This morning, we went to Christ University to spend the morning learning about CSA (Center for Social Action), visit a slum, have lunch, then spend the afternoon in a joint session with the MBA students at Christ University.
The first thing I think we all noticed about the university is that there weren't any western style toilets. This is fine, generally, just not entirely expected at a university campus.
The visit to the slum was both heartening and disheartening, simultaneously. I think I left with more positive feelings than when I arrived, however, and noted the sheer amount of dirt and filth all over the roads, with children running around in bare feet in the same mud the cows and chickens and goats and dogs were running around. It also looked as though many of the older people squatting on the side of the road wearing cheap sandals had eye damage and ringworm in their toenails and feet. We were visiting the slums to see a waste reclamation project. As I understood it, women were paid to gather waste, it was treated, then used for compost. This not only created something useful, but it prevented the waste from polluting the slum (in which children ran around barefoot, and ringworm appeared to be ubiquitous).
While we were waiting with the students who came with us outside the project building, we were taking pictures of the kids. They were so joyful, even in their incredible surroundings that you couldn't help but smile when you looked at them. We ended up taking a lot of pictures and showing them in the viewfinder what the picture looked like. I think my favorite was a little boy wearing a pink Minnie Mouse sweatshirt (yes, sweatshirt) in the heat of the day.
I think by this time, I was thoroughly depressed at the thought of how many children there were, and the conditions in which they were living. It is do-able to help one child; even a dozen; even one hundred children. But there had to be a few dozen just in the part of the street where we were. I wasn't particularly excited about whatever was coming next, because the part that we'd already gone through was such a harsh dose of reality.
We went to the St. Sara's School to speak with a SHG (Self Help Group) that the CSA had helped to set up and finance. These are micro-lending groups - but the unique thing is that they are not for the wealth of a bank or individual, but the interest on the loans goes back to the group so that it can make more and bigger loans. The Q&A with these women showed me how to help all those kids - empower their mothers. It was absolutely amazing, the stories they had to tell. One used a loan to help her husband open a welding shop. One of them used it to open a shop, and now her husband helps the kids get ready for school in the morning, something really unusual for a lower-class, conservative male in India to do. Another used a loan to lease a house instead of renting, so now she basically pays rent, with interest, to the group, rather than to a landlord. The way they spoke, and the animation and hope and optimism in their faces and smiles made me realize that this - not the fancy glass buildings we'd seen plenty of - is the future of India. More than that, it *has* to be the future of India, or India has no future at all.
They also brought their little children, and this little girl was just the sweetest, cutest little one I saw the whole trip.
We had Indian food for lunch... I and a few others I noticed (I won't name names), picked through anything with color and mostly chomped on rice and naan. Such is the state of my poor stomach.
Our afternoon session was a very interesting experience, and I think helped me to understand where some of my Indian colleagues are coming from. All of the Christ University MBA students arrived with multiple pages of notes in hand, completely prepared and well thought-out, and some even had charts and other articles to reference (our topics of discussion were Shopper's Stop Group and Tata Consultancy Services). However, while one of the guys in my group had well organized notes, my colleagues reported that some of the members in other groups had a pile of information, but poorly organized notes, and they couldn't track down their information quickly, or quote it off the top of their head. The group I was in was also unusual in that we moved to big picture questions fairly quickly (I am convinced this is actually due to a lack of preparation on the part of some people in our team), while other groups reported being bogged down by the numbers.
The members of our group (Seattle U students) who weren't as well prepared actually asked the most salient big picture questions, while the highly prepared Christ U MBA students had the data to support the eventual conclusions we reached. I found this difference in styles - immediate movement to big picture thinking vs. taking refuge in the hard data - actually resulted in a very interesting and useful discussion which would have been either missing significant hard data were it just the American students and missing a generalized, big picture viewpoint were it just the Indian students. I think this was my most useful takeaway from the discussion with these students, and it shows the weaknesses in both systems of education on their own. Americans often feel very comfortable making choices and decisions with little data and gut feeling, which can sometimes have disastrous results; while getting bogged down in the data can end up paralyzing people in other cultures who are more data-centric.
After we finished the scholastic portion of our day, we were treated to a truly amazing display put on for us by the university. I am quite certain that Seattle University would not go to such an expense for a visiting group of Indian MBAs - or anyone else, for that matter. Maybe the Albers school would put up a dinner, but probably not the display of traditional dancing and the band that played for us, and the choir that sang the introductory song - they were all really good, too. Christ U also provided us dinner... more spicy Indian food. However, there was this amazing dry fried chicken that was SO YUMMY, but other than that, I stuck with the rice and naan.
In the evening, we went out to hang out with the Christ U students somewhere along MG Road, and much fun was had by all. Maybe it's just me... but we're packing a lot into two weeks.
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