Thursday, May 17, 2007: Initial Reactions to India

Well, we arrived Tuesday morning at 1 am to India. Its Friday morning now. After settling in, I have a few thoughts about this place. Its certainly a totally different world and a whole other culture. Even in the nicest places, such as the Indian School of Business where we are staying, you can really sense how different the culture is. I don't have a ton of time to type so I'm going to give an overview of what we have done so far followed by a few brief thoughts on India while they are in my head and continue to expand on them as I have more time.Photos of the trip so far can be seen at http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/mwashmoreArrived Tuesday 1 am to ISB. We were picked up in a A/C bus by a man and I assume his son who looks to be about 13. The bus is clean and has airconditioning but is certainly nothing like what Wharton would send to pickup visitors. The airport in India was about as unofficial as it gets. The metal detector was wooden (looked to be from about 1975) and wasn't even plugged in. The baggage claim took about an hour as one bag came out about every two minutes and the machine jammed probably 25 or 30 times. No one was dressed in uniforms.ISB is really nice. The campus sits on about 260 well-manicured acres. It doesn't even feel like India. I have a few pictures posted on my web album. The grounds are meticulous and the campus is so large is feels dead but at the same time extremely peaceful. The main academic building is monolithic, pink and very simple yet elegant. It is enormous and has lots of open air spaces. It reminds me of a building you would see on one of those desert planets in Star Wars - it just pops right out of the ground and is surrounded by a lot grass and gardens - nothing more. The whole campus feels a bit out of place.On Wednesday, Nathaniel and I woke up pretty early around 6 am and explored the campus. There were workers EVERYWHERE. They honestly have three people watering every plant. There are women dressed in green Sarees picking dead leaves up off the ground. There isn't a speck of trash on the entire campus. After exploring a bit, we had breakfast in the dining hall - breakfast here is definitely interesting. They did have a guy making omelettes, other than that it was all Indian food - Roti, strange potato curries and what not, Raita, coconut curry is a breakfast topping here and a few other dishes. In India, everyone just drinks NesCafe coffee rather than real coffee. NesCafe is terrible. After that we went to the gym where there is a personal trainer there who is really, really friendly and extremely eager to help out. I was doing the bench press and without my asking he came over and started spotting me. His crotch was directly in my face but his intentions were at least good. After I finished my workout, he asked me what muscles I was training the next day and said he wanted to lead me through a workout. Sounds good. We had a campus tour later in the day. The resources at ISB are incredible. It is a one-year MBA program (425 students). Its the top business school in India and one of the best in the world. The professors here are mostly from Wharton, Kellogg in Chicago, Stanford and other top-tier MBA programs from the United States. Unlike the US, the MBA students live on campus in one of three student villages where they have full laundry and maid service. As our tour guide put it, "Since the program is only one year long, we completely pamper our students so when they can focus on their studies and with their free time be free to relax." To that point, the atmosphere here is really relaxed and peaceful - much more so than Wharton.We had lunch as a group in the dining hall. It felt a bit like a science experiment - everyone testing out new flavors, spices, smells and tastes. Take a bite, sit back and see if your stomach started to rumble. Some of us were more adventurous - trying out the yogurt, fruit, etc. No one has gotten sick yet. We'll see if that lasts.Adjusting to India was a bit stressful at first because you have to be so cautious. Can't open your mouth in the shower. Can't brush your teeth except with bottled water. Can't drink water, milk, eat raw veggies, and have to be pretty careful making beverage and most of your food choices. Be careful of mosquitos. Carry around Purrell. After a couple days though, I've really settled in and am now just going with the flow. I've realized that you can only be so cautious.After lunch we enjoyed a lecture from a very prominent contemporary Indian art collector and historian, Anju Poddar. She truly is considered "royalty" here. A real socialite who mixes with the cultural elite and knows all the top artists. She took us to her home in the city (more of an art gallery) where we enjoyed a variety of fresh, homecooked snacks and some really interesting Indian beverages. Everything was prepared by her three personal servants. Anju was an incredibly gracious host although she was a bit eccentric and snobby about her work, accomplishments and who she had met. Rather than discuss the artwork, she tended to focus more on the prices of everything in her house and how she acquired it. I really just think it may be a cultural thing.Everyone was wiped out by the time we got back but ISB hosted a farewell dinner for us outside with a big buffet and bar. They really know how to feed you around here. A few of the MBAs joined us for dinner as well as a couple of the visiting Wharton professors. The students here really friendly and inquisitive. The guy we ate with had just finished working for Vornado (a big real estate private equity company in NYC). He has decided to move back to India to pursue his degree and then work in India. The food here is great and shares some similarities to Indian food in the United States.A few thoughts and reactions....The sheer number of people in this country is astounding. Everywhere you look on the streets there are people. More importantly, the number of workers or as they call them here servants is incredible - especially at ISB and the companies we have visited such as Infosys and Shantha Biotechnics. Honestly, there are three people watering every plant. Everything is done by hand and through physical labor. Labor is so cheap that it is more cost effective to hire 25 people to cut the lawn with hand sheers than it is to purchase a riding lawn mower. Everywhere I look on the ISB campus there is someone watering a plant, mopping the floor (not too mention each person mopping has at least one spotter to assist him). Also, there are servants everywhere with hot tea and coffee ready to serve. As I've sat here typing for the past twenty minutes or so, I've been offered to tea or coffee several times by completely different servers.As far as the culture, I have observed a strange sense of entitlement to have servants coming from the upper class. Everyone here, even just a middle class family has two or three servants in their home. It is completely taken for granted and the Indians really lack any sense of appreciation for it. One of the speakers here at ISB said we he came to the United States he was shocked to have to do his own dishes. He said that Indians really look down on physical labor and it shows. It was a "major adjustment" to make his bed and do his laundry. However, he learned a dignity for labor. In the US to say something like this would almost be politically incorrect, but here those with even some money treat their servants in a condescending manner.That said, the labourers are really eager to please. No one ever says no if you have a request or a question. Also, no one ever disagrees with anything I say. For example, I woke up yesterday morning to a knock at the door. I opened it up to be greeted by an enormous grin and the most eager request to do my laundry. I've never seen someone so happy to offer to do my laundry. And it doesn't seem fake either. I almost though I must have my fly down or something he is grinning so much. And this is the case everywhere we go, I feel like the people at the Four Seasons could even learn a bit about hospitatlity from the Indians.Indians are the most gracious and hospitable people I have ever met. Everywhere we go we are greeted with the utmost courtesy and hospitality. Everyone is so eager to show us around, make sure we are comfortable and they are also very proud of their accomplishments.The majority of the poverty lies right along the street between the "curb" and the first row of buildings. I've never seen so many people lining the streets - especially at night.English is very prevalent here.It feels like a bomb went off and then people decided to randomly construct buildings without any thought or planning on top of the rubble. The whole city is littered with building material, fragmented stone and rock, and trash. Its total chaos.Driving on the streets of India makes the streets of Mexico seem like a cakewalk. There is no order, no traffic lanes, no police regulation, no traffic lights and so many cars, motorcycles, people, rickshaws, etc. People just randomly cross the street.There are makeshift tents and structures everywhere. Created from garbage bags, blue tarps, sticks and rope, you'll see an apartment complex next to an empty lot full of a couple hundred of these things.Well, I gotta run. I'll try to keep my next post a bit shorter. Sorry.