First Day in Bangalore

Rain Tree canopy, as seen from my balcony.

It's Monday morning, and I'm up earlier than I need to be sitting in a robe on my balcony with an espresso so I can catch up with blogging, since yesterday offered no free time for writing. My view is the garden and pool, including the huge canopy of the 118-year-old Rain Tree that is the "guardian" of the hotel. Just above the tree I see two satellite dishes mounted on the roof, each with dozens of birds sitting around their rims. It's overcast, but it's pleasantly cool with low humidity. Quite a drastic change from northern India.

Arrival at the Delhi Airport went rather smoothly. We had time for a sit-down dinner and I exchanged cash. While boarding, an Indian man asked to take a picture of me shaking his hand. I didn't know he had already asked for pictures with some of our students. I obliged, and Tia was there to snap the photo - but she was being devious. Unbeknownst to me and this man, she snapped a bizarre close-up selfie. When she handed the phone back and he looked at the photos, he was scrolling through the pictures and I was slightly horrified to see the picture of Tia, mostly teeth, on the camera. He must have been surprised as well, because he kept scrolling past it, then back to it while I looked on nervously wondering why this unflattering photo was on his phone. We had a good laugh about it later. That was just the beginning of the laughter, as the long day characterized by our students shouting on the bus had gotten to Nandini. She, Tia, and Karleigh sat in the row behind me on the plane where, due to a misunderstanding amongst themselves while we waited for takeoff, they could not contain their giggles. I had no idea what was going on, so I did like the locals do and pulled out my phone to capture them in the background of a selfie. The resulting photo was fantastic.

Silliness on the plane.

Our hotel here in Bangalore, The Oberoi, is amazing, as Tia said it would be. They've thought of everything in the rooms, including a button to push for butler service, and there is always a staff member in the hall to make sure everything is ok. (This is similar to the hotel next door, where I've stayed before.) Yesterday morning, said staff member asked me about the room, and I mentioned off-hand that it was a little humid at times, but it was quite nice. I headed to breakfast. About 10 minutes later, a man in a suit appeared over my shoulder to say "I understand there was a problem with the humidity in your room? We will send someone right away to fix it." Who knows if there was a problem with the AC or what they might have done about it, but I do know they adjusted the thermostat during the day and the room felt better when I returned. Last night I couldn't figure out how to turn on the lights, so I told the man in the hall and he came to show me how to turn on the master switch. I said "Oh; I didn't realize that's a master switch, because the writing is worn off." He immediately told me he would send someone to fix that in the morning, so I'm curious to see what it will look like when I get back this afternoon.

We had a great morning yesterday, when we visited the Jude Felix Hockey Academy, which is an NGO located at a local orphanage where children from the orphanage and the community learn to play and develop hockey skills, ultimately helping them to improve confidence, academic performance, life skills, and opportunities. This was Kelley's fifth visit to the Academy, but I had never been there before. It was founded by Jude Felix, a former national star in the sport. Mr. Felix arrived while we were there learning about the NGO from the director, and I spent a nice amount of time sitting and talking with him one-on-one about hockey, sports, and his experiences playing test and World Cup matches in Pakistan, It was super interesting, and really cool. NBD, just a leisurely chat with Jude Felix. Meanwhile, our students were playing hockey with the Academy students and having the time of their lives. When our students were finished and sat to rest, the boys of the Academy started a scrimmage. One of our students, Madison, play club field hockey at IU, and Mr. Felix had commented to me that she was good. (I later told her, and she seemed thrilled.) She was invited to join the boys in the scrimmage, and we had a great time cheering her on while she got a pretty good workout. At the end of the match, they presented her with a JFSA t-shirt. Madison later told me that it was a surreal experience and that the game went much faster than what she was used to. Needless to say, she felt honored and will never forget the experience. After the Academy girls scrimmaged, we toured the Academy facilities and orphanage before returning to the hotel for lunch.

Learning about the Jude Felix Hockey Academy.

The afternoon was less awesome. We had scheduled a three hour city tour, and after years of experience we pretty much knew what to expect. There are a few key sites in Bangalore, and we requested to see those. The guy from our tour company had other plans, ensuring us he had something "very special" arranged. Indeed! They had arranged for a young woman to be our tour guide, and it started off well. She was hip and friendly, spoke great English, and was very knowledgeable. We started by going to Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha, just around the corner from the hotel. I had been to this Sikh temple once before, but this visit was even better than the first time. Being a Sunday, the temple was very crowded and busy with activity. In the temple itself people were worshiping while two guys performed sacred music - one guy playing drums while another chanted and accompanied himself with an accordion of some sort. Downstairs in the kitchen, people were busy preparing food for the 5000 people they serve there daily (or, at least, that many on Sundays). We were able to see the assembly line of people preparing Roti, and actually allowed to join in the process. I spent a little time tossing the uncooked flat bread onto the scorching hot stove. (There's a technique to it...) Meanwhile, a number of the volunteers enjoyed talking to us about where we are from, their experiences in America, and what was going on, in general. I had a great time, and the students did, too.

Women preparing Roti at the Gurdwala.

When we left the Gurdwara, things started to go downhill. We went to a Catholic Church which was important in the Colonial history of Bangalore. I hadn't been there before, so it was nice to see something new, and it was a pretty structure on the outside, but it was a fairly simple building dating only to the late 1800s and I was over it fairly quickly.

Our tour - near the beginning when we were still excited about it.

From there we went to another place we hadn't asked to see, the large Cubbon Park, where we walked down a sketchy street to the area of the Bandstand, pausing to learn too much about the Queen Victoria Statue. We reached the steps leading to the High Court of Karnataka and posed for a group photo, before sitting on the steps for a brief talk about the park and the Court. This is where the tour turned into a nightmare. We were held captive there for God only knows how long, while she went on and on in great detail about the park, the colonial history of the city, the court, (which we couldn't even see as it was to our backs), and the Vidhana Soudha. We kept thinking the lecture would end in 5 more minutes, but she had a script and she was sticking too it - all the while preventing others from taking photos in front of the Court, but providing them ample opportunities to stand around staring our students and slyly taking selfies with us in the background. I felt trapped, anxious, and uncomfortable, while Tia thinking we had been kidnapped  by the tour guide. Finally I turned to the VP of the tour company, who was sitting next to me, and told him bluntly that we had to leave. So they walked us around to the other side of the court where we could see the impressive Vidhana Soudha, the seat of the Karnataka state legislature. I was mildly annoyed that in two previous visits the tour guides had never taken me to this front-side street view of the building, always before having walked on empty streets to a fence on the back side where it was impossible to get a good picture or a sense of what the building was really like. There, the guide droned on about the building - even after the bus pulled up on the street and stopped in traffic to wait for us. Finally we were allowed to board, and as we drove away the woman pointed out the "life size" statue of Gandhi - a sculpture of him seated, standing probably 20 feet high.

Finally we were on our way to the Bull Temple, a site which we had requested to see and which our students had studied. All day long, they had been asking "Are we going to the Bull Temple? Are we going to the Bull Temple? Are we going to the Bull Temple?" Now it was late in the afternoon and we had the unfortunate surprise of snarled traffic, making the trip across town to the temple almost unbearable. We finally arrived to find some sort of festive procession on the street infront of the temple, with guys on a float of some sort, which had stopped the traffic. That was an unexpected and fun thing to see, even though I didn't appreciate the delay. The Temple, otherwise known as Dodda Ganeshana Gudi or Nandhi Temple, was about as I remembered it, but more crowded. It's not "all that," but I think our students were happy to finally see it and it was interesting watching the faithful pay homage to the god.

Festive street scene stopping traffic in front of the Bull Temple.

It only took us 22 minutes to get back to the hotel, but by the time we arrived it was 7:00 pm - our three hour tour had turned into 5. My plan for a relaxed evening with some solitude was shot, and I joined the other facilitators for drinks and dinner at an al fresco venue in the hotel. We laughed a lot as we filled in Nandini about the excruciating tour which she had thankfully skipped. (No way she could have handled it.) I finally got back to my room at 9:30, then, even though I was exhausted, ducked out again briefly to discover the location of the spa and fitness center, since I hadn't yet had any time to explore the hotel property. Before bed I took a hot bath in an effort to relax and unwind.

Now it's time to get ready for a day with two business visits and a debrief dinner. It's been nice sitting here, but even in the garden setting on the back side of the hotel I can hear street noise from MG Road, mixed in with the sound of dogs barking, birds, and the hotel staffers sweeping the pool deck. I hear faint but persistent tuk-tuk horns tooting, along with the occasional siren and car horn. Suddenly, there is a strong fragrance of men's cologne.

Agra, etc.

We're back on the bus, returning from Agra to the Delhi airport, which means two things: I have time to blog and the students are playing silly games - this one involving animal noises. The battery in my noise-cancelling earbuds died, but I can still use them to listen to I Am Harvey Milk at full volume.

Agra was a pretty good time; the Doubletree hotel was really nice and the three meals we had there were great. Last night they let us use the bar area for our debrief meeting during which our students shared a number of good insights, except for the three students who fell asleep.

Yesterday afternoon we went to Agra Fort and all was well until the deluge. I was prepared with an umbrella and we were able to shelter in a portico facing Shah Jahan's palace so it was ok - we just had to wait for a break to continue the tour. While we waited, our students started posing for photos in the rain, under umbrellas and in cute poses with friends at first. Things gradually devolved... first the umbrellas were cast aside. Then people began walking around further out on the patio, then there were groups of students, then there was dancing - all the while with dozens of other, mostly-Indian tourists (and a few loiterers) looking on. Finally someone crossed the line, much to our shock and Nandini's horror, and we had to put an immediate stop to the shenanigans. This whole episode led, later in the evening, to lengthy processing amongst the facilitators (sans-alcohol). We're hoping we can be more educational from this point forward about appropriate behavior amongst other cultures, especially considering we're moving from the mostly-sightseeing portion of the trip to the more academic/business-focused portion.

Taj Mahal and Yamuna River as viewed from the Agra Fort just prior to the downpour.

Fortunately the rain let up and we finished the tour without further incident. The guide Aditya took us beyond where my two previous tours had stopped, so I enjoyed that, and we enjoyed watching the monkeys climbing on the fort walls. Unfortunately, the rain did nothing to lower the temperature, and with 100% humidity we returned to the hotel sticky and miserable.

This morning started early, although not early enough for me. I wanted to get up at 4:15 and indeed my alarm went off then. I hit "snooze," but what I didn't know is that apparently my phone didn't charge overnight. Rather than sounding the alarm again, the phone chose to die completely. At 4:56 I happened to open my eyes and see that I had 4 minutes until the bus was leaving. I threw on clothes and made it in time, but I wasn't organized or properly prepared for the morning's outing. I remembered to wipe on some bug spray before running out the door, but it proved ineffective against the flies as we stood in line to enter the Taj Mahal.

In spite of all this, our sunrise visit to the Taj was generally a success. We walked along the path to the site in the near-dark, dodging dogs, scooters, and resting cows. Only one student tripped on a hole in the path and fell over. It appeared as if the path was undergoing improvements, if not brand new construction, but like many things in India it was difficult to tell if the path was being put in or coming out, and whether construction was ongoing or stopped. Piles of bricks lined the route, with no barriers protecting materials or pedestrians, and there was a surprising number of bricks randomly missing from the center of the "finished" path.

Once the gates were open we made it through security (not nearly as "thorough" as the temple security the other day) and into the Taj grounds where the guide shared a familiar-sounding description of the mausoleum and its construction. Then we had time to view and enjoy the site. Good news: no rain; MUCH cooler than previous, mid-day visits; relatively small crowds; nice bird song; great group photo; some decent lighting for photos; visit not particularly rushed; we survived the tonga rides to the bus without incident. Not so great news: it was overcast, so no brilliant sunrise; I gave up my booties for a student and went barefoot through the Taj; the front minarets were covered by scaffolding for cleaning (of course they were); the guards blew their annoying whistles a few times; the light bulb inside wasn't even working(!); people were late at the meeting place so I spent 10 minutes anxiously wandering around wondering whether I was confused about the plan or simply lost; I spent too much time unnecessarily fretting over the tip money for the tonga drivers.

I had to marvel over the upkeep of the site. As beautiful as it is, it is still India... walking back from the Taj to the gate, amidst discarded booties and various small wrappers and trash bits, I noticed at least six discarded water bottles in the edges of the lawn. I encountered a man vigorously sweeping leaves (and booties) off of the path. I thought the leaves seemed perfectly natural and wondered if his time might have been better spent picking up bottles. Tia suggested maybe that was someone else's job. We will never know.

After breakfast at the hotel and an hour and a half to get ready and check out, I somehow ended up being the last person to exit the hotel and board the bus. At least I made it out before all the bags were loaded. Our journey through the city and out of Agra was a reverse of the trip in, and equally as fascinating. The busy, colorful street scenes delighted me, but we're also, in a way, devastating. And yet, everything about it is perfectly normal for those people living here.

Spotted:

•  Tiny children playing and running, shoeless, immediately next to the road (largely because at that point there was little distinction between "road" and "not road.")
•  Adorable school children neatly dressed in western-style uniforms - some of whom were being led hand-in-hand by an older woman in colorful, beautiful, traditional dress.
•  Brightly colored, highly-decorated trucks and tuk-tuks, and many colorful, often hand-painted signs. Nandini pointed out some Hindi script on a dilapidated brick building: "Built with German engineering."
•  Multi-layered, multi-storied buildings in every imaginable state of repair, disrepair, or completion, many with bricks or garbage (or both) littering the space leading to the entry, or even bricks piled inside the walls.
•  Amongst these crumbling facades, countless tiny storefronts, and modest homes are the occasional tiny temple.
•  People everywhere... sitting, waiting, socializing atop their scooters, wading barefoot through flooded streets, sleeping in front of their store, resting under trees, walking with purpose, loitering in shops, riding in truck beds with cows or co-workers, pedaling rickshaws, walking with baskets of grass on their heads, urinating.
•  A filling station with two urinals mounted on the exterior wall around back.
•  Water buffalo wading in the wide river and lining the river bank, as well as cows, monkeys, goats, homely dogs and parrots along the streets.

Agra Street Scene.

Decorated trucks in Agra.

I've been taking note of a number of other sightings, observations, and aspects of India which don't necessarily surprise me, but which (on my third visit) I should better remember. It makes for a long post, but hey - it's a six-hour bus ride...

•  I enjoy seeing platonic boy friends holding hands or even walking arm-in-arm. It warms my heart.
•  Commerce is different, and happens on so many levels. There are so many tiny shops, some in small buildings and some simply set up in the street on a cart, in a tin shack, or under a canopy. All are mixed in with the trash, rubble, and commotion on the street. All are staffed by a single shop owner or the family members, who sit there all day until someone comes along and happens to pick them for a sale. Some shops  appear to sell all the same stuff as the shop next door; others are very specialized, selling only one or two items that people invariably need. There are even barbershops set up outside on the street.
•  Hundreds of men are making a pilgrimage to the Ganges in honor of Shiva, carrying elaborately decorated yokes for transporting water home. There are rest stops set up align the way - large tents (or sometimes smaller ones) with benches and chairs, sleeping platforms, fans, faucets for bathing, portable squatty-potties, and racks on which the yokes can be placed while the pilgrims rest. It's colorful and fascinating to see.
•  All of the buses and auto-rickshaws in Delhi (and some cars) run on compressed natural gas to help control emissions. CNG is sold at stations alongside petrol and diesel. We were told there are 18 million registered vehicles in Delhi, which does not include the millions of scooters, which are not licensed.
•  Large groups of men on scooters gather under overpasses in an effort to seek shelter from the pouring rain. Not on the "shoulder" - right out into several lanes of the roadway.
•  Street and highway lanes are optional.
•  Drivers honk when they are about to overtake someone.
•  Animal-drawn vehicles can be found on the roads, along with everything else.
•  Delhi streets are distinctive for black- and white-striped curbs. In New Delhi and the government and diplomatic zones, streets are characterized by the stripes; boulevards and rotaries; tree-lined streets (it is incredibly green here); walled homes, businesses, and government and military buildings; armed guards; yellow barricades; street signs in four languages; people and dogs; and traffic and tuk-tuks.
•  Yesterday we saw a  peacock in the middle of the toll road and as we approached it took flight - beautiful.

We're back in Delhi now, in the midst of a pouring rain. This could slow us down, but we've been making good time so far. Our flight leaves at 7:30 pm. DAMN these students are loud. Now they are super-loudly playing that Password-like game with their iPhones. Do these people ever sleep?

Typical Delhi street scene.

Leaving Delhi

We have checked out of le Meridien hotel in New Delhi and are now on the bus traveling on the nice, wide fairly new toll road to Agra. There has been a lot of development along the road in the past few years, including a lot of high-rise buildings currently under construction. It reminds me of China (similar to Suzhou) except the developments are more spread out, and the countryside and infrastructure still looks like Inda with the occasional cow or herd of water buffalo roaming about. We just passed a huge and very nice looking raceway.

The bus is pretty noisy, as at least half of the students are loudly engaged in playing some word games in which people have to figure out the rules to participate. Obviously they got too much sleep last night. I might nap in a while, but I've decided to use the time for blogging, while charging my phone in the bus's only electrical plug. I look up occasionally to see the rice fields, farmers, grass huts, and odd chimney-like structured dotting the flat green landscape.

I didn't get enough sleep last night. Once we finally got back to the hotel around 10 pm, feeling sweaty and miserable, I planned to work on a task that was due yesterday. But I got a GroupMe message from Nandini inviting the other facilitators to decompress over a drink. Realizing it was needed, I joined her and Karleigh in the upstairs hotel bar for a Tom Collins. We re-hashed the evenings adventure and what we might have done differently before I went back to my room right around Midnight. I got up at 5 am to complete my task - taking advantage of the fact it was still yesterday in the U.S. I finished in time to shower and pack, and was disappointed that I had to leave the room for breakfast and check-out just as Hillary Clinton arrived on stage for her acceptance speech. I'll have to find that online later.

Arriving in Gurgaon. Typical traffic scene.

So... yesterday was quite an adventure. It took us about an hour and 45 minutes to get to our visit at the IU Gateway, as noted in yesterday's post. Traffic was bad, of course, but I felt like we drove around New Delhi unnecessarily before ever making it to the highway (as if I know Delhi that well). Anyway, that threw us behind. Then, for some reason (probably because our Parliament visit fell through and we thought we ought to add something), we headed to a temple for an unplanned cultural stop. The woman at the Gateway recommended it, assured us it was only 15 minutes from our hotel, and that all of the visitors from Bloomington love it.

As it turns out, it was through Delhi, past our hotel, across the river in a different state. Close to the hotel on a map, kind of, but not close in reality. Considering the Gateway is in Gurgoan, we ended up in three states in one day. The temple was Akshar Dham, and we facilitators regretted our decision even before we got there. It was a bizarre place! It was a huge cultural complex, complete with dancing fountains (not while we were there), a theater, gift shops, and a food court. The temple itself was beautiful, if a bit gaudy, kind of museum-like, and crazy hot. The grounds were pretty, but it all seemed a bit commercial. Nandini later dubbed it a peasant's amusement park or something along those lines. Not far off. The students seemed to enjoy it, though.

It was an interesting, very Indian experience. There was a huge parking lot and the infrastructure to accommodate huge crowds, much like the lines for a roller coaster. The restrooms were large but not well maintained, and some locals were using the sinks to wash up quite thoroughly. Absolutely nothing was allowed inside - no cameras, phones, umbrellas, swords, bags, guns, etc. We sent everything we had back to the bus and headed to the security checkpoint, but right when I got there I realized the tiny cell phone I had been given by the travel agent was still in my pocket. I knew I couldn't take it in, so in an effort to ask what I should do I showed it to the guard who immediately shouted "NO!" and pointed to the bag check - even though there was no direct path to get there. I finally figured out how to get there, and I began the odd process to check the phone. I got in a short line to get past the guy letting people into the bag check area. He gave me a form to fill out. Then I took it to a table where a man was handing out small bins and stamping the forms, but he waived me off and sent me to the window where I exchanged the phone for a numbered token. Then I got back in the security line where I finally went through the metal detector and enjoyed a VERY thorough pat-down from the nice guard. Once in, an employee flagged me down to let me know where I could find my group, and I found them just in time to join them for the walk through the stifling, ornate, bejeweled, and likely not even very old temple. (Confirmed: Opened in 2005.)

Akshar Dham as seen from the highway... considering cameras are not allowed inside.

Needless to say, after all of that we were very far behind schedule, and we should have changed our plans to fit just one more thing in for the day. Unfortunately, we didn't. (On our way back to New Delhi, we crossed the river again and everyone was thrilled to see four elephants and three camels by a little settlement next to the river. One of the elephants was in the river with a boy on its back.) Our next stop was some type of government-supported craft emporium. We shopped happily for about an hour (the guys got Kurtas, of course) and then walked (through the rain, unfortunately) to Cannaught Place for dinner. It was crowded, and by this point dark, and as planned we split into three groups for dinner. I ate at Johnny Rockets, which was fine. By the end of dinner, Nandini was understandably anxious to leave. We walked quickly to the Metro and went through the uniquely Indian security process to get in. The Metro itself was easy and nice, and we took it two stops to Central Secretariat near Parliament. That's when things got really interesting.

The students led us out the wrong exit onto the street. We soon found the street we needed and took off walking for the hotel - in the wrong direction. After a block or so, we reversed course and headed toward the hotel around the rotary. Unfortunately, we didn't go 180 degrees around the rotary and headed about a block and a half in the wrong direction again - through puddles, past sleeping homeless people, dodging traffic, in the dark. After considerable discussion, we reversed course again, going back past the sleepers and crossing at the rotary to get to the correct street. We rounded the corner and we're confronted with an odd parking lot where people were hanging out. We forged through, and in the next block met a group of stray dogs which, unlike all the others in Delhi, decided to bark excitedly at the group of foreign tourists walking by in the dark. Fortunately a local helped scare them off and we made in the final block or so back to the hotel.

Pilgrims walking to collect water from the Ganges to take back home to their local temples. These guys lined the highway.

OH MY GOD THESE STUDENTS ARE SO LOUD! Now they are playing some story-telling game involving mafia, cops, IU students and a murder. Everyone gets a chance to loudly tell a story, and I guess the rules dictate who was killed or who did it. All I know is that it's super exciting and very loud. A bus nap might not be possible.

New Delhi Update

It's mid-day on our second day in the Delhi area. I'm on the bus traveling from Gurgaon back to New Delhi so I thought I would make use of the time. Of course, one can always be entertained by looking out the window.

Today is warm (although Weather Bug wouldn't load so I don't know the temperature) and hazy, but not raining. It's been raining a lot here. Yesterday was really got and humid and we did have rain during our city tour. We got rained on at Qutab Minar, where many of us - myself included - had gotten off the bus without our umbrellas. The rain stopped and mostly held off for our stop at Hunmayan's Tomb, but when we got to Ghandi Smriti it poured. There was even lightning at one point. We were under the covered walkway so mostly stayed dry, but the site lacked the serenity I felt on previous visits even with the added solemnity of the rain. Some student walked out into to the garden to view the spot where Gandhi was killed, but I skipped it in favor of dryness. Whether from the earlier rain or simply from sweating, everything still felt damp long after I got back to the hotel.

Early morning arrival in Delhi.

Our trip here was mostly uneventful. The bus ride was quiet at first, since only my two colleagues and I left Bloomington together. In Zionsville we picked up 10 students and the bus became much livlier, particularly with the addition of Steven who is quite outgoing and has an infectious laugh. We had some group presentations and a pre-departure meeting at the Radisson, where we also got to learn everyone's name and eat our fill of fresh-cut vegetables - our last for the next 10 days.

Security at O'Hare was slow but manageable. We passed the K-9 smell test, so we were allowed to "drop and go" at the metal dector. Didn't even have to take off our shoes! The Emirates Airline plane was nice, with a robust entertainment system, charging outlets, and a fancy starlight-like ceiling. I was annoyed by the meal service, though. They run out of meals with meat by the time they get to row 41 (both flights!) And for some reason they serve dinner after midnight  (both flights!). I wanted to go to bed right away after we took off at 9:28 CDT to help me adjust to the upcoming time change. Apparently the airline staff had other plans.

We arrived at our hotel around 5:30 am and got checked in. The idea of a nap was appealing, but instead I had just enough time to get comfortably settled, take a glorious hot shower, check 40-some email messages, and enjoy the generous breakfast before leaving at 9 am for the sightseeing tour. I've been everywhere we visited - Qutab Minar and Gandhi Smriti twice, and Humayan's Tomb once before. Fortunately, we had a decent guide who shared new things and took us to new places at the Minar and the Tomb - so I enjoyed it! (Well... other than the heat and rain.) I was surprised at Humayan's Tomb, as they have been doing a lot of restoration work on it and it's more impressive than it was in 2013. They are also building an major new visitors center, so there is quite an investment in making this World Heritage site a top-notch tourist destination.

Today we visited the IU Gateway, and the drive took longer than expected so we arrived late. We had two lectures by faculty from J Nehru University. The first woman talked about history, and she was quite good. She said she would get into drtail, but she actually got into a lot more detail than I expected - as much as she could really fit into a 45-minute overview of thousands of years of history. Several students asked qood quetions, and I learned a few things (as much about the field of history as about Indian history itself - pretty interesting).

The next guy was a sociologist and, to my surprise, his talk had a lot of overlap with the history lecture. Good reinforcement, I guess. Unfortunately he was a little harder to stick with... maybe because of the repeated content, maybe because his accent was more challenging, or maybe because by this point I was more tired. In the end, I also learned some new things from him, particularly more about the origins and structure of the caste system and some differences between traditional cultures and modern cultures. Interesting, some of what he told us reinforced what our tour guide said yesterday about the origins of the Sikh religion.

We had, as expected, a South Indian buffet lunch in a too-small room at the Gateway office. Tasty enough, but then we hung around way too long after we finished eating. We checked out the rooftop garden, which is nice, but then I got anxious and frustrated while trapped in the noisy lunch room while waiting for us to finally board the bus back to New Delhi. Our afternoon plan didn't come to fruition, so now we're improvising an itinerary for the rest of the day. We're back in New Delhi now, where we plan to visit some temple (something new for me) before going out for shopping and dinner tonight, possibly followed by a ride on the Metro and a walk around the area of the Parliament building, which I would love to do.

Oh, yeah - my 14th-floor hotel room has a great view of the Parliament building. (Doh - just drove past India Gate, which took me by surprise so I didn't get a picture.)

The students were surprised by their first glimpse of Humayan's Tomb. Much bigger than they expected.

At Humayan's Tomb.

Bye-Bye!

We're about to leave O'Hare for a 13+ hour flight to Dubai. I just had a delicious salad - last one for 10 days - and now I'm going to devour this guacamole with bacon. Indian food will be good, but it's nice to have uncooked veggies, too.

On the Road Again

It has been less than two months since I returned from Germany, but believe it or not I will be traveling to India two weeks from today. This will be my third trip to India with the Kelley School and I will be accompanying 24 students and three colleagues. While the class has the same title as in the past, "Business in a Flat World," this time we have a different lead faculty member and a heavier focus on Indian finance and economics, rather than globalization. We're also traveling at a different time of year, going in late July rather than May.

I will attempt to blog more frequently than I did in Germany... It would be nice to have more real-time updates and not post everything on the last day of travel. However, I my past experience tells me that my internet access may be worse than in Europe, so we'll see. Feel free to check out my India photo albums from 2012 and 2013, linked on the right.