About a year ago the Assistant Dean of the Albers School, Madhu Rao asked me if I would be interested in participating in a delegation group from the business school traveling to Bangalore, India to build relationships with a fellow Jesuit university called St. Josephs. When he first asked me I was very hesitant. I had never been away from my family that far or that long before. And India?!?! I've always been fascinated by the culture, but it was never really a place on my bucket list of travel destinations. Once the opportunity was presented to me and I thought through it, I began to realize that it would truly be a unique opportunity that I would probably never have again. I would be traveling with 4 other colleagues, two of whom were of Indian descent and grew up in India. The trip would be entirely paid for by a global grant that Albers had been awarded. Faculty were usually asked to do these kind of trips, but Madhu wanted to give some staff the opportunity to travel which we normally don't get and he picked me to be part of the group. It was looking like all arrows were pointing to saying yes. I had a lot of conversations with James who was incredibly supportive. I remember him saying to me "Would you go if we didn't have kids?" and I answered "Yes because it would be a great adventure and an opportunity I probably wouldn't get again in my life" and then he said "Then you need to go. Our boys need to see that we do adventures in this family." That sealed it.
About 3 weeks before the trip, we took the boys to an Indian restaurant for dinner so they could experience a little bit of the culture and see what kinds of foods mom would be eating on her trip. That's when the trip started to feel much more real. I was excited and anxious at the same time. It was a very long flight to a country half way around the world in early Dec. which is one of the busiest times of the year for our family. I was nervous about the time change, how I would survive a 16.5 hour flight, if I would get sick from the food or travel, what if something happened while I was gone...etc. Plus there was just so much to do to get ready including deciding what to pack, prepping everyone on what needed to happen while I was gone, doing what I could to prep for Christmas before I left, etc.
And then before I knew it, it was time to leave. I met my colleagues at the airport as we took the same flights. Our first leg was a 16.5 hour flight from Seattle to Singapore.
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| My travel companions: Amelia Marckworth (Interim Dir. for Entreprenurshp Center), Evinn Hicky (Academic Advisor), Ajay Abraham (Marketing professor) and Madhu Rao (Associate Dean of Albers) (not pictured) |
I was somewhat nervous about that long of a flight and how I would do, but I was also kind of excited for it as well. I rarely get 16 hours totally to myself to do whatever I want. I loaded up my Kindle with shows and movies I hadn't gotten to watch, and had a new book ready to go, lots of snacks, and a neck pillow for sleeping. And thankfully the first flight actually wasn't that bad. I had an aisle seat so I made sure to try and get up to walk to the bathroom every hour. I wore compression socks which helped a lot and I did jumping jacks and running movements in the bathroom to get the blood flowing. It obviously was a long flight, but it was bearable--much better than I thought. Plus we were flying Singapore Air which is a really nice airline so we were very well cared for. On our layover we got to wander the Singapore Airport which was very fancy and had luxury shopping everywhere you looked. I didn't get to see any parts of Singapore, but I would definitely like to travel to that city someday. Our second flight brought us to Bangalore which is the city where we stayed in India. During that 4 hour flight I slept most of the way. We arrived to Bangalore around 10pm and got a taxi to head to our hotel.
That taxi ride is a little blurry in my mind because the traffic was crazy and I was so tired by that point. But we finally made it to the Taj Hotel in Bangalore and I was so giddy when I got to my room. I had a room to myself and the hotel itself was very fancy. I couldn't believe I would be staying there all week! I definitely was feeling very spoiled. Plus it was so nice to have a room to myself so I could sleep when I needed to, call my family, and be alone if I had any sickness or tummy trouble. I fell into bed that first night and slept pretty well considering the time change (melatonin helped!).
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| My wonderful room! |
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| View from my room |
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| View of the courtyard from my room |
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| Hotel was decorated for a wedding event |
Day 1
Our first day was meant to just be low key so we could adjust and get our bearings. The Taj Hotel had a beautiful breakfast spread every morning included in our room price. They had eggs, bacon, and pastries like normal, but also tons of Indian food options, and more of a European breakfast items as well like cheeses, fruit, muesli, etc. After breakfast, Madhu took us out exploring on MG Road (Mahatma Gandhi Road) to show us some potential good souvenir shopping places and help us get acquainted with the city. The city was very modern, developed and similar to a European city or even a city in the states. Although it was extremely crowded. It's a city of 8 million people and the city infrastructure can't manage 8 million people so the traffic is insane and there are just people everywhere. The traffic was quite entertaining and crossing the street was terrifying. But people were very friendly and I felt safe walking around. That evening we had dinner at the hotel with the 3 Jesuit priests who are directors for each part of the St. Josephs: Fr. Manoj (SJIM), Fr. Daniel (SJCC), and Fr. Richie (SJC). We had a wonderful Indian food meal and great conversation about politics, culture, and the current events going on in India. I did pretty well with the time change on this day except I got a wave of exhaustion during dinner. Luckily I was able to push through and not embarrass myself.
Day 2
Day 2 and Day 3 were planned to be our main working days. Day 2 was spent building relationships and partnerships with our counterparts at St. Josephs College of Commerce (SJCC). St. Josephs is a fellow Jesuit University similar to Seattle University. SJCC is the undergraduate business school portion of the University. They are very well known in India and it's a tough school to get into. We arrived at the University and learned they were having a conference that day and we were the honored guests. My colleague Ajay was actually the keynote speaker for the conference. I was aware of some of this beforehand, but I guess I didn't realize what a big deal it was going to be. They had a wonderful reception for us and provided a delicious lunch. In the afternoon I had the privilege of meeting with Komal Dave who manages the placement and career planning process for the University. She is also a professor and does research and I don't know how she manages it all. But it was so wonderful meeting her and getting to know her. I quickly realized that our lives are very similar as she has 2 kids, is a working mom and trying to juggle it all. We also have a lot in common in our day to day and what we experience in our jobs. It was so fascinating to me to see how similar our lives are--we're just half a world away from each other. It was delightful to be with her and we explored some possible internship exchange programs that we could maybe partner on. On the way home, I took my first auto rickshaw ride!In the evening we visited the Jesuits at their residence on the St. Josephs College campus. They cooked an incredible spread of Indian food with us. It was so fun to talk with them and learn about their lives.
Day 3
Day 3 was very similar to Day 2 except that we spent it at St. Josephs Institute of Management (SJIM) which is basically the business graduate school of the University. They too were incredible hosts. They took us on a tour of the campus, we had a lovely lunch at an Indian restaurant and we spent the afternoon meeting with our counterparts to explore partnerships and joint programs. I met with Shobha who is the main Placement Officer. I had a very similar experience as with Komal in seeing that our jobs and lives are so similar. She had a listing of the placement data for each company so far on her white board which was so cool to see because our team tracks the same kind of information. We also explored possible internship exchange programs maybe paired with study abroad. She was so kind and hospitable as was the entire SJIM team with whom we met.To celebrate accomplishing the main goals/work we wanted to do for the trip, the 5 of us went out to dinner to a rooftop Thai restaurant. We told stories about work experiences and fellow colleagues and laughed and let our hair down a little. I feel like I will always have a special bond with these colleagues now.
Day 4
Now that our main business meetings were over, Madhu treated us to a day trip outside for Bangalore to do some sightseeing. We traveled 3 hours southwest to a town called Mysore. The drive was through more rural areas which was fascinating to see--very different than the city. Much poorer and honestly more what I expected to see in India. There were also a lot of cattle roaming free in the little towns. But every small little town and village we drove through I noticed the focus on community--older men gathering for their morning coffee at a walk-up store, women gathering together to do morning chores or waiting for the bus and school children either in school uniforms or playing together in the morning sunshine.Once we reached Mysore, we first toured the incredible training facility for the Infosys company. Infosys is the 3rd largest tech company in India. They can house and train around 14,000 employees at at a time. It was like a very luxurious college campus. Nice residence facilities, food courts, a huge pool, recreation, movie theater, etc. And they built this huge training facility that looked like an important government building. We knew we were going on a company tour, but we were totally caught off guard with how huge and beautiful the place was. Infosys has a small location here in Bellevue and I've seen their sign on the building many times. I have a whole new understanding of what a big deal they are in India.
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| Taking a tour of the Infosys campus |
After lunch we visited the main palace in Mysore where the royal family lived for hundreds of years up until the 1940's when India gained independence from Britain and then became a Republic. As we were dropping off our shoes before going in, all the sudden we found ourselves surrounded by young school girls who were asking us lots of questions. And then another family asked Amelia and Evinn to take a photo with their baby. We looked around and started to realize that we were pretty much the only white people and we were quickly becoming more of an attraction than the palace. It continued as we toured the palace--people trying to take photos with us and staring at us. It totally caught me off guard and after awhile it was annoying. I just wanted to enjoy the visit and I wanted to fade into the background. Madhu said that many people who have never been outside their small town or to a bigger city have probably never seen a white person so we were a big deal to them. It was very strange and I got tired and uncomfortable of it after awhile. We still enjoyed the palace, but it was fascinating being a minority for the first time in my life and seeing what that felt like. My empathy definitely expanded for minorities.
Day 5
Our final full day in India ended up being a girls shopping day. Ajay had grading to do and Madhu's parents were in town visiting. So us girls wandered MG Road looking for souvenirs for family which was really fun. I found a table runner, scarf, picture frame, book for the boys, tie, wallet, etc. And we braved crossing the street like a pro at this point. We ended our excursion with a lovely lunch in the courtyard for the Oberoi Hotel.
I flew home the same way with a stop over in Singapore. The flight was pretty good again, but I was so ready to see my family by this point and I was tired. Luckily I was met at the airport by 3 of the most handsome guys I have ever seen. ;)
Overall I'm so grateful I said yes to the trip. It really was such a good adventure for me: to know I can do hard things, that I can travel to really far places and my body will adjust and be fine, to realize that life is happening every day in places far away and that most humans are all trying to live life the best they can and that we all aren't too different from each other after all, to experience some independence which I haven't gotten in awhile and to appreciate my family even more, and to experience expanded horizons and being out of my comfort zone which I feel like is always healthy and important, and just like James said to have shown our boys that seeing the world and having adventures is important and that we will always come back together again.
Other things I personally don't want to forget:
- Seeing the wedding in the courtyard
- The wonderful hospitality of the Taj Hotel staff and restaurant servers
- Working out in the hotel gym
- Cars using horns instead of blinkers
- How homogeneous the country is--made me appreciate the diversity in the US
- The importance of what state you're from in India--customs, language, food, differs very much from state to state
