July 30th to August 1st – New Delhi

After leaving Agra on Wednesday morning, we travelled to New Delhi. On my previous visit to India, we travelled the same route from Agra to Delhi, a journey that took about 4 hours each way due to the poor infrastructure and dirt roads in the area. This time, however, the trip from Agra to Delhi only took an hour and a half due to a new highway. For someone who has seen how infrastructure can heavily impact a country such as Sri Lanka, where it was heavily damaged during the civil war, crippling the country and requiring mass rebuilding, it is a very encouraging sign to see this investment and change since my last visit. After arriving in Delhi, we spent the afternoon visiting an open market in Delhi called Dilli Haat. Throughout the market, we had the opportunity to barter with the store owners and look at all the amazing handicrafts.

On Thursday, we spent the day touring throughout Delhi. While most of the locations were places I had visited before, one new location for me was Qutab Minar. This huge tower is part of a larger mosque and used for call to prayer. The mosque itself was really interesting as there was a huge amount of Hindu architectural design in the mosque including lotus flower designs and wall carvings.

While seeing some of the sights in Delhi was fun, one of the most interesting experiences in Delhi was on Friday when we had the opportunity to visit the India headquarters of Walmart. While Walmart is not currently operating a business to customer operation like it does in the US, it is currently doing a business to business operation where it acts as a supplier to the thousands of small local family-run stores that most Indian shop at each day. This is done by using a Sam’s club model and setting up their stores to best allow them to interact with business owner instead of individual consumers, including more trucking access, rest and wait areas, and business offices. Having some familiarity with how Walmart is run in the US it was intriguing to see some of the cultural differences that were accounted for and how many similarities still remained despite being set up across the world. One of the most intriguing things was listening to some of the difficulties for the realty team when they were attempting to pick out sites for the stores. One such issue was complaints by customers about the quality of the toilets in their stores, as they used conventional toilets instead of the squat toilets that the customers were used to initially. The final event that we did while in India was to visit the Kingdom of Dreams, an Indian version of Branson where we watched a stage show that was presented in Hindi but translated to English using an audio headset. It was interesting to see how they included technology in the show unlike anything I had seen in the US with huge video screens and lighting displays that were used to set the stage and incorporate video into the show. While the show itself wasn’t incredible it was still interesting to watch and a relaxing end to my fun but hectic time in India. 

July 28th to July 29th –Fatehpur Sikri and Agra

Departing from Jaipur on Monday morning, we left for Agra. On our way, however, we visited a huge palace located an hour and a half from Agra, known as Fatehpur Sikri. This served as a former palace for Akbar, one of the most powerful Mughal emperors. Made entirely of red sandstone, the palace was intriguing as it not only had a temple, but also a mosque and a church and the maharaja had three wives, each from a different religion. The red sandstone was in use due to its local availability and lower cost. The palace complex also had a large area devoted as a hall for public audiences. This area, opening onto a large courtyard, allowed the emperor to meet with people and address loud crowds. Large areas in the palace were used for bathing pools, filled using rainwater.  The other huge area of the complex was a huge red sandstone mosque known as the Jama Masjid. Overlooking the surrounding city, the mosque stands huge at the top of a hill. While we were visiting, it was still Ramadan, so the surrounding area near the mosque was filled with celebrating people and the mosque itself was filled with people praying. After visiting the mosque we continued on to Agra.

Waking up early on Tuesday morning, which was also Eid the day marking the end of Ramadan, we left to visit the Taj Mahal at sunrise. Despite visiting it before, it was amazing to see once again. Called Taj Mahal or Crown Palace, it was built as a mausoleum for Mumtaz Mahal, the wife of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan. While visually stunning, one of the most intriguing aspects of the Taj Mahal is the symmetry of the complex. Both the gardens and the main mausoleum itself are completely balanced, with a small canal going straight from the main gate to the palace on which the entire complex is mirrored and symmetrical. While in my previous visit it was midday and the palace was gleaming white, as the light was low in the morning the color of the building was almost brown. As well as the Taj Mahal, we also visited a building known as the Baby Taj, a similar construction built by a relative of Shah Jahan that heavily influenced the design of the Taj Mahal. While the construction style during the Mughal time was using the red sandstone that was used at Fatehpur Sikri, this building was the first to use the white marble design with a semi-precious inlay. The other location that we visited in Agra was Agra fort. Used by the British during their colonial period and still partially in use today, this building served as the military base and the palace of the government in Agra. This also served as the prison for Shah Jahan in his later years. After becoming obsessed by building this tomb for his wife, the emperor’s son imprisoned him, as both a chance to gain power for himself, and to prevent him from wasting all of the empire’s funds on building this complex. While the building complex was huge and costly, there was an entire mirror complex planned across the river from the Taj Mahal to serve as Shah Jahan’s burial site. The Agra fort itself was fairly restricted, with only a small amount of access, but one intriguing area was the bedrooms for the two granddaughters of Shah Jahan. While one had an elaborate marble palace with delicate inlay, the other younger daughter had a mirroring palace made simply of white painted stone.

July 26th and July 27th – Jaipur

Spending the day travelling on Saturday, we woke up early Sunday to begin exploring Jaipur. As we left our hotel, we entered the old part of the city and began to see the Pink city of Jaipur. Every building within the gates of the old city had been painted pink by the Maharaja of Jaipur in celebration of a royal visit by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Pink was chosen as chosen as it represents hospitality in the Indian culture. Our first stop in the Pink city was the Hawa Mahal. One of the major palaces in Jaipur, Hawa Mahal means Wind Palace. Made of pink sandstone, it was recognizable for its front wall that is filled with hundreds of windows that allowed the women who resided in the palace to look out to the surroundings without people seeing their faces, allowing them to maintain their modesty as dictated by the cultural norms. Leaving the main city, we then stopped along the lake in Jaipur to see another palace. Known as Jal Mahal, or the Water Palace, the summer palace of the Majaraja had been built in the middle of the lake, requiring people to row out to visit it. After getting some pictures from the shore, we went further out to visit the Ambur Fort. This fort, located on the top of a hill on the Aravalli mountain range overlooking the surrounding area, was the ancient capital of Rajasthan. To get to the top of the fort, we took a ride on top of the back of an elephant and rode along the winding path up to the fort. While an amazing experience to ride the elephant, it was somewhat dampened by the fact that we were constantly harassed by merchants trying to sell us knick knacks and take photos as well as some of the elephant owners beating the elephants to speed them up. It seems that the approach to animals in India was very severe, with concepts like animal cruelty and feral animals an ever-present part of the culture. While it is called a fort, the entire complex houses a palace, temple, and other living areas. Starting from a main courtyard, we were shown around the huge area of the fort taken up for the palace. While the Maharaja had his own residential quarters, his multiple wives had their own separate living quarters in a separate part of the palace. Located around a central courtyard, there was a huge series of underground tunnels connecting the rooms and the main sectors of the palace. This allowed the king to visit his wives in secret without the others knowing in an attempt to allow privacy and prevent jealousy between the wives. One of the most interesting parts of the palace was the water system that the palace used. Along with full drainage systems, the palace had a huge series of pulleys that allowed water from the lake at the foot of the palace to be transported up to the fort. After riding in a jeep back down to the bottom of the fort, we left back for Jaipur city. Our final stop in Jaipur was City Palace. Still in use by the rulers of Jaipur, the complex had a huge armory of old weapons, an area were government sponsored artisans were selling their products, and a museum of royal clothing. One of the most interesting things on display was a set of huge silver urns. These were used by the Maharaja of Jaipur on a visit to England in order to hold a large amount of water from the Ganges which he used for bathing and religious purposes. Also part of the complex was the royal observatory. Used to keep track of the calendar and for religious purposes, the observatory was still in working condition today, with some sundials accurate to within two seconds. 

July 21st to July 25th – Final Days in Bangalore

While this week, I have been extremely busy with finals for both of my classes, there were a couple of really neat experiences that occurred during this week. On Monday, feeling that I had fully adjusted to India and maybe feeling a little brave, I decided to go to a local Ramadan festival and break fast with some of the locals. While there I tried some doner kebabs, chicken rolls, and camel meat, which, while a little tough, was actually delicious. It was amazing to observe the community around the festival, as people gathered, standing at small tables or sitting on the floor eating and chatting with one another. On Wednesday, I tried some more street food, this time from a stall called 99 Dosas. They sold a huge variety of these thin crispy pancakes filled with cheese, mushroom, potato, cauliflower, spinach, and many other combinations. Grabbing a small stool and leaning against the chain fence surround the local park, I bit into a delicious meal, more flavorful than I had eaten in any restaurant that I had visited. On Thursday, I made a final visit to MG Road and Commercial street, an area with a huge collection of stores that sell handicrafts. Looking to buy some last minute souvenirs, I travelled out alone to grab a couple of items. Used to travelling with a group that was obviously foreigners, it was fun to blend into the crowd. Going into stores, the salesman gave me prices that were almost half of what I was getting when I walked in with the rest of the group. Tuk tuk drivers who usually refuse to use their meter when dealing with tourists willingly turned them on, assuming I was a local. It was interesting to experience how differently I was treated.

Having finished my classes Friday, I felt like a weight was off my shoulders. For my Globalization and Innovation course, my final project was to look at an innovative product in the past or present and look at its market, technological development, and develop a marketing strategy for it. I looked in depth at wearable technology, technology like Google Glass or Samsung Gear that can be worn that enhance the way you interact with your environment. It was intriguing to do a full market strategy for the technology and explore how much technology is currently or planned to be in the market soon across fields ranging from simple entertainment to medical or industrial sectors. For my macroeconomics courses, our professor, instead of doing a full final test, wanted us to simply discuss with him some of the major topics we had covered. His rationale for this was that instead of wanting to scare us away from learning, he wanted us to enjoy it and wanted us to be able to discuss what we learned and pass on the knowledge to others. Coming from an extremely test-centered culture, this notion was almost shocking. This somewhat underlines some of the key differences in the approach to education. Teachers wanted us to talk in class and discuss our learning instead of sitting there and writing notes as they lectured. It was interesting to take classes this way and I felt more excited to learn and more engaged with the material.

July 19th and July 20th – Pondicherry

As we arrived early morning on Saturday, I was shocked by how different Pondicherry was from everything else I had seen in India. When we left, we were in the center of Bangalore filled with dirty streets, heavy traffic, loud sounds, strong smells, and all the other things we had come to associate with India. As we exited the bus, however, we walked out onto paved cobblestone roads, free of trash and traffic. The only sounds were the ocean waves crashing against the nearby rocky beachfront. As we wandered about exploring before we left for our hotels, I felt transported to a small French city. Every street was named rue, cafes were on every corner, many signs were French, a canal ran through the center of town, there was a still running French consulate, and cathedrals were scattered across the city. The entire area was colored in pastel colors and designed with French architecture. The only reminders that I was in India was the overwhelming heat along the beach and the tuk tuks that weaved through the French quarter. As we walked along the beachfront, stopping along the way for a quick breakfast, we checked into our hotels. While some of the travelers wanted to stay around the pool for the day and relax, I decided to go out and explore Pondicherry. Wandering through town with some others, we discovered the Indian quarter in Pondicherry. Having explored the French quarters earlier, this part of town was a significant contrast, with market streets, crowds, loud sounds, temples, animals, and all the other things that we saw daily in Bangalore. It was fascinating to see how distinctly separated these areas were, with the canal running through the center of town demarcating these two areas and splitting the town in half. Buildings located just a few meters from each other were so completely polar opposites just because of what sector of town they were located in. One of the most fascinating places in town was the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. Located in the French quarter of town, the ashram was a religious center within the town. As I entered, the entire place was in complete silence. In the main courtyard was a tall tree and a large crowd of people all surrounding it and meditating. While we only stayed briefly, locals were sitting in deep meditation completely removed from their surroundings. Much like the rest of Pondicherry, the ashram was an extremely peaceful and serene place, almost completely separated from the world around it. Saturday evening, after having fully explored Pondicherry, we decided to go to a local food festival that was occurring that weekend. With many local restaurants having booths along the waterfront, I stopped by to grab crab curry, appam (a doughy bread pancakes), and fish fry. Having tried some of the local food, I returned back to my hotel.

On Sunday, we decided to take the opportunity to visit a beach while we were on the coast. Taking a small ferry out to an island, we spent a couple hours enjoying the waves on the beach and swimming in the Bay of Bengal. While small, one of the most fun things about being on the beach was just sitting there and grabbing a Fanta from one of the small stalls along the beach. While Fanta in the US is okay, in India and in most places in Southeast Asia, it is sold bottled and sweetened with actual sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. While experiencing some of the local food and drink is extremely fun, it has been to see how the Western food in India differs in subtle ways. Having spent some time on the beach, we grabbed our bags from the hotel and returned back to Bangalore

July 14th to July 18th – Shivasamudra Falls and the Importance of WiFi

After finishing class on Monday, we spent the evening planning a day trip for Tuesday as we had no classes. After looking at a number of locations and narrowing them down, we chose to go to Shivasamudra Falls, a set of waterfalls located in the north of Karnataka, the state which has Bangalore as the capital. After talking to the program director, we organized a car for four people to take us the seven hours round trip journey, only costing us 3000 rupees or $50 for the day. Leaving early in the morning, we journeyed from Bangalore to the waterfall, passing through rural villages and towns far off the main highway. Arriving at the park, we climbed down from a hill that overlooked the area to the foot of the waterfall. While the park itself was isolated away from any major cities, it was still packed with tourists swimming in the water and walking around observing the stunning waterfall. After walking around for a while, we wanted to try to get even closer to the waterfall. Along the lake at the bottom of the waterfall, a number of small circular rafts were collected. For only a dollar, a local took us out on one of the rafts right to the foot of the waterfall. We could feel the strength of the water as it sprayed us, the mist drenching our clothes. The view from the bottom of the waterfall was spectacular and it was amazing to feel the force of the waterfall as we passed near it. Having fully experienced the Shivasamudra waterfalls, we travelled back to Bangalore.

During the latter part of the week, I began trying to plan a trip for the upcoming weekend for a group of the students. In total, 17 of the students decided to go to Pondicherry, a former French colonial city in the neighboring state. In order to do this, however, I needed to book us both transportation and hotels for the weekend. However, right in the middle of this planning on Wednesday, the WiFi in our apartment completely shut down. This left me without a phone or internet connection and only with an hour or two to use the WiFi on campus in a computer lab each day. With only a day to finalize our plans, I managed to get two private buses organized for the group and compile a list of hotels in Pondicherry that were located around the same area and affordable for the students. With everything finally confirmed on Friday afternoon and everyone excited to explore Pondicherry, we packed our bags and left that late Friday evening.

July 11th to July 13th - Bollywood and Mysore

As I finally reached the end of a long week, a group of students, including myself, decided to go to one of the local malls and watch a Bollywood movie. After looking through our choices, we decided to see Humpty Sharma Ki Kulkarnia, a romantic comedy entirely in Hindi. With only one student who could speak Hindi we decided to be adventurous and go watch the movie. With only occasional help from our “translator” we were able to follow the movie fairly easily despite the language barrier. After the first hour or so, the movie entered an intermission, reminiscent of classic movies or theatre. We enjoyed the random dancing scenes intermingled into the movie and laughed at the horribly cheesy, overdone sound effects in the action scenes. Overall, the quality of the movie was strong, on par with American movies and we thoroughly enjoyed our experience at the movies.

On Saturday, we departed from campus early and began our journey to Mysore. Sat squished at the back of the bus, I fully experienced every bump along the road, bouncing a couple inches out of my seat each time. After journeying for about 3 hours, we briefly toured a collection of ruins just an hour outside of Mysore. Our director told us that it was the former palace of Tipu Sultan, a former king of Mysore who was renowned as a bold fighter. During the initial British colonization of Britain, Tipu Sultan was the King of Mysore, thus making him a huge threat to the British. Upon inviting the British to his palace, his British guests stabbed in the back and threw his body into a nearby field, leaving his kingdom vulnerable for British to conquer. We looked briefly at the former’s palace ruins, which served as a base for the British until they left India, destroying the palace completely. The summer palace, still intact, was fascinating to explore, with elaborate murals of battle scenes and family portraits painted upon the walls.

After another hour in the bus, we arrived in Mysore and went into our hotel. Quickly depositing our backpacks into the small but plush room shared between three of us, we went for lunch before getting out to explore the city. Our first and most important stop was Mysore Palace. After going through the main gate and walking through the grounds, passing a massive temple contained within the complex, we reached the palace. Decorated in beautiful turquoise stones and inlays, the palace was still maintained in pristine condition. Every room in the palace had silver mirrors or chairs and the main hall contained a huge chandelier. One area that was really interesting was a room that was completely open to the outside plaza that served as a public forum for the king. Along the sides of the room were viewing areas for visiting dignitaries and in a central raised area was a space for the king to sit. The entire room, much like the rest of the palace was a beautiful turquoise that made it seem grand and powerful, especially compared to the more subtle colors of the surrounding city. After leaving the palace, I got the opportunity to ride on a camel around the courtyard of the palace. Struggling to hold on despite the makeshift saddle, I managed to circle around the courtyard once before jumping off. We then returned to the hotel to relax and enjoy our break from school work. 

On our second day in Mysore, we spent the morning visiting some handicrafts stores that specialized in silk embroidery. After looking at tapestries and tablecloths, we left with our purchases and went to the Mysore Zoo. Walking around with an umbrella attempting to avoid the intermittent rain, I walked through the zoo to see all the usual animals, including flamingos, tigers, deer, and cheetahs along with elephants and a large snake area. More amusing than the zoo, however, was the reaction of the locals to the group of American students walking around the zoo. As we moved from enclosure to enclosure, locals would continually stop the students for photographs and to talk with them. As we all gathered near the exit, a huge crowd surrounded the group, insisting on getting photos with the American students. With a large herd of people following us back to the bus, we departed to briefly look at St. Philomena’s Church, a large beautiful cathedral in the heart of Mysore, before setting off for Bangalore.