New Years eve

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.