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After we left the fort we made our way to the Ellora caves which are not actually caves but man-made structures that were carved into giant pieces of rock. This was a super impressive piece of architecture! After we did some exploring we got lunch and had a study break at the airport before we departed for Mumbai.

Holy Cow

I can’t believe that we are already in Bangalore! We started our day with an amazing breakfast spread in the Radisson Blu City Centre hotel. We then headed out to explore the city and started the day by visiting a Shiva temple. We saw these beautifully decorated plates with all the religious things on them. I took the liberty to buy one plate and offer it inside the temple. It was a calming experience as we ended up meditating outside the temple. We then visited another temple and had the pleasure of seeing a fully dressed holy cow outside. After the temple visit, we saw some main attractions in the city like the parliament building, some gardens and the high court.

After the city, we had the opportunity to go to the IIMB campus which is one of the biggest business schools in India. We met with some entrepreneurs there and discussed their startups which gave us a lot of insight into the startup culture of India. We ended the day with an amazing dinner and had lots of fun conversations.

Bonus Episode

Hello everyone! Welcome back!

This blog may be about India but I’m going to take the reigns for a quick second. Our last day all together was four days ago (I’m still crying about it) and while most of us went home to the land of functioning wifi and no food poisoning (still on the recovery) I kicked off my 20 day solo tour of Thailand and Cambodia (and maybe Vietnam? Still tbd) I’m going to fast forward the first two days because 1) no one needs to hear about my never-ending food poisoning and 2) Bangkok was really underwhelming and I took maybe two pictures, 0/10 recommend. So without further adieu, let’s start with Chiang Mai!

Day 1

My goal for the day was to see as many Wats as possible. The city of Chiang Mai has over 300 Wats, most of which sit in the old town. I spent the day wondering the streets, drinking multiple mango smoothies and almost getting hit by several songthaews (survived though)

PS-Not pictured, but if anyone knows why several Buddhist temples in Chiang Mai have weirdly lifelike statues of monks inside them, lmk. It’s kinda weird.Also not picture, three of my Wat phots because Hostel wifi is the worst, sorry kids you're just gonna have to google photos.

Day 2

I woke up bright-eyed and bushy tailed because today was ELEPHANT DAY! This was the top thing on my Thai to-do list, as I’m sure it is for most people. When it came to choosing one, I wanted the most ethical option possible and thats exactly what I got with the Elephant Nature Park. The park has rescued over 30 elephants from street begging, performing and illegal work. Alot of them have permanent foot and leg injuries and some of them will never regain their trust in humans because of the cruelty they experienced. You can’t ride the elephants and you can’t bathe with them, which was kinda a bummer at first, but the whole point of the park is to give them as natural of a life as possible. Getting to see them interact with each other up close and personal was pretty sweet though!

They also have over 50 water buffalos, because why not

#mood

I spent the night at the street market which is where they shut down several streets for all types of gifts, food and clothing vendors!

Okay that’s all my news, thanks for reading this! I now have to figure out where I’m going tomorrow considering its 10:55pm (~:

(Update I’m going to Krabi 😎)

Starting bright and early, by now is an established win against the hot weather in Delhi! First thing on our plate today was the iconic lotus temple. The temple itself is really cool from an architectural point of view. What is even more interesting is the underlying principles of the Baha'i faith that inspired and built this place of calm and introspection.

Next up was the ancient ruins of the Qutub Minar ( the tower built by the Mughal emperor of India) and the many inscriptions of the Quran on the walls of the complex. It definitely makes a great photo op!

What came next was equal parts fun and madness: we took a cycle rickshaw ride through the colorful and busy inner city markets of old Delhi. A sensory overload, it's one thing you will not forget about this trip!

The tour ended with a rather sumptuous meal at a Afghan/Mughal kind of joint with some of the best naaan breads I have ever had!

Up next was a dip in the pool! Okay, this hotel has the best pool ever! A life saviour.

We started the day bright and early to be able to go over our last two case studies of the dialogue, which took up the whole morning. After completing the academic part of the dialogue, we were served lunch at the hotel, as always… the food was delicious. We had a couple hours of free time and then made our way to NDTV which is one of India’s many television media companies. We were given a tour of the building and got to see the editors at work. We then got back on the bus and made our way back to the hotel but made a pit stop at the modern bazaar so that some of us could go buy a few last minute food items to bring home. And before we knew it, it was dinnertime. We were fortunate enough to go to India’s best restaurant, Indian Accent, and enjoy a six-course meal. It was bittersweet because it was our last official dinner all together but nonetheless it was a fun night that we all enjoyed.

Today we left Agra, the city of the Taj and came to the famous capital: Delhi. On our way out of Agra we had the opportunity to visit Kalakriti, a marble factory, in which we got to see a closer view of the details that reveal the Taj Mahal’s perfection, not to mention we also shopped for some unique souvenirs.

After 3, or maybe 5 hours (we don’t have a sense of time in the bus anymore) we arrived to the last, but not least, stop of this trip. Delhi received us with a very warm welcome, literally (47ºC). In the evening most of the group headed to the ruins on Hauz Khas.

We then ended the day with a good dinner with an even better view at Hauz Khas Social, located in a very popular neighborhood of the city.

We are all excited to explore Delhi and finish our trip with new experiences!

Namaste

May 30th, 2019 (Taj Day)

Today’s the day we’ve all been waiting for… we finally got to see the Taj Mahal!

The day started bright and early since we had a long trip ahead of us, approximately a 4 and a half hour bus ride (according to Google Maps). We had to check out of the Trident Hotel in Jaipur by 7am so we could be on our way to Agra.

On our way to Agra, we made a quick stop in the village of Abhaneri where we got to see and learn the history of Chand Baori. Chand Baori is one of the largest step wells in the world and was built over 1,000 years ago! In Abhaneri, we also got to ride on camel-pulled carts and had a really great, local lunch.

After another couple of hours, we got to the beautiful Trident Hotel in Agra and had an hour before going to the Taj. We all got ready and made our way over. It got to 47ºC (116.6ºF) today, so we were all very anxious to get there.

But, we all drank lots of water and it was all worth it because we finally got to see one of the greatest Wonders of the World, the Taj Mahal!

- Freddie

May 29th

In the morning, we went to the Observatory first, learning about Astrology and the stories behind the constructions were fascinating to us. The tour guide can analyze our personalities and lucky color after knowing about our date of birth and place of birth. This is part of Indian culture, and it reflects science and their superstitious mind. We also got to see the city palace during our city tour. Even though it was really hot during that time of the day, the palace is definitely worth for us to see. I would never forget the peacock gate and the delicate patterns there. Right after that, most of us went shopping and wandered around this pink city, that was an interesting experience as well. We also had two case studies sessions. Our dinner at the Rambagh was the highlight of my day. I enjoyed the food, Indian music, dancing, and the atmosphere a lot. What an amazing experience!

-Linda

May 28, 2019

Our first full day in Jaipur was filled with new sights and sounds that were both similar and different to our experiences throughout Southern India over the past month. We started off bright and early at 8am to try and beat the heat (spoiler: it didn’t work). We headed off to the famous Amer Fort that overlooks Jaipur. Constructed in the 16th century, the forts were once home to the Maharaja, or great king, of Jaipur. We split off into groups for a quick trip to the top, one via elephants and one via Jeeps.

We were greeted by stunning architecture that wrapped all around us—beautiful arches, shimmering tile work, and exquisite detail work could be found throughout the entire palace. We wiped our brows and walked all throughout to admire the beauty found within the forts.

After our visit to Amer, we headed back down the hill and past our hotel to a textile and carpet factory. Most of us were unsure about what to expect upon walking through the gates, but by the time the first carpet was rolled out we were all taken aback by its beautify. It was a radiant blue that seemed to change as you walked around it, and the shop owner told us about how it was a special indigo dye. His assistants rolled out carpet after carpet, some made of camel hair, others of silk. Big and small, circular and rectangular, the shop seemed to have everything we didn’t even know we needed.

We deliberated for a while, and eventually a few of us successfully chose the carpets we thought would look best in our future apartments. Hopefully we chose right! We headed next door to eat some food after our strenuous shopping experience before heading back to the hotel to rest up before going to our last stop of the day, Laadli. It’s an organization that takes in orphaned children and teaches them skills that will help them succeed despite the hardships they’re going through. The kids get fed, schooled, and even paid for the work they complete. We were given the privilege of sitting in on one of their classes and play their version of hot potato before they decided to show off their hula hooping abilities.

Overall it was a tiring but rewarding day of shopping, cultural enrichment, and giving back. Tomorrow we’re headed on a tour of the city before discussing our case studies for the week. See you then!

—Josh

May 27, 2019

Today was a traveling day. We started out today with an interaction session with Sunil Kunte. We snapped a snazzy pic of all of us after the session.

After that, we pack our bags, said 👋 to bangelore and headed off to the airport. (But not before receiving a farewell present of a jar of mentos!!) #bestgiftever

When we got to the airport, most of us were sitting together so we snapped a group selfie.

Once we landed in Jaipur, we were all starving so we headed to a fast food place and grabbed some snacks. Noodles, pizza, naan and lime soda! #yum

May 25th, 2019

Today luckily was a “chiller” day for us. We got to wake up at 9am, have breakfast, and at 10:30am we arrived at Varnam Craft Collective. Varnam was created by a social entrepreneur who works with artisans in the village of Channapatna, a city famous for its wooden toys. At Varnam, we got to hear the story of how the concept was created and how the company grew from inside the founder’s house, to his friend’s basement, to now having two stores in Bangalore, and the latest addition of one store in Mumbai. It was truly amazing to hear how the company managed to grow in such a short amount of time of only 4 years.

After his presentation, we looked around the store and bought unique, hand-crafted souvenirs for our friends and family back home [if you’re reading this, you might be in for a treat when we get back ;) ]

Then some of us went to explore the neighborhood of Indiranagar and went shopping at the local stores. Afterward, we went to Monkey Bar where we met up with some of Professor Lefevre’s previous students who are now well established in their careers. Since we have a presentation on Monday, where we introduce a company that currently isn’t in India, we took advantage of the networking opportunity to get their input and suggestions for our ideas. We really loved getting to meet and talk with all of them! (we hope all of our hard work pays off! @professor)

Signing off, your fave Puerto Rican from the Bronx (a.k.a. France) iykyk,

Freddie :)

May 24, 2019

Today we spent half the day at Fidelity’s office in Bangalore. It was another beautiful campus location with many other companies surrounding it. Employees from some of the world’s largest firms (Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, IBM) were hustling around us to get to the office or grab lunch.

At Fidelity we began the session by stating what we thought of when we heard “Fidelity” and describing the types of firms we all hoped to work for one day. Fidelity was commonly described as trustworthy, established and hierarchical. On the other hand, students described their dream company atmosphere as creative, innovative, and exciting.

This was the perfect segue into our challenge for the day: come up with marketing tactics and strategies to help Fidelity bridge the gap between what employers want and what Fidelity provides. We split up into two teams and had 45 minutes to come up with our plans. The biggest issue we had to navigate around was Fidelity not having a brand presence in India (yet). So many India natives haven’t heard of Fidelity before and don’t realize the tremendous value and prestige the firm has in the United States. This makes it harder for Fidelity to attract top talent.

But that’s where we stepped in. Both teams had great ideas and Fidelity’s HR manager even said he planned to take some of those ideas into consideration for future employee branding efforts.

Below are some photos from Fidelity:

After Fidelity we headed to the campus foodcourt where we devoured burritos from California Burrito (some of us may or may not be trying to limit our Indian food intake).

With the evening off students either went bowling, got pizza, worked out, or caught up on sleep!

Below are some photos of the evening activities (can you tell we all enjoy eating?):

May 23, 2019 [Election Day]

Today we got to start the day bright and early with a very exciting visit to the Narayana Health City. We had the opportunity to sit down and talk to Dr. Shetty who is the Chairman of Narayana Health and also the Executive Director. Narayana Health City is a worldwide renown organization with the mission of delivering high-quality and affordable healthcare to as many people as possible. It is very obvious that we were all starstruck upon entering the hospital (especially the professor), and being able to meet Dr. Shetty in person after having read the Narayana Health City case study the day before in class was an amazing opportunity. He gave us an extremely interesting talk about how technology was impacting the health care industry in many ways. We then proceeded to tour the hospital, and we got a chance to see the Intensive Care Unit and the various different wards the Hospital had to offer.We then hopped onto the bus and left to our second visit of the day at Infosys which is a Software Developing IT Service company. We learned about the different areas in which Infosys works and what their services are. We also received a lecture about how Infosys maintains its workers active in learning by offering online courses of a variety of topics and specialties. We then had a delicious lunch and parted back to the hotel for the day because today was a very special day in India’s political scene as the election results were being released. This 2019 election was one of the largest historical democratic elections in history, which made today an even more memorable day!

Thank you!

May 22, 2019

If anyone knows anything about me it’s that I’m a very forgetful person, hence me writing “blog” on my wrist at breakfast so I didn’t forget to take pictures and post tonight. Me forgetting things has been a common theme over the dialogue: I left my phone at the airport, my headphones in an old hotel room and most recently my purse at the AIMS school that we visited today (sorry mom and dad if you’re reading this).

We got to the school around 9:30 and were greeted with a very warm welcome including a candle lighting ceremony and also a dance piece. Later we went into a case study with some of the AIMS students on Walmart trying to go international and they put on a fashion show for all the different regions of India. We ate lunch with the students, exchanged instagrams and Amanda was treated with some Indian hospitality via motorcycle. It was at this point I realized I left my purse as we were on the bus about to leave for Flipkart (sorry Sagar). I’ve only held up the bus a couple of times for my forgetfulness, maybe that’s the real skill I have to work on. At Flipkart we had a few Q&As with some of the employees there and had a lovely chai break where the chai company’s slogan was “India Runs on Chai”, wonder where they got that one from. Overall a day full of good ~blog content~.

<3 Caroline

Today we started bright and early with an interesting class where we discussed both the Infosys and Narayana Health case studies. We will be visiting both companies later this week, so it was a great opportunity getting to learn more about both companies and get some insights before visiting them.

At noon we left the hotel and headed to the CureFit HQ Office. CureFit is an indian start up which focuses on healthy living. They offer fun group workouts, healthy and tasty food, mental fitness with yoga and meditation, and medical and lifestyle care. We started the visit by eating a healthy and balances meal from their eat.fit line, followed by an interesting lecture of how their business works overall. We finalized by visiting one of their cult.fit facilities where we participated in a very fun dance class. Our first (and hopefully not last) workout was a great experience!

What a better way to start off your Monday than by visiting the National Reserve Park of Bannerghatta? We had the amazing opportunity to spot some elephants, lions, tigers, dears, and bears. Also, some early birds stretched out to a morning yoga session taught by Nikhil and Parmin.

After the safari, we toured the IIMB School of Business where we got to chat with some incredible young entrepreneurs. They shared their experience with the incubator (NSR CEL), and primarily their ups and downs with starting their own businesses.

Main advice to keep in mind: Network as much as you can, make it diverse and find people aligned with your vision! :)

Today, we had a city tour with Lathashree who showed us a typical South Indian temple. She told us the story behind Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati. Then we went to Cubbon Park and had some mouth-watering ice creams, this was all we needed in the heat. After strolling around the park, we went to the Tipu Sultan Summer Palace and took some pictures. Then we went to the Big Bull Temple and the fun fact about that place was the bull is the biggest of its kind. After that, we stopped to have some delicious corn on the cob and coconut water. Then we headed back to the hotel to enjoy a fun cooking session with Esther. Following the cooking session, we had an Improv session with ICB.

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