Our second day in India may possibly be the happiest I’ve
been in a while. We left our hotel in Mahabalipuram to the Great Lakes
Institute of Management to meet with fellow MBA students.
We received a very warm welcome and we felt as if the campus was ours for the entire day. Our day began with Professor Venkant Krishnan teaching us about leadership from an Indian perspective involving Karma Yoga. We discussed the various differences between Transformational and Transactional leadership. The goal is to change people forever through transformational leadership and how the domain of power is different from leadership. Having power is one part of leadership, but happiness is the majority of it. It depends on the subject, not the object. One must study the subject to understand happiness and the real human being. To realize happiness and understand the human being, you must realize who you are, and do Karma Yoga by doing things unselfishly. You must show concern for others. At Great Lakes, they build leadership through the villages and giving back to the community. They learn to build a relationship with all people, including strangers. High self-efficacy and self-esteem are the goals of Karma Yoga. In the villages, the students provide children and the villagers resources and taught them to use them, rather than continually provide for them, so they do not create a dependency problem. The problem they face in the villages is continuity because the MBA student cycle is so short. The only constant is Professor Krishnan. They rely on alumni and their continued support.
Following the lecture by Professor Krishnan, we split up into groups to discuss the SEWA case. My group included Anxshy, Arvind, Chandra, and Gajendra. We had very similar ideas to the case and together we laid out a five year plan, and then a 10 year plan for SEWA, so they can grow and develop a better supply chain and value chain. Many of the other groups had similar ideas and it was clear that both groups of MBA students were well prepared for case discussion. Our late night group discussion over drinks helped everyone out, myself included. Professor Jayaraman helped us out whenever we started to struggle, but for the most part the UM Business School held its own.
When we finished our discussion, we had a quick lunch of local Indian dishes, including Bindhi (okra), Aloo Mattar (Potatoes and Peas), Gobi (Cauliflower), Daal (Lentils), and Murgh (chicken) curry. The next part of the day was the best time I have ever had in India. We drove through some side streets through a small town past a nuclear reactor plant and into the Hope Foundation Nursery and Primary School. We met with children from 4-8 years old and had a blast. The entire time I was there, I couldn’t get the smile off my face. No matter how tired I was those kids gave me a burst of energy. Every single one of them was so happy to see us and their smiles could brighten up anyone’s day. When Professor Jayaraman was going around the room to tell them to say their names, the kids couldn’t wait until it was their turn to shout their name as loud as possible. They asked us so many questions, especially Joe, who was asked the best question of all: “What’s Obama’s day like?” Walking around with all the children and giving them high fives and teaching them how to throw up the U was amazing. Their hearts were so pure and inviting that all they wanted to do was spend more and more time with us. I wish I could have spent an entire week, if not more there just teaching those kids and spending time with them. After a while I noticed some of them were pointing at me and kept saying “balle balle” amongst themselves, which is used in many bhangra (folk dance from Punjab) songs. I would say it back to them and do a simple bhangra dance move and they would all start to join in and dance bhangra with me. We went to about 4 or five different classes to meet all the kids and every class wanted to dance and take pictures. It was a photo shoot and they started asking for personal photos with their best friends in the class. They then put on a small dance show for us that won them a prize at Great Lakes. After a few more pictures, we gave them all the gifts that we brought along. I passed out stickers and crayons to every single one of the kids and they walked out of the room dropping their new stuff with the biggest smiles on their faces. It was one of the happiest moments of my life to see them all so excited just for us.
Once we left the school, we drove down a few dirt roads to a small sustenance farm that Great Lakes has helped develop. Here, we learned about the designs that are put in front of houses in the form of rice flour. It’s put outside every day by the woman of the house to show everything is okay in the house. When nothing is outside, there is a problem. When it is colorful, it usually means there is a holiday or a birthday. All of the girls in our class made a few designs in front of the house including smiley faces and flowers. We then took a tour of the farm and saw the livestock. A few minutes later, it was time for a tractor ride. The Great Lakes students saw some Imli (tamarind) growing on a tree and picked it off and began to eat it. I joined them for some of the bitter fruit. Many of the UM students had never been on a tractor before and the ride was less than smooth. Luckily I had experienced it a few times in my youth and I took the comfy van over to the farmers’ fields. We saw the irrigation system, bales of hay, pepper plants, and many other farm related things. When we returned to the bus, we saw a few poor children outside, so we decided to give out some of our snacks and whatever toys we had left over from earlier. Some kids came back for seconds on the Oreos.
We came back to Great Lakes for a short snack break of samosas (deep fried dough with potato and pea stuffing). The Great Lakes students then treated us to a small cultural show of live music and song in which Joe and I joined in for a stunning rendition of Green Day’s Boulevard of Broken Dreams. Professor Jayaraman joined us for the next song, Bryan Adam’s Summer of ’69. We were supposed to return the favor and give them a show of our own that Kristi and I (mainly Kristi) had put together, but it fell apart for various reasons. So instead, we failed miserably at putting on a show as we attempted to do the Macarena as a group, but nobody could remember the steps, so we embarrassed ourselves there at first. Then Kristi, Moutaz, Anxshy, and I did the University of Miami rendition of the Soulja Boy, which was somewhat less of an embarrassment. We even taught a few of the Great Lakes students how to Soulja Boy. So all in all, that was a missed opportunity that we couldn’t redeem ourselves, but we tried! Some long felt goodbyes and exchanging of presents ensued, as each of us received a Great Lakes mug.
A 2 hour bus ride later, we arrived back in Chennai. The owner of the travel agency we worked with in Chennai was kind enough to treat us to an amazing dinner at the hotel restaurant. All the food was served on a banana leaf and he even bought the entire group a few bottles of Black Label with live music accompaniment. We ate the local cuisine of Chennai, but with a modern twist. We had deep fried Idli (rice cakes), Dosa (lentil crepes), chicken, channa (chickpeas), and many chutneys and veggies on the side. At the end of the dinner, many people experienced mitha paan for the first time. I had already tried it many times before and was not the biggest fan. Seeing everyone else try it was absolutely hilarious, for me at least. Paan is an after dinner "treat" that usually includes betel nut wrapped in a bay leaf with all sorts of breath freshening goodies. It is a very acquired taste and is difficult to handle because your are supposed to eat it in one bite and just chew on it to swallow the juices. The one we had was the sweet version as the regular version includes a type of tobacco in it as well as the stimulating betel nut. Not one of my favorite Indian delicacies, but very funny to watch others, nonetheless. It was a gorgeous setting and a wonderful way to end a very jam-packed day of fun.
A few short hours later… Day 3.
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