And it all comes to an end...

The dreaded day has come. The end of the week-long workshop. Before I summarise my thoughts on the trip, Let's look at what happened on this final day.

The first item on this day's itinerary was to visit the very diversified MNC Honeywell. The company is present in many industries related to technology and manufacturing, for example, aerospace products & services, automotive products, homes and industry and many more. Here we were given a presentation on the company and then a visit to one of their technology labs, which was focusing currently on wireless monitoring technology. It really gave us a insight into how it was to work in an environment filled with computers & technology, left, right and center! And it was a huge compound.

Next we rushed back to our lodgings to get ready for our presentations for Prof. Iyer! The topics ranged from the culture of India to ideas that could be implemented in a technology hub like Bangalore. My group's presentation touched on the topic of India's retail industry and how opening up to more FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) can be more beneficial than it is harmful. It was a great experience to have at the end of this trip to see what everyone has learnt and seen in this short one week in Bangalore and I'm sure Prof. Iyer was impressed too.



After we ended, we rushed to pack our bags and bid our final farewells to ECC and the staff. We especially rushed to meet up with Jabaraj and his children (who were actually taking their afternoon nap) Oops!

The next stop was the appreciation dinner which was held in The Gateway Hotel near the shopping districts. At this dinner, we meet up with not only the Prof. Iyer and the May batch of NUS students in Bangalore but also most of the guest speakers we met during our workshop there. It was definitely a nice experience to meet up with all of them again! After some nice words from our organisers especially Prof. Iyer, we went to our tables and enjoyed a night of great Indian food and taking lots of photos!

As the hours passed, Theepan and myself as well as 2 other fellow students had to catch a midnight flight back to Singapore. The rest of the students did not leave with us as they were continuing their own adventures all over different parts of India!

As we waited for our plane, I had mixed feelings. Part of me wanted to go home but the other part really was going to miss the amazing culture and the very hospitable people of India.

I learnt an amazing amount of things in this one week of the Experience India! Workshop. I cannot thank you enough all those who made this trip possible for us like Prof. Iyer & Dr Bimlesh Wadhwa. I definitely recommend this program and the CS3109 Overseas Expedition module. It is one thing to learn theories in class and be tested for it. But nothing will trump experience it first-hand. Finally I must say I'm glad that Theepan and myself were given the opportunity to share our great trip with everyone!

To end it off, here are some shots of street photography on my last day in Bangalore.

Back to Work!

After a long day out of town the day before, this time we get back to the serious business! I must say it wasn't easy waking up early for this day as we only returned from Mysore after 1am the night before. However we still managed to be on time!

This day's first company visit was to the medium-sized IT solutions company, MindTree. At first I thought that I had more or less of an idea of the culture of the companies in India. But after visiting MindTree, I must say I was pleasantly surprised! MindTree has a really unique and strong culture, which they run their company by. Their Values are CLASS or;

- Caring
- Learning
- Achieving
- Sharing
- Social Responsibility

And they go by the DNA of Imagination to Action to Joy. It was also the first time we got a pretty in-depth tour of a company's premises. What we saw in the building really followed in facilitating the Values & DNA, not just in work culture but in the infrastructure as well. From gathering areas for informal presentations and discussions, to photographs of inspirational people (decided by the staff in fact), to a comprehensive 14 days to 3 month orientation & training program for new staff and even arrange their office cubicles in groups of 7, just like most Indian family households. MindTree goes out of its way to achieve success with the Values & DNA of the company.

Another point which they value a lot is the 95:95:95 rule, whereby 95% of the time, 95% of the information will be available to 95% of the employees. I find this and its other values really a great corporate culture and they have really impressed me. I may consider working in that company too! There's so much to talk about this company but I'd better move on to the rest of the day before this gets too long-winded.

MindTree Campus

So after lunch we visited Manipal Hospital. It was quite a fruitful trip and I know some of you might be thinking what has this got to do with entrepreneurship but I believe knowing about the healthcare system in India can come in quite useful when doing business in Bangalore. I must say the visit was extremely thorough and we weren't complaining. As Manipal Hospital is more of a tertiary medical care centre where it houses a lot of specialists, we managed to see a lot of types of medical care. One that really caught our imagination was Sports medicine department where they actually train the top athletes of India, like the national cricket team!

Manipal Hospital

After a quick stopover at the shopping district for some last minute shopping, we headed back to the lodging to complete our presentation due for the next day!

More street photography from this day...

Mysore!

Note: This is post is going to be photo-intensive!

It's Sunday and we finally get to travel out of Bangalore for some great R&R. We got to be like silly tourists! We woke up really early in the morning, around 5am so that we could leave early for our 4 hour journey to Mysore. We took 3 different cabs and some of the drivers even gave us an impromptu explanation on the monuments we've see.

Breakfast @ Cafe Coffee Day
The sights on the way to Mysore


Tipu Sultan ruled the Mysore Kingdom for a period of time and the next few photos are of the places related to him and his family.

Tipu Sultan’s Summer Palace
Tomb of Tipu Sultan & his family

Next stop is Jamia Masjid where Tipu Sultan used to go regularly for prayers. He was known to have never missed any of his daily 5 prayers in his entire life.

Next we visited some other sights in the Mysore Kingdom

A Hindu temple in the Mysore Kingdom

St. Philomena Church

Our final stop is the Mysore Palace and I must say it was one of the most intricate and beautiful things I have ever seen. It was a shame that we could not take any photos of inside the palace but the exterior was just as beautiful.


And just when I thought the palace could not impress me any further, we were lucky enough to be there on a Sunday, the one and only day in the week where the entire Mysore palace and it's walls 360 degrees around will magnificently light up! It was truly a breathtaking view. On top of that, a military band was playing patriotic music right in the palace itself to the pleasure of every visitor!




I will definitely never forget this trip to Mysore and was definitely one of the highlights of this entire workshop. Really gave us an insight more into Indian's past and culture.

The Day of the "Hat-Trick"!

So now we have reached the halfway mark and about 4 days straight of company visits and lectures. Finally we get to have some cardio exercise and fun at the same time! This is the day I dubbed as the "Hat-Trick"!

The first "goal" of the day was when half of today's itinerary is assigned for cultural exposure and guess what? We got to do Bollywood dancing! I have actually been attending dance classes back home in Singapore, which really got me even more excited about today's dance lesson! An actual dance instructor, Ms. Minoti Ramachandra, arrived (albeit a little late) and started us off with warmups with some very signature Bollywood dance movements. After which, we got down (literally) for some really interesting dance choreography! At the end of this lesson, we finally got to understand what some of those intricate hand signs made in the traditional Indian dances actually mean!


After a hearty lunch, it was time for our 2nd "goal" of the day! We took a ride down to the famous Indian Institute of Science and who better to welcome us than Prof. Iyer himself of IISc! After a short presentation on the institute, the professor introduced us to a couple of his current students.
These students of his gave us a really great tour of the beautiful and green campus. The campus is nothing like the ones you find in Singapore as you will see from the photos below. Finally by the end of the tour, we made friends with some of the students and even have connected up on Facebook!

Finally, to complete the "Hat-Trick", we headed down to Commercial Street where for probably the first time, I felt really immersed into the Indian culture and street life! On the surface, Commercial Street looks a lot like another Bugis Village, but as you travel deeper into the back lanes of the area, you really start to see colourful and bright lights of small shops selling, well... almost everything! Just have a look at the photos!






And that marked the end of a tiring but yet most fulfilling day of the whole workshop yet. The whole bunch of us headed back and looked forward to the next day which would be the most exciting yet! Mysore!