Goodbye India....for now

Well the trip is ending and in a few hours I'll be on my way back to the US. India has been a great experience and has added a business perspective that many will not get. I'm doubting I'd ever have the opportunities I had to meet so many Indian technology tycoons like I have over the past 15 days. On top of that, just navigating and understanding how things work on the ground level here was an invaluable lesson in its own. Lastly, through our visits and talks I feel like I have been recharged and refocused regarding my career. I'm excited to close out my graduate career at Minnesota and prepare for a new and challenging path that begins this July. I've always maintained a global perspective, but this experience really drove home the importance of expanding that mindset to think globally. Failing to do so could be career comprimising. Focusing on just a U.S. based career in these times and conditions is foolish.

While I've learned a ton, I'm not coming back a changed person. I haven't been spiritually enlightened, I still prefer American cuisine, and missing the college bowl season and 50% of the NFL playoffs was a tough pill to swallow. I will say I am more aware of just how good we have it in the US and America needs a good kick in the ass otherwise we are going to get quickly passed.

So in conclusion this has certainly been a great experience and I recommend a visit to India for all. So much to see and learn from. Thanks to those who followed the blog, I hope it entertained. All my photos and video will be up on facebook.

Take care India, I'm sure we will meet again in the future.

Cheers,

Dustin

Sorry....

Been away from blogging the past couple days as we haven't had much free time and it has been a lot of company visits. We met the CEO of Infosys and today met the Henry Ford of heart surgery, Devi Shetty.

I'll probably do one more post on thurs or fri then a wrap-up post this weekend. Trip is coming to an end very quickly and it will be back to school, work, and the frozen landscape of minnesota. Sadly I'm going to miss the packer game due to my return trip home, but hopefully there is an NFC championship game for the pack.

Ridin' Dirty

Play on playa, can't knock the hustle. Yes, those are 25 (give or take) live chickens strapped to this brosef as he goes X-games through the fender to fender Bangalore traffic. What you got NYC?

Tech Day in Bangalore

Today was probably one of the days I was looking most forward to on this trip. The lineup and contacts we got to meet and disucss business in India with was the stuff only senior directors and vp's get. We visited Cisco, Lenovo, and Mu Sigma to round out another 12 hour day. The technology link with all of these companies and my future career was a perfect match and I was able to draw a lot of information about where the IT/BPO industry is going in India. Bottom line without revealing too much, Bangalore is a place tech needs to be. With a $60 billion outsourcing which is only growing and the labor surplus available for highly skilled scientific minds, not having a presence here is a competitive disadvantage.

It was also cool to drive by the HP site on the way to Mu Sigma. It would have been better had they been on our visit schedule, but atleast seeing the size of the building gave me some understanding of the footprint here. That's all I can really share, so here are some pics.

Outside the Cisco main building

Cisco technology simulating a virtual doctor visit.

Cisco Campus...is it Silcon Valley or Bangalore?

Lenovo

Mu Sigma, don't let the building fool you, they only occupy about 1/3 of the building.

Mu Sigma lobby area.

HP, quick shot from the bus.

Goodbye Delhi, Hello Bangalore

So Sunday was a day of sleeping in and air travel to Bangalore. I was exhausted from the entire trip to Agra and fighting some fun stomach problems so it was twice as nice. Around 3 pm our Minnesota contingent grabbed a bus and headed over to the Delhi airport to make our way to Bangalore.

I never posted pics of our hotel in Delhi, but it was pretty decent. Not the nicest place I've ever stayed and the price-points on all items from phone calls to expired sodas in the mini-bar were outrageous. I probably should have guessed considering there was a Rolls-Royce dealer in house, Mercedez-Benz CLK's for daily rental, and a night club on-site that was $60 just to walk in (and likely $30 top shelf vodka sodas). The Shangri-La Eros, besides the ridiculous pricing, was satisfactory though.  4 out 5 stars.

Yep, a Bentley Continental. Great use of $200k.

View from our room. Look out Times Square!

The room. My roommate Matt the engineer on the HP netbook. Notice the large rectangle in the center of the wall. That's a window....... into the shower. 

It was a pain to be packing up and leaving what was "home" for the past week. The truth was that I was scared shitless of losing the great breakfast buffet the Shangri-La served. Now I'm not knocking Indian food, but my stomach and the Indian cuisine are fighting a 12 round battle and my stomach has been visiting the cut man every round.

The Delhi Airport is a very modern international terminal and checking in and moving through security was effecient and painless. TSA back in the U.S. should really come over here and observe. I have no issues with fox holes and machines pointed at me as long as it saves me 30 minutes in line and a borderline sexual assault.

The good times indeed.

We flew Kingfisher Airlines to Bangalore and I have to say I had some apprehensions about an air carrier that also shares the name with the country's most popular beer. The flight was relatively smooth, seats spacious (even in economy, I really hope my future career consists of frequent travel so I can upgrade), and the 2 hour and change flight was done.

We loaded  a bus to our new hotel, The Chancery Pavilion in Bangalore and after about 35 minutes of driving we arrived. One thing that was quickly noticed was the infrastructure advancement from Delhi. I feel it's ironic that Delhi, the country capital with nearly unlimited government funds to spend, looks years behind where Bangalore is. Bangalore is no Chicago or Silicon Valley (as it's called here in India), but the living conditions are much improved. There aren't as many dogs running around, people aren't sleeping next to fires on the roadside every block, and begger's are less common. There is also a higher frequency of the West's finest food establishments, McDonald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Pizza Hut. Yum! is positioned very well over here and I'd be curious to see what their numbers look like. Pizza Hut is setup to be a fine dining experience which was a trip considering my American view of the chain.

So I just rambled a lot here and I still have to get one more quick post in and maybe I'll start uploading some videos before I push off to bed. Only 1 week left!

Oh yeah, the weather is awesome in Bangalore. How's the -25 Minneapolis?

Agra Fort

So afte the Taj Mahal we grabbed a late lunch/early dinner and headed over to the Agra Fort. As mentioned from the Taj post, coming here after just being at the Taj is a tough act to follow. Regardless, it was still an impressive site. I'm still amazed by all the history and architecture that this country has. Additionally, the pride and knowledge that the locals have of seemingly every structure and historical event is something to be impressed by. So here are some photos.

Chillin

On a random sidenote, I've come across a nice little TV channel here in India called Bindass (atleast that is how the logo is spelled on the screen). It appears to be a culmination of the worst of vices of American reality and sit-com tv, only at a whole higher level. Annie, if you are reading, Love Lockup. Google that. So good.

Taj Visit

Our trip to Agra to see the Taj Mahal began at 6:30 am and consisted of a lovely 6 hour bus ride to Agra across the never short to entertain India terrains. I started the day out pretty rough compliments of something I had eaten. I'll spare you the details and needless to say I'm definitely craving some American cuisine. Fogo de Chao anyone when I come back?

Anyways, after 6 hours we were greeted by India's Department of Transportation Minister in Agra and his son was assigned as our tour guide for the day. We finally reached the Taj by roughly 1:30 pm and below are some of the sites. I'll get all my photos up from the trip on my facebook, but here are the highlights.

Absolutely love this photo. Couldn't wait to post it in the proper sequence.

Let me just start that there really isn't much that I can type that can explain visiting and experiencing the Taj Mahal. Now I'm not a changed man, will not be changing my ways, and the heavens didn't open up to me during this visit, but to say it's an amazing achievement in human history would be an understatement. The size and precise nature of the archeticture is something that I still can't comprehend, especially since this was built over 500 years ago. The symmetry of the entire complex from the huge structures down the decorative details is something that again is quite amazing. But enough from me, enjoy the photos!

Main structure from within the walls of the Taj, behind me is the Taj itself.

This is the entrance after walking through the Western Gate and going through security.

The main structure to access the Taj.

And there it is.

Classic tourist pic.Nicely accented by the rando in red and the two others behind me. I almost knocked over the British lady directly behind me into the water. That would have been classic.

Photo from the base of the Taj.

Red booties we had to put on in order to walk onto the Taj itself. They stopped having people take their shoes off thanks to Slumdog Millionaire, or so that's what our guide said. I can't help but notice just how awesome red shoes would be. First goal back home, well maybe second after destroying some form of beef, is to find some red puma or reebok from back in the day.

If you don't currently own a camera that has the panaromic capabilities I highly encourage picking one up. You can take sweet photos like this. Love this photo.

One of the minerets of the Taj. Enger Tower has nothing on this. If you know what Enger Tower is, I'll buy you a beer.

Entry to the inside of the Taj. You aren't supposed to take pictures inside it.

This is inside the Taj, yep I took pictures.



I really like this photo too. I dare say it's beautiful. Maybe if this HR thing doesn't work out for me I might have a career as a photojournalist.

So that was a few of the photos from the Taj. I have plenty more and I need to get more from some of my classmates, but again, those will be up on my facebook when I return to the US. I also took some video at the Taj and I'm hoping to get that up tonight when we land in Bangalore. I'll also have some photos and video of our visit to the Agra Fort. The Agra Fort is sweet and impressive in it's own right, but it's tough to follow the Taj.

Off to Bangalore

Packing up to leave Delhi and head to Bangalore today. The Taj was an experience and tonight I hope to add some posts with pics and video. 1 more week here in India and the time is flying. I will say the first thing I'm doing when I get back to the US is have a steak. This no beef thing over here is tough.

Dogs of India

Before I left for India I knew there was an animal problem. While at HP this summer my boss shared with me some of her stories of India and one of the things that stood out to here was the condition and number of animals roaming the streets. Now being in country, I never anticipated just how out of control the situation is. The number of dogs that play the role of city nomads is incomprehensible. You can almost guarantee on every block at least 2 to 3 dogs digging through some garbage or defecating in the streets. This is certainly not one of the prettier sides of India, or specifically Delhi. Some of these photos may be hard to look at for animal lovers, but it's something that should be shared.

Chintan visit

On Thursday one of our visits took us to a NGO that works to help organize rag pickers in Delhi to help them earn a modest salary (relatively speaking). The basics premise being that garbage is collected and separated by these rag pickers. The Chintan "recycling center" was nothing more than a tent with rag pickers sorting through piles of garbage in their bare feet and using their hands. It was a tough sight to take in and I can't even begin to describe the smells that permeated through the area. Again, this served as a great reminder of just how fortunate we are in the United States. Here are some photos from that visit.