I can’t believe there is only 3 days left of class, I feel so close to the other students, yet, it has gone by so fast. I feel so thankful to be with such a great group of students that make class such a good time. Yesterday we visited Indian Garden where we were able to take a walk through scenes of Indian villages throughout time. I was thankful to be there with Indian students because they explained the different traditions to me. My favorite was seeing the different types of weddings people have and the traditions that go along with them. After a long walk around the gardens we were able to cool off in the “rain dance”. Moments after going into the falling water I was learning how to dance from a group of about 10 kids, and I couldn’t stop laughing the whole time. I continue to be amazed at how outgoing kids here are.
I am shocked at how much I have learned in such a short time. It’s from being so invested in my project, I have been able to make mistakes with my team and come back the next day to work together and solve it. In a typical class back home, I would encounter a mistake in a project and then forget about it until a week later when the class meets again. I find that having class everyday has allowed me to completely immerse myself in the project because I am free from any distractions from other classes. It has been challenging to communicate because we are all from such different backgrounds, yet, I am excited to finish the project because I have faith that everything will come together and our hard work will pay off.
Probably the hardest part of the trip is not petting any of the dogs. As I was walking today I noticed a little puppy hot on my trail. I named him Ralphie and we fed him a little street food. He followed us back to the scholar house. Here, we sat on the step with him and the security guard fed him 2 sandwiches. I am working on teaching him to sit, but it’s definitely a work in progress so I hope to see him tomorrow so that I can continue his training. I’m not sure what the policy is on bringing dogs from India to America but I if worse comes to worse I’ll fit him in my carry on!

One of my dance teachers

Prior to arriving in Hubli, I knew that the GE2 program would include significant group work. I also knew that the program was compressed, but for some reason I did not expect to be put into groups on the first day. However, group assignments happened almost immediately and I have really enjoyed working with my small team thus far! We are comprised of 3 undergraduate engineering students (2 from India and 1 from America), 1 undergraduate finance student (from China), and myself, an American engineer pursuing my master’s degree. Though we come from different cultural and academic backgrounds, the team dynamic has been great as all members have proven to be strong contributors.

One assignment that really brought us together as a team was the “500 Rupee Challenge”, in which all teams were tasked with raising as much money as possible in 2-days by creating a venture from an initial investment of 500 INR. The proceeds from each venture would ultimately be donated to charity. Initial brainstorming almost immediately led us into the “storming” stage of team development as we discussed and challenged the feasibility of each other’s product ideas. But, we all maintained respectful communication and steadily discussed different options until we found one we could agree on.

An idea that I suggested was creating a business around the concept of charitable fundraising. I noted that I had personally experienced and observed resistance to international charitable giving because there was little visibility into how the funds would be distributed and used. To my surprise, my Indian teammates were cynical about pursuing a venture that relied upon, or even mentioned proceeds going to charity. I chose to ask more about this and was told that most Indians are skeptical about donating to charity because they do not trust that donated funds will actually be used by the charity. This is certainly a large cultural difference between Indians and Americans, who regularly donate to a variety of charities as their funds allow. Upon further reflection I remembered that my previous travels taught me that donating to charity is also uncommon in Thailand and Laos. I believe this trend likely continues to other parts of Asia, though I have not personally verified this.

As we continued discussing possible product offerings for our charitable fundraising campaign, we recognized that we had easy access to locally-made Indian handicrafts, and our team could collectively write in four different languages. When we talked about who might be interested in these things, it became obvious that other GE2 Program participants would not be our target market since they shared these traits. So, we considered members of our personal networks. We quickly concluded that our American contacts would be the best target market because they do not have easy access to Indian handicrafts, and they would be most interested in supporting a business that was raising money for charity. Furthermore, our team identified that we could offer value to these customers by facilitating a safe and trusted means of giving to an Indian charity. So, we went to work on developing a fundraising campaign that would sell Indian handicrafts and customized trinkets at an elevated rate, with proceeds going to the specified charity. In our campaign ad we noted that it was acceptable to provide a donation only, in which case our product would be the secure transfer of funds, as previously discussed.

Moving into the “norming” phase of team development, each member contributed to the effort and distributed our marketing campaign through online channels, albeit with some continued uncertainty from the Indian teammates. It was after our first sale that we moved into the “performing” phase. Our success was motivating for us, and it brought us together as a team. The experience was certainly positive from the student perspective, but it will be far more rewarding when we personally deliver the proceeds to the charity!

The course is halfway over and it feels like it has gone by fast in some respects and long in others. The time aspect has definitely gone by fast. It is hard to believe that we will be flying out of Hubli in less than a week. However, the building of our team feels like it has been going on for a long time because we are working together so well. We have determined and now understand each other’s strengths and weaknesses. We have already worked well on a variety of different deliverables. We listen to and respect each other’s input and we are all contributing to the various projects and assignments. We have definitely formed our group into a team.

This was most obvious in our recent assignment, the 500 Rupee Challenge. We were given 500 rupees as a starting loan and were instructed to build a business using that capital and make the biggest profit possible within a limited time of two days. The goal was to exercise our creativity and ability to innovate. Our team worked great together including brainstorming possible ideas, subdividing tasks, and working together to develop and execute a business. Our business was to fabricate and sell strands of paper cranes. With just five team members, we all had to multitask and work together to cover sourcing and purchasing supplies, fabrication, sales, and accounting. It was great to not only see different team members show strengths in certain areas, but to see the group recognize and embrace those strengths to become more as a team then we could be as individuals.

Besides bringing skills to this assignment, we each brought our cultural differences. It was interesting during the brainstorming phase when one group member would come up with an idea that would work in their country, but due to cultural differences would not work in India. Additionally, the bargaining culture of India played a very interesting a unique role for our product sales that would not normally be a factor if we were selling the crafts in America. It was great to have our Indian teammates on board to help with that aspect. I look forward to continued positive results with my team as we work our way through the second half of the program.

“‘WOW, so this is Hubli”, I thought to myself as I looked out the window in the KLE bus. The streets of Hubli were so busy and filled with vehicle horns. The sight was different but beautiful. No one seemed to be following any traffic laws, but it all seemed to work out. It was mind-blowing.

We were welcomed into the hostel, with breakfast waiting for us. The chai tasted like heaven, I wondered how it was made. The fruits also tasted so different, but better in a way. At this point, I had already forgotten my bad experience at the airport in Bengaluru. The people welcoming us were so kind and considerate. After I finished eating, I rushed to my new room and edited my first vlog in India.

The first day of class quickly rolled around, and I didn’t know what to expect.  I met the members of my project group, Swathi, Vinuta, Priyanka, and Tom. I liked that the group was very diverse, containing at least one student from each other institutions in the program. My group and I will be working on the ‘Multimodal books for Visually Impaired People’ project. As days passed, I definitely saw my group go through some of the stages of team growth such as forming and storming. There was a huge huge gap of cultural differences and miscommunication. At a certain point, I started to become worried and frustrated about us not doing the project correctly due to the language barrier and fully understanding each other. Fortunately, the Rupee challenge was introduced, which helped us create a great bond between each other and increase team confidence.

For The Rupee Challenge, each group was given 500 rupees and challenged to engage in any business that would create profit. Only the 500 rupees were allowed to be invested in the startup of the business, and by the end of the challenge, each group was required to return the 500 rupees. We had two days for this challenge, and the remainder of the net income would be donated to charity. RIght after class, my group and I started thinking of ideas that we can pursue. I thought of a raffle, where we would sell raffle tickets for three different gifts that would buy from the 500. That led to the idea of an auction, which led to more ideas. Our final idea was to sell Indian gift boxes, provide the service of applying Mehndi (henna), and also to buy and resell jewelry.

The project truly helped my group members and I connect on a deeper level and get to know each other better. The collaboration among the group grew the trust and bond that should be within a group. At the end of the challenge, we ended up raising a net income of 4600 rupees. I am so proud of my group, and I cannot wait to see more achievement that we are going to accomplish.

Below is a vlog I posted on my YouTube channel of all the fun Hubli had to offer so far. Enjoy watching!

When I sat down on the plane to come to India, I had absolutely no idea what to expect. I was excited to get there, but knew it was going to be a long, intense adventure. When we landed in Qatar, we made our way through the airport relatively quickly, knowing we had another long flight ahead of us. We then flew to Bangalore, India, where we had a 6-hour layover before arriving in our new home for the next few weeks, Hubli. The other US students and I began to introduce ourselves when we were in Bangalore and had a lot of time to roam around the airport and get a lay of the land. I realized that we had a good group of people and was excited to see what would come. When we landed in Hubli, I was ready for a break from all the flying and after not sleeping on any of the 3 flights here, I was extremely overtired. But when we got on the bus to head to KLE, I immediately was no longer tired at all. All of us were crowding the windows of the bus, in awe of what was going on outside. We were cheering, pointing things out left and right, and waving to the locals, as they waved back confused. They gave us a traditional Indian welcome upon entering KLE, I knew I made the right decision to come.

A couple of us stumbled upon a traditional Indian culture festival and although we were completely uninvited, we ended up being put in the front row and were treated like kings. There must have been 5,000 plus people there, all staring at us and taking pictures of the back of our heads. Despite us being hesitant, they brought us up on stage and introduced us as the crowd cheered and then they caught us off guard even more by turning on an American song and making us dance… on stage. I’m sure it was an embarrassing site to see, but we were having fun and for some reason the people at the festival cheered instead of making fun of us. We left in dramatic fashion, as we were already late for our orientation. As we were leaving, people began to swarm us, asking for selfie after selfie. It probably took us 10 to 15 minutes to leave, before we litterly had to run away. I certainly will never forget that day and at this point I was very excited to see what the next 3 weeks would hold.

Arriving Hubali on December 29, students from US and China were greeted by KLE faculty (Prof Nitin Kulkarni) and his army of student volunteers!

At the Scholar House, where students are staying, they were greeted by KLE volunteers with a traditional Tikka and Garland, Welcome to India!

After a very short rest, students were shown around the campus and attended an orientation session that included presentation of different Indian cultures and introduced them quickly to India. KLE students performed classical Indian dances, sang Bollywood songs and gave an overview of Indian customs, traditions and religions.     

So far my travels to India have been full of different emotions and experiences. My adventure started on my first plane ride from Boston to Qatar. I got lucky with a window seat and only one other person in the row with me. My flight companion was a Vietnamese man named Anthony who was on his way back to Vietnam for his father’s funeral. Regardless of his situation, from the start he was nothing but kind to me and gave me the run down on an international flight experience. I told him it was my first real trip abroad excluding a trip I took to Mexico a few years ago but it was a tropical getaway so I don’t really count it as a real cultural experience. As the flight went on Anthony and I shared a little bit of our lives with each other over slow-cooked beef, sandwiches, and desserts. Half way through the flight he ordered the ice cream they offered as a snack. I, of course, passed it up because I’m lactose intolerant so I observed his snack from afar. At first we shared a laugh because the ice cream was fully melted and unable to eat, so he decided to close it back up. But do to the slippery airplane trays it slid back before he could close it and it fell right into his lap. I couldn’t help but start laughing and he had a chuckle himself while he rushed to wipe up all he could with his free airplane blanket. All in all he was in good spirits and I admired his ability to wipe things off. Had it been me in his position I would have asked for an immediate landing of the plane.

After a quick layover in Qatar we had another 4 hour flight to Bangalore. Upon arrival to Bangalore our UMass Lowell group finally got a chance to gather together as we prepared ourselves for Immigration. I wasn’t sure what to expect when arriving to the desk where I would be questioned on my reason for traveling to India. Well it was much worse than I thought. The woman at the desk made me feel as though I had done something wrong which I’m assuming is part of her job, but I felt a huge feeling of relief when she finally let me through the gate. Once we had all picked up our bags and exchanged some money we proceeded through the airport to check in for our 3rd flight which would bring us to our final destination in Hubli. This 6 hour layover in Bangalore was definitely my favorite part of our 20+ hours of travel. The group finally got a chance to get together, learn each others names, and start bonding before our arrival in Hubli. Within a few hours I had started friendships that I knew would last a lifetime. I was surprised at how quickly we found similarities in each other as we shared stories and laughed while we ate Indian KFC at the airport at 5 am.

Once we finally made it to Hubli it was an awe filled experience. We grabbed our bags and piled onto the bus to KLE and took in every sight we possibly could. With my camera in hand I hung out of the window on the bus and took pictures of anything and everything. Not once did I sit down on the bus because I was too excited to look out the window and wave to the people in the streets. When we pulled up to campus we were welcomed by the Indian students with open arms and everyone was so excited to see us. It was an amazing feeling to be welcomed so warmly by people who were perfect strangers. I can’t wait for the experiences that the rest of the trip will bring me!

I forgot how many stray dogs there are in India. We are (probably rightfully!) told not to approach or pet them, but sometimes it’s pretty tempting like with these little guys taking a nap at Shramajeevi Ashrama,

It was great sharing an amazing meal with such amazing UML students! It’s a pleasure being on this journey with them.

When it comes to India and service in restaurants it’s best to keep the attitude of “it is what it is”. Certain things we take for granted in the states – like bringing everyone’s meals at the same time – are not necessarily how it is done here. But in the end, usually everything works out fine and the food is definitely worth the various minor trials and tribulations it takes to get it. Plus, the entertainment factor of watching my colleague Professor Mehta blow a gasket yet again (how many gaskets does that man have??) is off the charts.