Our first lecture was delivered by Rajesh Haldipur and titled Incredible India. The Indian people are very proud, and I expected some chest pounding. The country has come a long way in its development, however the comparison of a national crisis in the US vs. India hit a nerve. The media reports what ever they feel will sell time slots or news paper pages but when the story goes internationally the people abroad do not get the full story and the media makes people in the US look like hoodlums and vandals. Not a way I would have expected the class room experienced to start.
Our first tour was to Vikram Hospital, which is a super specialty surgery hospital. The CFO is a SDM-IMD alumni gave us a great tour of the hospital and the various services that are offered. One of the changes in the landscape of health care in India are the services that are offered to the world at a much lower cost then, for example, services in the US. Even though a large portion of the medical doctors in India have western training, the facilities that we saw, were not nearly to the level of cleanliness as we would see in North America. There is a possibility here for a business venture where one becomes a broker between a US insurance company/individual and a reputable Hospital in India. This version of outsourcing and off shoring is very unique. One problem with the argument that people would go to India for less expensive medical treatment is that, I like to be at home when I am in recovery from a major surgery and in a strange land with strange food. I am not sure that this would be for me.
Our New Years Eve celebrations took us to a place called Planet X where there was food, beverages and dancing. To protect the innocent that is all that will be said about the evening’s activities other then international incident #2. During dinner that night which was a buffet that was 200ft long, Karl lost his balance, fell backwards and spilt a local’s food all over him. Being quickly surrounded by 10 locals and getting screamed at in the local language, I was able to use my negation skills and diffuse the crowd and get away with only wiping the curry and yogurt off of the man. After that, Karl was escorted back to the Ginger Hotel where he spent the rest of the night in a daze.
It was a very different New Years Eve cause for the first time in 16 years I did not have my wife to kiss at midnight. As Harvey and I both were wishing we had our ladies were with us, Harvey got some action from a local male, a full on kiss on his lips. After seeing that, I figured that no kiss was MUCH BETTER than what you get in a foreign country!
I missed you Candis.
Monday, December 31, 2007
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Where are the pictures?
Since it is a pain to up load pictures on this blog, I will be using Picasa to post the pictures. The link is http://picasaweb.google.com/GeneAstolfisPhotos/IndiaTrip.
Saturday, December 29, 2007
India, day one
Walking around the City the first day was a lot of fun. Eight of us went on a walk and we were able to experience the bird garden, police training academy, our first market and many kids begging for money or trying to sell us useless trinkets. As a team/group we were sensitive to the needs of each other and what each person wanted to do, therefore we experienced a lot of the city and the area around the Ginger Hotel.
There is no sense of sanitation or refuse collection in this city. The stench in some parts of the City is unbearable and there is trash everywhere. The only sign of trash collection is a pile of garbage by each shop or in the gutter on the side of the road that is filled with trash. Further reflecting on what I have seen thus far, there appears to be an awkward pace in this area of the country. While the rickshaw drivers drive like they are on fire, the service where we have gone has been very, very slow.
One aspect that surprised me was the commercialization of the electronics industry. Every where we went there were signs for Vodafone, AirTel and Nokia. There are 2 cell phone stores per block, just like the bar population in Wisconsin. I believe that “The Steroids” flattener is well represented here.
Currency translation calculation here has proven to be difficult for some. Todd Urban, Harvey HA and I went to purchase a local cell phone which the cost per minute is a lot cheaper then our USA phones, the total was 1100 rp. Todd determined that the three way split was calculated by 500 Harvey, 500 Gene and 100 Todd. Needless to say, Todd purchased the phone on his own.
On Sunday night we went to a great dinner at the Hotel Lalitha Mahal, which is castle that was build for the British Royalty. The Hotel had the first Otis elevator in Mysore for them to get between floors. After fine Indian dining with some of the faculty from SDM-IMT we retreated back to the Ginger Hotel.
There is something lacking in the craftsmanship of the various buildings here in India. This was a beautiful building but there was little attention to detail that made the building look sloppy. When the building was repainted, there was paint splattered all over the marble and base of the building. Compared to other countries and their national monuments, this was disappointing.
There is no sense of sanitation or refuse collection in this city. The stench in some parts of the City is unbearable and there is trash everywhere. The only sign of trash collection is a pile of garbage by each shop or in the gutter on the side of the road that is filled with trash. Further reflecting on what I have seen thus far, there appears to be an awkward pace in this area of the country. While the rickshaw drivers drive like they are on fire, the service where we have gone has been very, very slow.
One aspect that surprised me was the commercialization of the electronics industry. Every where we went there were signs for Vodafone, AirTel and Nokia. There are 2 cell phone stores per block, just like the bar population in Wisconsin. I believe that “The Steroids” flattener is well represented here.
Currency translation calculation here has proven to be difficult for some. Todd Urban, Harvey HA and I went to purchase a local cell phone which the cost per minute is a lot cheaper then our USA phones, the total was 1100 rp. Todd determined that the three way split was calculated by 500 Harvey, 500 Gene and 100 Todd. Needless to say, Todd purchased the phone on his own.
On Sunday night we went to a great dinner at the Hotel Lalitha Mahal, which is castle that was build for the British Royalty. The Hotel had the first Otis elevator in Mysore for them to get between floors. After fine Indian dining with some of the faculty from SDM-IMT we retreated back to the Ginger Hotel.
There is something lacking in the craftsmanship of the various buildings here in India. This was a beautiful building but there was little attention to detail that made the building look sloppy. When the building was repainted, there was paint splattered all over the marble and base of the building. Compared to other countries and their national monuments, this was disappointing.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
And off we go
December 27th
I arrived first at the airport with the vigor of a new adventure. Of the 16 students that are on the trip, I had only meet 5 prior to arrival. After the first hour I had a feeling that this was going to be a good, fun group to travel with. How the 10 flatteners, triple convergence and “Being Indian” will play into this trip and the dynamics of the group I have no clue at this point.
The start of the trip was very uneventful. MSP to Chicago no problem, (the standard Indian answer). O’Hare however lived up to its reputation of being a painful place to fly out of. International flights from O’Hare leave from a separate terminal that is only accessible by the train. After ticketing we turned the corner to go toward security and our gate when we hit the feed lot lines. There was over 500 people in line waiting to go through security. With the thought that we could eat on the other side of security, I spent the hour and a half in line getting yelled at by the TSA agents. Not haven eaten since 8 am that morning and as most of you know I never miss a meal, it was 5 pm I was famished. The only place on the other side of security to eat was a single kiosk that I spent $7.40 on a soggy marble rye chicken sandwich.
A small incident that was witnessed by Harvey and Rajiv I now classify as international incident Number 1. The incident centered around two Indian men fist fighting in line at the ticket counter. Even though no one from our group was involved, it was a person to person conflict that we witnessed.
When the Air India plane finally arrived, they added an extra 10 to 12 roles of duct tape to the turbines to keep them attached to the wings, we were off ( we were on a 747, and it must have been 30 years old). We went from Chicago to Frankfurt Germany and 7+ hour flight. We were served Indian Food that was actually very tasty. With some reading and sleep the time went well.
I arrived first at the airport with the vigor of a new adventure. Of the 16 students that are on the trip, I had only meet 5 prior to arrival. After the first hour I had a feeling that this was going to be a good, fun group to travel with. How the 10 flatteners, triple convergence and “Being Indian” will play into this trip and the dynamics of the group I have no clue at this point.
The start of the trip was very uneventful. MSP to Chicago no problem, (the standard Indian answer). O’Hare however lived up to its reputation of being a painful place to fly out of. International flights from O’Hare leave from a separate terminal that is only accessible by the train. After ticketing we turned the corner to go toward security and our gate when we hit the feed lot lines. There was over 500 people in line waiting to go through security. With the thought that we could eat on the other side of security, I spent the hour and a half in line getting yelled at by the TSA agents. Not haven eaten since 8 am that morning and as most of you know I never miss a meal, it was 5 pm I was famished. The only place on the other side of security to eat was a single kiosk that I spent $7.40 on a soggy marble rye chicken sandwich.
A small incident that was witnessed by Harvey and Rajiv I now classify as international incident Number 1. The incident centered around two Indian men fist fighting in line at the ticket counter. Even though no one from our group was involved, it was a person to person conflict that we witnessed.
When the Air India plane finally arrived, they added an extra 10 to 12 roles of duct tape to the turbines to keep them attached to the wings, we were off ( we were on a 747, and it must have been 30 years old). We went from Chicago to Frankfurt Germany and 7+ hour flight. We were served Indian Food that was actually very tasty. With some reading and sleep the time went well.
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