Namaste!

I have just experienced the most amazing two weeks of my life traveling through India. A group of nine students and two professors from Bridgewater State University left on Jan 2, 2011 to explore the southern Indian culture. This particular study tour is for a global management course, called India 2.0 an Emerging Superpower.

With nearly 1.1 billion people, India is the second largest growing economy. India's growth becomes more impressive in light of the fact that it is driven by a fraction of its population. Its economy is divided between agriculture, manufacturing and the high-tech service sector. India has emerged as the leading provider of high technology services in the world. There is no better way to understand India's transition through this era of globalization than to submerge yourself in the culture.

We landed in Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay) and spent time in the cities of Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, and flew out of Delhi on our last day. Each city had something different to offer, all so interesting and full of history. It was quite refreshing to leave the United States and take a look at how people live a natural and horizontal lifestyle.

Over the course of two weeks, we were able to visit two Indian Universities, Simbiosis and the University of Hyderabad for meetings with the faculty, staff and current students...visit historic, religious and cultural sites for example: Golconda Fort, the King and Queen's Palace in Mysore, Shiva temples, Oroville, Ashrams, Puducherry, Sacred Heart Basillica...and visit local high tech companies, call centers and science technology parks, for example: Microland, Infosys, and Groundfos. We also had the opportunity of staying at three completley different locations: an ashram, hotel and university. The Fireflies Ashram in Bangalore, Marina Comfort Inn in Chennai and the University of Hyderabad in Hyderabad.

Visiting India has given me the opportunity to be taken out of my element and comfort zone. This experience has allowed me to find my inner self and expand my mind. It was unpredictable, crazy, and breathtaking all at the same time. We were able to dive right into the culture and see so many different aspects of India.

Hindu lifestyle

खुश होना * यात्रा * भगवान में भरोसा

Hinduism is known to be the world's oldest organized religion. Because of the wide variety of Hindu traditions, freedom of belief and practice are recognizable features of Hinduism.
Hindu scriptures describe ultimate reality as Brahman (central belief). Brahman is pure consciousness, infinite and all-pervading like the sky. The various Godheads of Hinduism such as Shiva, Vishnu, Brahma, Kali, and Durga are all different facets of Brahman. It is made up of diverse beliefs and traditions, in which the main themes include Dharma (ethics and duties), Samsara (rebirth), Karma (right action), and Moksha (liberation from the cycle of Samsara).
For the millions of people who practice this religion, it is a way of life that encompasses family, society, politics, business, art and health behaviors.
The belief that one's karma determines one's birth in the next life has supported the structure of the caste system in India, made up of four varnas that determine one's occupation: Brahmins (priests), Kshatriyas (nobles and warriors), Vaishyas (commoners) and Sudras (servants).
We had many discussions about Hinduism and the caste system throughout our entire trip. I am intrigued by the Hindu religion and horizontal and natural lifestyle that the people live.

Our first day in India, we were able to walk around the ashram and the surrounding village and basically take everything in. The sounds, the smells, the animals, the fresh air, the nature all around us. Right away I fell in love with Fireflies...it was such a calm and peaceful place. Later that afternoon, we attended a lecture with social anthropologist Siddhartha. He is the owner of the Fireflies ashram and author of numerous articles and books. Overall, a very educated man, I honestly could have listened to him all afternoon. Everything he spoke about was so interesting and made perfect sense in the way he used words and analogies. I remember him speaking about religion and comparing religions to rivers that are all leading to the sea; and that it should not matter how you reach the sea, just as long as you make it there. He gave an overview of India's economy and India's role as a superpower in our world today. He spoke about religion, marriage, the caste system, economic crisis, real estate, major cities, crime, corruption, politics, education systems, spirituality, etc...

I have always loved Hindi music...and I have been listening to a lot more of it since I returned from the trip. Here is my favorite Hindi song ... "O Re Piya"

Make way for the Auto Rickshaw!

WOW! Let me just say that I have never experienced this kind of traffic in my entire life. Literally you need to make way for the auto rickshaws, buses, mini cars and vans, motorbikes, bicycles, oh... and did I mention the cows and goats too?? This was absolute insanity. We quickly learned that the fastest and easiest way to get around the city was in the auto rickshaw. A rickshaw is a three wheeler which fits two or three people (seeing five or six people piled in one rickshaw was not out of the ordinary) and is also a cheap way of traveling around the city.

Our first real night in Bangalore we spent shopping and touring around Mahatma Road, commonly known as MG Road. There were many stores from the United States and Europe mixed with street vendors and markets. The road was lit up with hanging lights, which did look very pretty at night (reminding me of a festival). This seemed like a very young and westernized part of the city.

I still could not believe the traffic, I think the entire ride there and back my jaw was dropped in shock. Just to watch our driver back out of the parking space blew my mind. It was so interesting to witness a stray dog, a Mercedes Benz, a cow, a beggar, a land rover SUV, and McDonald's all in the same scene. And then to see entire families balancing on a 2-wheel motorbike was unbelievable!

Grundfos goes Green

The Danish company, Grundfos, is a global pumps and pumping systems leader serving the residential, commercial-building and process-industry markets, as well as being a major supplier to the water-supply and water-treatment industries. It employs more than 18,000 employees in 81 different countries.

Grundfos-India is based in Chennai and holds the company's first green building. After touring through the complex it made me realize how rewarding it must be to work in an environment that is so green friendly and environmentally conscious.

The concept of sustainable building incorporates and integrates a variety of strategies across project life cycle. Use of green building materials and products represents one important strategy in the design of a building. Integrating green products into building projects also help reduce the environmental impacts. The building was built specifically with windows and skylights that would have direct sunlight for the longest time throughout the day. It uses all natural lighting and the air was fresh with plants and waterfalls. All of the wood at the desks for employees was reusable wood along with a variety of green products.

We met with the Managing Director of Grundfos India, Ranganath Krishna. He explained that the decision to build green has been of great importance to Groundfos India and that the green building has attracted many architects, contractors and developers. I enjoyed listening to him speak about India's infrastructure and his opinion about the way the United States lives. He was very proud to work in one of the best buildings in India.

Making our way to the Top!

After climbing 380 uneven steps, we finally made our way to the top of Golconda fort. Let me just say it was well worth it. Golconda fort is located on the Western outskirts of Hyderabad city, on a granite hill with a height of 120m.

Aside from reaching the top to see the beautiful view, I would say that the highlight of Golconda fort was the sound and light show. It was unlike any light show I have ever seen before. When the sun goes down the first show starts. It was an hour long show depicting the glorious past of this grand fortress. Neon lights shined through all sections of the fort with a loud speaker giving the story; in a mixture of English, Hindi, and Telugu.

Infosys "powered by intellect...driven by success"

Infosys is an information technology service company located in Electronic City in Bangalore. It is one of the largest IT companies in India with offices in 33 countries and development centers in India, China, Australia, UK, Canada, and Japan.

This is a very fast-paced industry with the primary competition being China, Brazil, and Russia. Infosys has a special analyst team to look forward into the future (for example: they predicted the global financial crisis). Infosys is always looking for young professional engineers because they want young and fresh minds; ready to learn with new ideas and innovation. Infosys employs approximately 120,000 people, with 97% being engineers.

The Infosys campus was unbelievable; it felt as though we were on a college campus in California. The architecture of the buildings were so unique and the video we watched on the giant flat screen television was so interesting. My jaw was dropped as I walked around and still could not believe that we just came from the streets full of cows, beggars, trash, and filth. After our morning tour, we had a great lunch at the visitors building (I would have to say one of my favorite meals that we had the entire trip).

http://www.infosys.com/

Yoga & Meditation

During our stay at the Ashram we were able to have a yoga and meditation session with Marc-Joseph from Montreal. I met him during lunch one day and he took me on a tour around the ashram and showed me the yoga center and a beautiful giant carving of the Buddha. I did not realize how large the ashram actually was! I soon found out that Marc-Joseph had been practicing yoga and meditation for the past seven years; he is such a calm and interesting individual. He is a certified yoga instructor and offered to give a session to our group.        

The following evening we all met at the yoga center; he was ready with incense and calming music. I was so happy that the entire group decided to join! The practice of yoga is much more that a system of physical exercise for health. Yoga is an ancient path to spiritual growth and is originated in India. Being at the Ashram in the center of the forest with the natural sound of the insects and birds was the most relaxing feeling I have ever felt; and then just to realize that I was in India was amazing. The breathing exercises that we practiced were called pranayama, and I particularly remember practicing Ujjai, which is called the “sounding” breath or “darth vader” breath.

Quick fact: Someone who practices yoga or follows the yoga philosophy is called a “yogi” and the entire trip many people would stare at Sarah and call her that because of her hairstyle.

 

Project Krushi: Together Forever

Our second to last day in India was spent visiting the Korukonda Sainik Orphanage in Hyderabad.

“Project Krushi” was born in the year 1994. It began by setting up a “Home for former street children” at a rented premise in Begumpet, Hyderabad. Later in the year 2007 a new home popularly known as “Krushi Home” was established in the out skirts of Hyderabad.

This was a wonderful experience to wrap up our last few days in India. It was such an amazing feeling to see all the little faces light up just because we were sitting and eating lunch with them. Korukonda Sainik is an all boys orphanage, with 92 boys currently living on the complex.

We were given a tour around the campus and played basketball and volleyball with all the boys outside. Later we at lunch together in the mess hall while some the boys continued to tour us around, showing us the computer and television rooms.

It was honestly to hard to say goodbye. Just being there for a few hours I already did not want to leave. I would love to come visit again to help educate the children.

http://www.projectkrushi.org/

The Indian Nightlife

One of the great things about traveling is being able to check out the different types of nightlife that other countries have. India's nightlife is diverse and growing. Tucked away, you’ll find small bars, pubs and nightclubs. I was very eager to find out what the nightlife was like in India! The first night out was in Chennai with Cynthia, Saran, and Dr. Rao. We had some appetizers and drinks at a rooftop restaurant at The Park, a 5-star hotel and ended the night visiting a small nightclub. There were white cabanas surrounding a gorgeous pool with tiki torches and relaxing music. It felt like we were in NYC, and then to look out into the distance and know we were in India was such an incredible feeling!

In most cities in India, nightlife is early to start and early to end because of the curfews in place.  Though, large clubs that are exempt from the curfews are usually only found in 5-star international hotel complexes, and sometimes in shopping malls.

We spent our last night at nightclub inside the Taj Banjara Hotel in Hyderabad. This was such a great night; we met lots of students from America that are currently taking classes at the University of Hyderabad. The dancing was very different from the dancing in America, which I was ready for! The DJ played a mixture of rap/hip-hop and techno until 10:30 and then the Hindi trance music came on.

Making sense of Bangalore: Edward Glaeser

Bangalore is considered to be one of the fastest growing cities in Asia and also one of the most sought after cities in India by people, companies, and tourists. It was already called Electronic City of India but the establishment of Silicon Park on the out skirts has converted it into Silicon City of the World. The city holds many Indian as well as multinational Infotech companies.

The population in the city has grown enormously on account of migration of people from all corners of India, neighboring cities and countries from the West. The majority of the rapid economic growth has been brought about by the IT and other associated industries.

This has led to an escalation of the vehicle population and continues to grow exponentially. The unplanned nature of the rise and growth of these industries and the city’s design, the economic growth has also led to a great deal of traffic and congested roads. The city’s roads were not designed to accommodate the massive traffic. As the city continues to expand, the necessity for proper planning and road infrastructure to commute through the city increases.

In my opinion, proper planning, construction monitoring and quality control are essential. Projects and construction simply need to be finished and cleaned up. Proper lane markings and properly operating traffic lights will make a huge difference. Better road surfaces and the cleaning of the debris all over will also help.

Aside from the not-so-improving infrastructure problem, Bangalore still remains the Silicon Valley of India. The large IT service providers, such as Infosys, continue to attract global buyers. Bangalore has grown from low-end ITO and BPO such as coding and data-entry processes to now doing high-end ITO and BPO such as embedded systems and voice-based technical support respectively. The city could claim to have the highest number of captives across the globe. Intel, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, Cisco, Google, Yahoo, HP, Motorola, Siemens, Samsung are among the ITO sector. BPO would cover Citi, Reuters, HSBC, Goldman Sachs, Dell and JP Morgan.

Every city has its own culture, traditions, and customs. Bangalore, too, has its own distinct personality and way of life. It is an awesome cosmopolitan city. The youth is attracted to the city because of its lively pop culture and great weather, throughout the whole year.

Imagining India: Nadan Nilekani

Nadan Nilekani, author of “Imagining India,” a book that covers a wide variety of the different interpretations of India, gives his perspective of India’s past in an interview throughout this video clip. His reasoning for choosing India as a topic was the urge to explain India’s contradictions and to dig deeper into the explanations of why there is such a large gap between the wealthy and the poor.

Nilekani strongly believes that the key to growth is in expanding access to resources and opportunity. His book is divided into four parts, giving an overview of some of India’s most immediate challenges and a good variety of ideas that will dominate public discussion in years to come.

India is similar to the U.S.in that things do not happen just because someone said so. A large mass of people need to believe in the idea together. Nilekani explains that India will be the only country in the world that will experience a demographic dividend. This “demographic dividend” of a young population is as much an opportunity as it is a challenge. The task of meeting global talent needs with an educated and trained workforce is very difficult for any one nation to take on.

The key to success is education. India is off to a good start with the majority of this young population understanding the need to have education. Also, parents are beginning to see the economic costs of lack of education. India’s recently improved education system is often cited as one of the main contributors to the economic development of India. The education system in the country is growing at a much faster rate and the government has allowed free and compulsory education to all up to the age of fourteen. Also, making an effort to spread education in the rural areas and villages.

Unfortunately, there are negatives at the both ends of the spectrum. There are still many areas that lack education and even if it’s there, poorly qualified teachers and inappropriate infrastructure do not deliver the right kind of education. Those who have the education are burdened under heavy competitive pressure in terms of grasping things, speaking fluently, and acquiring academic skills.

Nilekani continues to discuss how the Internet and technology have a huge impact on the education system and the strong need for improvement in skilled education, such as vocational schooling. He then goes into detail discussing the areas that India is on its way to excelling at. For example: technology, innovation in manufacturing, how to design quality products at low costs.  India’s long term progress will be based upon having good relations with the surrounding neighbor countries. It has been a challenge for India being surrounded by areas that are not very peaceful.  

            India is in the middle of a huge transformational process and after listening to Nilekani’s interview, I would suggest this book to anyone unfamiliar with the present situation in India. It shows a general overview of the positive and negative aspects of the growing Indian economy and on social development in India.

Let's Celebrate Pongal

Pongal is the harvest festival of Tamil Nadu (Tamil Nadu is a southern state, which is bordered by the states of Puducherry, Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh). It’s celebrated with much enthusiasm, similar to Thanksgiving in America. Pongal is celebrated on the same dates every year, at the start of the Tamil month, Thai, and takes place from January 14-17.

Fortunately we were able to experience the first two days of Pongal during our stay in Hyderabad. Driving to a company visit one day we heard loud noises like gun shots were going off! Right away I thought some sort of fight broke out and we were in trouble. But it was actually fireworks being let off in the streets to celebrate the festival! Everywhere we went Happy Pongal and Happy Sankrant were written in beautiful bright colors on the street in front of homes and markets.