly, I was in INDIA!

Breakfast alone was quite the experience. You didn’t see the traditional eggs over easy, bacon strips, sausage, links hash browns, etc…. Instead all this was replaced by a flat deep fried pancake-like bread with some form of curry sauce, a savory macaroni dish stir fried with peppers, and an interesting juice drink. The meal was delicious to say the least. I even went back for seconds.

After breakfast was when I was really started to get excited. The program was finally starting. We made our first stop at a Sikh temple known as Moti Bagh. The reason this temple is so famous is because it is said that a Guru shot an arrow from this temple to the Red Ford, a distance of approximately 8 miles. What really made this visit interesting for me was that we were required to take our shoes and socks off before entering and was also required to wear a bandana-like cloth over our hair. The first was the show a sign of respect, the latter, to protect our hair. Given that all this was very new to me, I can honestly say it was quite the experience. As we were leaving, a religious man gave us a wheat-like paste/food that was supposed to be an offering from god. I remember it being just a tad sweet, but again, it was nice to try something new.

When we got back on the bus, Professor Kahai explained to us (the students on the program) a little about his knowledge of Sikhism and Hinduism. It was really interesting to see how large a role religion played in the everyday lives of the people of India. Professor Kahai even explained to us that Sikhism is more of a way of life than it is  religion. Hear about these two religions was rather refreshing because growing up ‘ve never really been exposed to much of any religion. On top of that The US is such a diverse culture sometimes its hard to see how religion is incorporated in someone’s life at first glance. Here you’ll see a quite a few temples, groups of people praying on the streets and you’ll even see religion through the way people dress and eat. It really is a different experience.

Afterwards we had lunch and were joined by our e-buddies for the very first time. Before then, I had no idea how either of my e-buddies looked like at all but still felt very familiar to them based on the emails that we sent to each other prior to this day. They were actually very interesting people. Both of mine in particular were MBA students who were studying marketing. We were talking like we had known each other for more than just the several weeks of emails just prior to the meeting date. Both of my e-buddies were extremely intrigued about what my life in the US was like, my interests, how my studies are going and my career plans. What’s funny was that I came to India to learn the same things about them. This was followed by several presentations that included business in India, an inspiring story about a man who lost his leg in the Indian army, and an interesting presentation about Astrology and how it relates to business.

I think dinner-time was roughly the time of day where I felt like I really got the most out of all the places we visited. For one, I sat with a large group of the other students on the program, and while the appetizers were being served, that’s when I felt like I really connected with a lot of them. I got to know them very well from all the conversations we had about our lives in Bing and also what we expect to gain from this trip.

In addition to this we also had a speaker who gave a presentation that really gave me a lot to think about. He was a man who started a business similar to ‘Kaplan’ in the US and has now become quite successful. I remember asking him what kind of advice he could give to some of us students, especially in the US who would rather apply and work for already established companies rather than become entrepreneurs simply because it’s a safer alternative. I asked him this question because I know a lot of students prefer taking a safer route because of the bad economy rather than starting their own business. The next few words is something I’ll always remember. He said “starting your own company, it a vision. Its something you feel passionate about doing, and you’ll know it if that’s the right path for you”. I never once thought about it like that. Before that night, I only saw being an entrepreneur as being a career path, not a dream, and I think those words are extremely important. Being in the position where I’m about to graduate and still not sure what I want to do, his presentation really gave me a new outlook on not only my career, but my life.

I finished the day off talking to my roommate for a few hours before heading to bed. I was very very VERY tired, but at the same time excited about what was to come.

It was one of those timeless moments when the thrill of a vicarious victory flows through a fan. As I jumped around the courtyard of the Birder Inn, the Indian staff laughed in bemusement. The Giants had upset the defending-Super Bowl Champions, and were just one win away from the big game itself. The news would fill me with joy throughout the day, but the big news from America was nothing compared to the big experiences of our 7^th day in India.

We had a delightful and educational bike ride through the Bird Sanctuary in Bharatpur, Uttar Pradesh. Were I a more patient man, I would have enjoyed it even more. Bird-watching though educational and interesting was incredibly slow-paced and dull when compared to the frenetic schedule we’ve been on. Fortunately, I would get my fair share of excitement on the road from Bharatpur to Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan.

Rajasthan is literally “the land of royalty.” I didn’t necessarily find it to be that exactly, but my experiences there were as rich as the coffers of any king. Professor Gupta asked me if I wanted to sit in the front cabin with the driver and his assistant on the ride to Jaipur. I accepted the invitation with alacrity.

I introduced myself to the driver, as I sat on the counter on the left-side of the cabin. “Namaste, Mera nam Sudarshan hai. Apka nam kya hai? (Hello, my name is Sudarshan. What’s your name?)”

“Sudarshan?! Apka nam Sudarshan hai! Mera nam Inder Preet Singh hai. (Sudarshan?! Your name is Sudarshan! My name is Inder Preet Singh.)”

I began calling the driver, Singhji (Mr. Singh), mostly because I couldn’t really remember how to pronounce his first name. We spoke mostly in English, as his English is miles ahead of my Hindi. Let me just say that I couldn’t have asked for a friendlier companion on this trip. I was getting a real kick out of seeing trucks, buses, and cars with several locals hanging off the back, or sitting on the top. Singhji would drive up next to them, and maintain their speed long enough for me to snap a picture of them, and then he would throttle up and we would go whizzing past them at 90 km/h.

Even more interesting than the over-stuffed motor vehicles were the animal-powered vehicles. It was astonishing to see camel-drawn buggies trudging along a modern highway, while cars, trucks, and buses whizzed past them. After living in China for 7 months, I became somewhat numb to the stark contrast between the modern and the ancient, but I was not prepared to witness this. Likewise, it was quite interesting to see the fields of mustard, and brickmaking towers on the side of the road. I don’t know for how many years people in this area have been making bricks in this way, but it looked very traditional. As we drove further into Rajasthan the fields of mustard disappeared. Dry scrubland was the new vista hugging the highway. Finally, we arrived in Jaipur.

Our first stop in Jaipur was a fabric cooperative. They had absolutely beautiful blankets, shawls, saris, and other items. I decided I’d buy my mother one of the blankets there since her birthday is coming up on the 20^th (It transpires that the blanket I bought is actually called a “Jaipuri Rajhai,” but blanket is an adequate description for an American). Since the place was a cooperative there was no bargaining there. I prefer that style actually. First, you know you’re getting the same price as everybody else. Second, I sometimes consider it beneath my dignity to haggle over a few hundred rupees. I mean, what’s that money to me? The merchant could probably use it more than I could.

Anyway, we headed back to the bus, and drove a couple of blocks to see an old summer palace of one of the kings of Jaipur, which was built out in the middle of a lake. The palace was lit up beautifully in the night, but my camera couldn’t get any clear pictures. A couple of young boys came up to me with palms up, saying “Chacha, chacha, chacha, chacha.” Again and again, and gesturing as if putting food in their mouths. Chacha is the Hindi word for the younger brother of your father (i.e. a special kind of our word “Uncle.”). Those kids were smart to beg from me. Little rascal body-language-readers knew that I’m a very sympathetic guy. I walked with them back to the bus, and grabbed some cookies from inside to give to them. I headed back outside to the rest of the group. Those little rascals kept on hounding me—like flies to honey. When I re-entered the bus, I threw my melted Toblerone out to them. I wasn’t going to eat it anyway, and if they really were hungry, then they’d enjoy that melted chocolate. I also gave a few cookies to Professor Gupta, who was outside of the bus waiting for some other students to return, to give to them. He came back in the bus to tell me that they said they didn’t want cookies. Kind of brings new meaning to the phrase, “Beggars can’t be choosers.” I have a feeling that with that kind of attitude those boys will always remain in poverty.

As we drove to the hotel, Prof. Gupta spotted a wedding procession on the side of the road. He told our driver to stop and park on the side of the road. He led the group over to catch a glimpse of the spectacle. We watched as the traditionally and fabulously-clad groom dismounted his horse, and entered the gate. Prof. Gupta asked a relative of the groom if his students could enter, and experience an Indian wedding. The relative responded affirmatively, and thus we entered.

I must confess that I felt great trepidation about attending the ceremony. How odd would it be if a group of Indian students with an American professor asked to join in the wedding ceremony of an American couple? Still, I knew Prof. Gupta wouldn’t lead us into a situation where he knew we were being blatantly rude. So, a few students began dancing with the group of revelers encircling the groom as he walked toward the “chapel.” I began dancing in the group, trying to mimic the Indians’ movements as closely as possible. Apparently, I got too close to a few sari-clad women, and a man began shouting at me, “No mixing with the women! No mixing with the women!” I obliged him, and shimmied my way into a crowd of dancing men. What an experience to be part of this procession!

The day before, we had been at a picnic in a rural area of Haryana. As we ate our lunch, we watched dozens of young Indians dancing ecstatically to the pop music blaring out of the DJ’s speakers. It was two in the afternoon, and these people were dancing harder than Americans would be if they were in a club at two AM! A German professor, named Chris Streb, who had been accompanying us, commented on how music and dancing seemed to be a much bigger part of Indian culture than in any other culture he had experienced. I must agree, and here is yet another piece of evidence supporting that claim. Could you imagine a group of Americans dancing behind the groom as he proceeded to the altar to wait for his bride? It would be ridiculous. But this is India, and this is different. Still, that voice of trepidation whispered in my mind’s ear, and I could not fully enjoy the festivities, even though I knew we really had nothing to be embarrassed about. It’s funny how intellectually you can know that you should be unencumbered by your cultural hang-ups, fears or whatever else. But emotionally you still hold onto that baggage and it weighs down your action, no matter how much you reason through its irrationality or inapplicability to the current situation etc.

Anyway, servers started bringing hors d’oeuvres to us. I had a few delicious samosas, and some ice cream. “We’re crashing this wedding so hard.” My conscience said to me.

“Hey man, they’re the ones bringing the food to me!” I replied.

“Fair enough. You do your thing, Pierce. Just trust in Guptaji. Guptaji wouldn’t lead you astray.”

So, I finished the food, and chased after the groom and his dancing entourage as they entered the chapel. We danced on the altar behind the groom until the banging of the drum had ceased, and the entourage dispersed. Now, the priest and several others came to the altar to begin preparing the formal marriage rites. We stood to the sides and watched. I wore an embarrassed and bemused grin as I stood there wondering if we would remain there for the entirety of the ceremony. Just then, the conscience of one of my female classmates spoke out to our Professor.

“Professor Gupta we have to leave right now!” She shouted anxiously. “If this was my wedding do you know how offended I would be? We are being so rude by being here. I’ve never felt so rude in all my life! We have to leave right now, or at least I have to leave right now!” She walked a few paces toward the exit. Professor Gupta surveyed the opinion of some of our other classmates, and we soon left. As I exited the chapel I bowed and thanked whomever I could. Oddly, many people came up and thanked me for my attendance, with sincere-seeming smiles.

“Gupta, that sly dog!” My conscience exclaimed.

…I had originally ended this post with the line above. But I wanted to make a brief comment about the driver, Singhji. I feel like I learned a lot about doing business in general and in India from Singhji. Prof. Gupta told me Singhji’s business owned seven vehicles when we were in the parking lot of the fabric cooperative. Later that night, I asked Singhji about his business. He told me that when he was 17 he bought a cab and started his business. He drove the cab himself for four years before expanding into other vehicles. “Now, I just work in the office, but, you know, the driver had pain in his head yesterday, and couldn’t come. So, I come drive. No problem. I drive. No problem.” With that kind of attitude you can see why he has succeeded so far. He struck me as the embodiment of the saying, “Take it easy, but take it.” He has a very laid-back, friendly persona, but he haggles as hard as anybody I’ve ever seen. I’m sure he worked out some good deals for the vehicles he’s purchased. I hope that I can learn from him, and become a better negotiator, while maintaining a kind, friendly disposition. That’s just one of the lessons that can be learned from Singhji, but I think it might be the most important one for me.

Your Faithful Correspondent,

Pierce Smith

Notes: All quotes of others are paraphrased as accurately as possible.

In the early afternoon, we headed out to JRE—a recently established graduate school of management in the rapidly developing city of Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh. As we stepped off the bus, red dye was smeared on our third eyes and garlands draped around our necks in a display of respect and hospitality. A semicircle of students had assembled around the doorway of our bus. I greeted each one individually with some of the few words of Hindi I can speak. “Namaste,” I uttered respectfully as I placed my hands together as if praying, and bowed slightly at the shoulder. I followed with “Ap kaise hai (How are you)?” Our courteous and curious hosts were delighted that I could even utter these few simple words, and indulged me with a brief (very brief) conversation in Hindi.

While greeting our hosts in the semicircle, I met a young gentleman named Harleen Singh. “Ap kaha se hai (Where are you from)?” I managed to fumble out of my mouth.

“Mai Panjab se hu (I’m from Panjab).” He replied with a smile.

After I had greeted all the other members of the semicircle, he led me into the classroom building of their small, but sparkling campus. First, he gave me a tour of the library. I was really trying to get some Hindi practice in so I hazarded another question. “Apka bhai-bahane kitne hai (How many brothers and sisters do you have)?” He replied with a questioning stare. I repeated my question trying particularly hard to aspirate the “bh” in “bhai.” We do not have this phoneme in English, so it is very difficult for me to enunciate. It’s also very difficult for me NOT to aspirate the “p” and “k” in “apka” (Note: the Hindi transliterations “ph” and “kh” correspond directly to the English “p” and “k”), so I could have botched my pronunciation at any number of points in that short sentence. Finally, I was able to express my point to him.

I don’t remember exactly how many brothers and sisters he said he had, but he did mention that his family had suffered a loss recently. He told me his grandfather had died a few months ago. I expressed my condolences, but it seemed Harleen did not need them. “It is okay. It is a necessary part of life, you know?” I nodded in affirmation. His words impressed me very much. I don’t want to extrapolate from just one man to the whole population of this diverse land, but his words seemed to comport with the Indian belief in cycles, and the necessary existence of opposites (e.g. life entails death. Death entails new life.).

Despite how impressed I was by his healthy attitude toward the unfortunate passing of his grandfather, I was about to be yet more impressed by our young Sikh friend. I forget how, but somehow we stumbled back on the topic of his Panjabi origin. He mentioned something about how the state of Panjab was divided during the tragic partition of the subcontinent. “So how do you feel about Muhammad Ali Jinnah?” I asked, with the full expectation that he would express hostility, aversion, or even pure hatred for the founder of Pakistan.

“He’s fine. You know, he just wanted the same thing that we all want—a nation for his own people.”

I was stunned. Impresed and stunned. Muhammad Ali Jinnah is portrayed as a calculating and power-hungry man in the movie “Gandhi,” and the nation of Pakistan has not exactly developed into an admirable state, so my personal opinion of him was low (and still is not high. I will need to do more research about this historical figure). However, the fact that someone, who lives in India, a country which has suffered from many Pakistani-led terrorist attacks and aggressive actions by the Pakistani armed forces, could empathize with the founder of that nation was beyond impressive. It would be like meeting a Chinese who said, “The Dalai Lama is a good person. He just wants the same thing that we all want—a nation for his people.” It would be like meeting an America who could say, “Osama bin Laden’s tactics are treacherous, murderous, counterproductive, and despicable, but, at base, he wants the same thing that we do—a nation for his people, free of imperial influence, whether it be the Soviet Union, the United States, or any other superpower.”

Though I spoke much more with Harleen Singh, I will cease my discussion of this fine young gentleman here.

I want to fast-forward to one of the speakers at the event JRE hosted for us. He was a venerable gentleman, whose name I cannot remember, but whose ideas I will not forget. He spoke about a number of wide-ranging subjects. He brought up a curious anecdote toward the beginning of his speech in order to illustrate the point that if you are a disciplined man, with a clear aim and a passion to achieve it, you should be respected despite other character flaws you may possess. He told the story of his British drill-sergeant, when he was in the Royal Armed Forces before Independence. “Our drill-sergeant was very upset with the quality of our marching on that day and he yelled out to us, ‘You bloody black Indians! Black on the inside! Black on the outside! March with some bloody pride, will you? Chin in, chest out! March with some bloody pride!’ Even though he was a racist man, I still respected him because he wanted us to become the best force we possibly could be…”

I chuckled silently as I envisioned his sunburned drill-sergeant barking out orders and racial slurs. I scanned the room and saw many uninterested eyes struggling to stay open.

He then went on to discuss the importance of non-conscious processing for human decision-making. It included many ideas which are similar to those discussed in the work of Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, and which were presented to a general audience in Malcolm Gladwell’s “Blink.” He used an anecdote about Sigmund Freud to illustrate his point. “A patient came to Sigmund Freud once and asked him, ‘What career should I pursue? Who should I marry?’ Freud stopped him right there and said, ‘These questions are too important for your conscious mind to answer!’” Although many of Freud’s ideas have fallen out of fashion in the psychological community, I thought our venerable and long-winded speaker made a good point here.

Our wise, but verbose orator dragged on and on. A student next to me wrote me a note asking if I was bored. I shook my head. Though his oratory style was incredibly poor, the substance of this man’s talk was rich. The patient listener was rewarded greatly because the orator posed an exceptionally stark and important question at the end of his speech.

“Jesus Christ, the Buddha, every religious thinker or prophet you can think of, has taught us that by reducing our wants we can become happier, and live a more fulfilled life. But in these past few hundred years, ever since Adam Smith, many economists have advocated increasing production as the key to increasing human happiness. You know, you increase production, more people can obtain jobs, now more people have money to spend on goods, and so on, and now everyone’s happier. But how do you increase production? You can’t increase production without an increase in consumption, yes? How do you increase consumption? You market, you advertise, you increase people’s wants, you turn wants into needs, and so on and so forth. So how do we reconcile this? All our great religious and philosophical teachers have taught us that we can increase happiness by reducing wants, but our modern economic system is geared toward increasing wants in order to create happiness for people. I don’t have the answer to this yet, but I hope maybe one of you does…”

Wow. This thought, this feeling, has been seething inside me for so long. The wise, yet verbose old man had finally articulated what I had felt for so long. Hopefully I can contribute to the answering of this epic question. Hopefully…

Your Faithful Correspondent,

Pierce Smith

Notes: All quotes of other individuals are paraphrased, but I tried to transcribe them as faithfully as I could. Also, did anyone see the tacit lesson in the wise old man’s speech? This is the tacit lesson I gathered—No matter how wise and important the substance of your speech is, if the style is inadequate the message will not be heard by many. Most people left the conference room with only a feeling of happiness that the long-winded guru’s vocal chords no longer vibrated.