India Self Reflection Blog

During the two weeks travelling in India, we visited 14 multinational and national companies in Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore. I don’t foresee myself travelling back to India unless it is for business. For the most part, my takeaway from India involves 114 degree weather, dusty streets always under construction but never completed, and very intelligent people who are not great at focusing on one task and getting it done. My best examples of this include the waiters I would ask at least five times for a coffee while eating my breakfast. The waiter would always respond in perfect English, “with milk?” I would say, “yes with milk.” Ten minutes later I would ask about the coffee. “With milk?” He would ask. “Yes with milk.” I would respond. This little dance would continue throughout breakfast until it was time for me to run, without coffee. Another example of poor follow-through entails the Ginger Hotel staff that provided one towel for a two-person room the entire week of our stay. Every evening I would walk downstairs and request another towel. Every time I would be asked why I need another towel. Every time I would respond, “two people, one towel.” Then we would go through a routine where I asked if I could just take the towel with me- because a pile of them sat on a cart a meter from where I stood. The staff member would then ask me what room I was in. I would tell him. Then he would say, “I’ll bring it up.” Sometimes he would, sometimes he would not.



When reflecting on my frustrations dealing with what I refer to as ‘the Indian run-around,’ I ask myself, “Am I being ethnocentric?” In response to this, I honestly believe the correct answer is, “no.” I have travelled a fair amount and I pride myself in my kindness and patience with people around the world. To be fair, ‘the Indian run-around’ is not much different than the Brazilian run-around, or the Thai run-around. The key to frustration lies in the fact that the Indian people can look you in the eye and respond to you in perfect English, but still fall short of delivery. This is a generalization and there is no one size fits all statement; this is simply my experience in the meager two weeks spent in India.



When I was in the Delhi airport with Gao waiting for our flight to Shanghai, I started bs-ing with a guy next to me who had an American accent. He was originally from Missouri and had worked oversees with Caterpillar for the past twenty years. We were talking about construction and he said, “This is where it’s happening man. From the New Delhi airport, ½ of the world’s population is within a five-hour flight. China alone harbors ½ of the world’s tower cranes. Heavy equipment sales are dropping in the west, and growing rapidly in the east.” With the revaluation of the Chinese currency, it is apparent the nation is beginning to accept its new position on the economic food chain. China is no longer the cheapest place to manufacture goods. Wages for the common man continue to increase and multinationals are beginning to pull up operations and move them to Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. Multinational corporations are coming to India and China for a new reason: consumer demand. The combined population of these two nations is 2.6 billion. Historically, the people of these two countries were savers- they did not buy on credit because there was no credit, and they did not feel the need to go shopping and consume. However, the youth of China and India have completely different habits. They shop and spend on cell phones, clothes, autos- you name it- creating the highest population of consumers of any two nations combined. So corporations are coming here to sell. This is especially powerful in India. Sixty percent of the Indian population is below the age of thirty, creating a pyramid when looking at the age demographics of the Indian population. China’s population is actually an upside down pyramid; most of the population is elderly- this is a product of the ‘one-child policy.’ Regardless, no matter how you roll the dice, the BRIC nations (Brasil, Russia, India, and China) are considered the global regions of substantial economic growth. The GDP of China and India are growing at 8 to 10 percent per year. This is a significant statistic, and we were told this numerous times on our MBA trip in India. However, I agree with my friend, Vitus, who would respond to this statement, “I have a piggy bank at home that I put loose change in. It’s growing at 10% per year as well.” In other words, the emerging BRIC economies are growing fast, but they still have a long way to go.



If I could wish one thing for India, I would wish the people of India develop a sense of pride. I, again, want to warn this to not be taken as a statement of ethnocentrism. As a matter of parity, I will use China as the country of comparison. Although China is a much older nation, both India and China are voluminous emerging nations with massive populations. In my wish for pride, I would hope the Indian people could clean up their garbage, quit patronizing a system of bribes and corruption, and quit defecating and urinating on the sidewalks. A half-mile from the Taj Mahal, our bus drove by a stream running under the road that was filled with black sludge, clogging the culvert with heaps of garbage. This was a stream flowing into the river ½ mile from the Taj Mahal- one of India’s most prized national monuments. Two days later, our class was treated to an exquisite tour of the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai. After the tour, we were set free to roam about. Michael Harroch and I walked around the hotel. Across from the hotel sits the historic Queens Gate. The plaza encompassing the Gate was littered with trash. Trash floated in large clumps on the ocean’s waves splashing against the plaza’s stone wall. It soon began raining. Harroch and I reentered the hotel and watched the tourists being splashed by trashy ocean water. He turned to me and said, “you know this big beautiful hotel is great, but it is kind of cheapened by all the trash surrounding it. Labor is so cheap here. If I owned this hotel, I would pay someone to clean up this area.” I agree with Harroch. In another example, I reflect on the walk Gao and I took around the Ginger Hotel in Delhi the first morning after our arrival. As we all know, it’s perfectly acceptable to urinate in the streets. Ok, fine. I like to take a leak in the streets myself, but numerous times on the trip, I nearly stepped in human feces. What? Human feces? Common, show some pride people. It is not necessary to defecate on the sidewalk just because you’re poor. I don’t believe 10% GDP growth is worth much if you’re still taking dumps on the sidewalk.


As far as the trip is concerned, Jay, Neetu, Adam, and BM did a great job. Regarding my personal self-reflection, I give myself and A- for the trip. I believe negative attitudes are contagious. I feel I brought a lot of positive energy and humor to the trip even if it did not agree with my personal take on things. It is much better to shrug your shoulders and say, “Oh well, what do ya do?” Rather than be a negative nancy and influence those around you. I definitely screwed up during the Taj Mahal visit. I should have taken more initiative to handle the situation in a more proactive fashion. I should have made more effort to communicate with the group that we were outside the Taj Mahal compound and could not return. I feel very guilty for making the class wait in 114 degree heat for thirty minutes My apologies.