Author: pwn1

This morning we said an early goodbye to the Redlands kids and some of the XIME staff before leaving for Mumbai. Our flight was great! The Kingfisher girls are gorgeous! ☺

We did and saw so much in Mumbai, but I wish we could’ve stayed longer and explore some of the entertainment business if that was possible! Highlights of the day were walking/driving along the Arabian Sea, visiting the Gateway of India, drinks in the Taj Mahal Hotel, and shopping for a shawl for my mom!

My favorite stop was to a townhouse that used to belong to Ghandi’s friend and former law school colleague. Whenever Gandhi came to Mumbai on any kind of business, he would stay at this house on the second floor, which has been kept as a museum, library, and monument dedicated to him. You can still walk out on the old tiled balcony where he used to address crowds in the street and see where he labored on his own homespun clothing. It was a rush to be literally in the footsteps of such a great man. I’ll never forget it!

Before leaving, we had one final meal and I bought some cigarettes on the street to sneak home for my brother. In the airport, I used my first-class ticket to raid the president’s lounge of all non-perishable snacks to give to our group for the flight home. We shared some drinks and boarded to plane. It all seemed kind of surreal. Fifteen hours later I was home, but I wasn’t ready to go. There are countries you can spend a week in and see it all. What makes India so special is that, even though I’ve had the time of my life over the past few weeks, it would take almost a lifetime to experience everything India has to offer. I’ve promised myself I will be back one day to continue this adventure, whether its for work, school, or just to travel. For now, though, I have class in the morning… Goodnight!

Today, we left XIME at around 6:30 for the Infosys Institute in Mysore. On the way we stopped at the big banyan tree and got to feed and play with wild monkeys! This was awesome!

Following our monkey stop, we had breakfast at Professor Ramakrishna’s sister’s house. Breakfast was delicious and included more coconut water, sambha, upma… I wish breakfast were like this back home. It was awesome to see Juanita and Scott running around chasing the school children in the neighborhood before their class started!

The Institute was amazing. It was better than any college campus I have ever seen. It included stores, a movie theatre, a resort-style swimming pool and rec center, an Olympic-sized track, and amazing restaurants. I was a bit dejected to learn that Infosys only hires MBAs from the top three US business schools. The rest are mostly engineers from India and other countries. Still the training here is superb… six months of training at Infosys is equivalent to a four year bachelors in computer science. It’s intense. I found myself thinking that maybe one day if I work really hard and save a lot, I’ll be able to send my kids to a school Infosys hires from and they’ll have the opportunity to apply if they want to. This thought alone is a testament to what I feel is to come from India in the future. As Dr. Vijay put it, for years India has experienced a brain drain because its best and brightest couldn’t find any opportunities or satisfaction within the country. In the future, this will happen in the United States, and people will be flocking to India like crazy.