Doing Business in India Day 10

Doing Business in India Day 10:

By day 10, most of us had an idea of what to expect in India. We woke up early morning on March 10, 2013, picked up our overnight bags and left ITC Mughal hotel in Agra for Delhi. While leaving Agra, our excitement grew as we came across Humayoon’s destroyed fort which didn’t seem to end for approximately 3 minutes as we drove away.   

Some of us couldn’t be more excited to see monkeys on our way from Agra to the capital of India. On this four hour drive we also came across other animals we thoroughly enjoyed sharing the road with such as cows and camels. The most interesting aspect of road sharing was that the animals did not disturb you if you didn’t bother them.

 Since most of us were tired from the last few days of activities, we took the last two/three hours of the drive to sleep. Once we entered Noida, which is the bordering city of Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, we began to see the signs leading us to the capital. We began to see heavy construction and urbanization as we approached Delhi. We finally entered Delhi and at that point, most of us were extremely hungry. Although we were running late for our Rashtrapati Bhavan (President’s Palace) visit, we decided to stop at a restaurant recommended by our tour guide. We were mostly enjoying our Indian food which consisted of Butter Chicken, Naans, Kaboobs, Dal Makhani, etc. However, almost at the end of our meal, a man jumped up from his seat and yelled “cockroach” and within a minute I realized that was a table of UM students, and one of my colleague saw the cockroach at the table and freaked out.

Soon after, we got over our “cockroach” incident and moved on with life. We then drove to the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

     

For most of us the President’s palace tour was surprising. We had to go through several channels of security before we were allowed to enter the building. Shortly after we got through security, the tour of the President’s palace began. We began the tour with the kitchen and made our way through the President’s library, ballroom, discussion room, gift room and back to the lobby. This is not the area where the president resides. During our tour, we saw a heavy British influence. Most of the sculptures and paintings were of British Lords and Princesses. The British influence on India became very obvious as we entered the palace. The president resides in the same palace but a different area where tourists are not allowed.