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.