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.