Today was a packed day.
We began with three hours of lecture.
I will have to ask how lecture works for our Indian friends, but I know
for us as American students, we don’t do well sitting and paying attention for
3 consecutive hours. So this was a bit
difficult. It was, however, very
interesting for the most part. Professor
Ambulkar discussed small and medium enterprises, which basically translates to
entrepreneurship in India. Being that my
major is management with an interest in entrepreneurship, it was right up my
alley! We viewed a short video about
Mirakle Couriers: This is an Indian
courier service which employs deaf people.
From what I understand, those who are handicapped in India are nearly
unemployable, and when they do receive jobs it is usually menial work which
earns very little and does very little to boost the individual personally. The young man who pioneered this business is
a graduate of The H.R. College of Commerce here in Mumbai. This is the college which is hosting us while
we’re here. He is brilliant in my book
for doing something so forward in a country that is set so strongly in
tradition and customs. I thoroughly
enjoyed the lecture and would love to hear another!
This was followed by lunch at the college. Every day we find more to talk about with our
student hosts. I know it will be hard to
leave them on Friday. They have helped
make our first days in India wonderful and we are all very grateful!
After lunch, we visited the Bombay Stock Exchange which is
the largest exchange in Asia. There, we
listened to a lecture about the exchange, its importance, and how it interacts
with the economy here. We walked through
our first actual metal detectors to get in.
There are many metal detectors around town, though none of them ever
function (at all—as in, they aren’t even powered on). Once inside, we went straight to the 18th
floor which is the only floor we had clearance to be on. We listened to the lecture and then went to
see the view from the cafeteria. It was
a nice view of the surrounding area and we took a few pictures.
Following the view, it was time to leave. Well, this became and adventure. About half of us got into an elevator which
was sent on its way, without one of the officials (of which there were two) in
it with us. We didn’t get out when we
were supposed to, and did get out when we weren’t supposed to…On The Wrong
Floor! Remember, we don’t have clearance
to be anywhere except the 18th floor. After much deliberation and finger pointing,
we got ourselves back into the elevator and to the correct floor, where our
guides/officials still had not arrived.
A couple of minutes later, they joined us and led us down some stairs,
through a renovation area of the building, and down a very long corridor. Now, normally, this wouldn’t be too big a
deal, except that the entire journey was led by a couple of our students who
had no idea where to go. One would think
that it might make sense with two guides, for one to lead and the other to
follow. I guess that isn’t done
here? I was not alone in my irritation
in the lack of guidance on this particular outing. I feel like, despite our lack of clearance,
we could have found ourselves into anywhere in the building. The security clearly isn’t very secure. Additionally, I snapped at Divya (one of our
host students) when she called us all stupid for not getting off the elevator. I felt badly later for being rude to her,
though I was truly irritated and I tend to show my feelings.
After this, we walked to Starbucks (I know, Starbucks in a
foreign country?). Everyone was excited
for the free wifi, which didn’t work for us.
But the coffees and drinks were a touch of home after a few days of
nothing home-like at all. It was nice,
actually. And a bit funny as a couple of
people have been asking for Starbucks since the plane touched down. So, we finally got our Starbucks, and in the
first Starbucks constructed in India. We
visited with our hosts and gave them some good laughs at our banter and
excitement over silly things. We were
behaving entirely as typical Americans in a coffee house, and I think they were
quite amused by it. At one point a few
of us from each group (Indian and American) were waiting to use the ladies
room. Ria and I were just cracking up
and being our very loud selves. When I
returned from my turn in the restroom, I made a typical American comment: “Whoever designed that bathroom should be
shot!” The girls thought that was just
so funny!! All kidding aside, it’s
entirely true. The Starbucks is the
largest I’ve ever seen. It’s something
like 4500 square feet. Yet somehow, the bathroom
has one door which opens all the way to the wall of the next door, which opens
to just clear the toilet. Through the
first door is a space large enough only for the sink. Very poorly designed, Starbucks!
So, you might think that after all of this in one day, we’d
be finished, no? Nope, not even
close! We followed our coffee break by
desserts in a small patisserie. I’ll
have to find out the name of the dessert we tried. All of the students have been talking about
it since we got here. In a small fried
shell were little beadlike somethings (they sort of resembled cous cous in
appearance) in a sweet and spicy liquid.
It was interesting. I didn’t love
it, and didn’t really care to eat another, but it wasn’t bad.
Finished yet? Nope. A couple of the guys have talked about
nothing but wanting to eat MEAT for like a day and a half! Meat, please give me meat! Much of the country here is vegetarian, and
nearly all of our meals have been either largely or entirely vegetarian. The best way to describe it is that we are
used to very substantial meals: Big
burgers, sandwiches, burritos, things we can hold in our hands and take big
juicy bites out of. Here, people eat
small bites, often with a piece of bread in their hand. We have eaten a lot of rice with various
sauces, some with a tofu-like protein source, often with beans of some
sort. While most everything we’ve had
has been tasty, it’s just not quite satisfying after multiple meals in a
row. Well, our hosts were obliged to
appease the gents that were so adamantly requesting Meat. Dinner was very good. I had butter chicken which is entirely unlike
the butter chicken one might find at an Indian restaurant in the US. Our table received its food, the next table
received its food, and the third table (which included one of the boys who so desperately
needed some “bland meat”) waited and waited for their food. They eventually left and went to McDonald’s
nearby in order to get chicken sandwiches.
I actually felt very badly for them.
It was very late, and they were hungry.
We were all tired and simply ready to eat.
All in all, it was an interesting day. One of the students asked me today how I like
India and Mumbai. I wasn’t very sure how
to answer her as I don’t really know.
Despite the fact that people are people over all and have in common
basic needs and wants, the city is so very different in almost every way from
home. It’s big and loud! I took some videos to try to capture the
sights and sounds, though I don’t feel as though you will get the picture as I
had hoped you might. I’ll have to post
those later as I don’t have enough wifi access to do it now. I’ll try to see if I can get one, maybe during
our walk in the morning, which better captures the craziness and uniqueness of this
place. I think my response will still
take a couple of days to figure out.
My feet are still swollen. A friend of Ria's lives here in India and happens to be a doctor. I asked her about it and she said to elevate them as much as possible. I'll keep doing that and hope it gets better. They didn't get bad today until this evening after a long day of walking. One day at a time, though I sure would like to know why this is happening.
Until next time, keep on burning…
The Gateway to India built when the British left India
Ferries
This monkey on Elephanta Island had the soda, then opened the bag of chips and started chowing down
Zohra is one of our student hosts, and she's such a sweetheart! We're both Harry Potter fans!
One of the carvings at The Elephanta Caves
Selfies with the bull--in the middle of the sidewalk
The slums from the outside. We weren't permitted to take photos from inside.
My terribly swollen feet :(
