Post-trip Realizations

India, I miss you: Post-Trip Realizations about India

Having returned from my Indian adventure landed back on U.S. soil, I reconnected with family and friends, who had an intense curiosity about the people, the sights, the religion, the food, etc.  I tried my best to answer the questions, with the help of pictures, but I realized how hard it was to fully impart my experience on another.  I felt like I just couldn't do India justice! 

Michael, my 15-year-old brother, asked, "So, what do you miss the most?" This was by far the most difficult question.  I missed the camaraderie among the group; we had a shared sense of excitement that had brought us closer together over the course of our tour of India.  I missed food; food in America suddenly seemed tasteless.  I missed the colors, the sounds, the smells...basically being intrigued by something new or confused by something that just didn't quite make sense.

In the flurry of activity after returning from India, it was hard to really reflect on what India had taught me.  So here I am, a month after landing in back in Chicago, looking at my pre-trip writings, and seeing how my perceptions have changed.  Below you will a format similar to my "Pre-trip Perceptions" post from October 2009, except the content has changed to reflect my new perspective (in red).

India and its people: Before going on this trip, I thought that all Indians were warm-hearted, polite, and concise in feedback and expectations.  I found this to be exceedingly true, and had met more than a few Indians to prove that. I noticed some other qualities that most Indian people shared, however:

- Intelligence: Most people think that we outsource entry-level jobs, or jobs that do not require a lot of skill.  These people could not be more wrong.  Yes outsource lots of data entry jobs to realize cost savings, but we also outsource a lot of high performing jobs that we, quite frankly, don't have the skill sets to do.

-Accepting:  Most Indian people believe that things are the way they are because of happenings in a previous life.  They don't bemoan the present or boast about a triumph...they simply view it as the hand of cards that life dealt them.

Cultural and social environment: Most of my pre-trip perceptions involving this category came directly from the Story of India documentary.  Post-trip, however, I have some modifications to make.

· Politically, I know that India is the largest participating democracy in the world. My assumption, then, is that population is well versed in current affairs, and issues of national importance. I was partially on target here.  The majority of population IS well-versed in current affairs and issues of national importance, and India IS a democracy.  But India's democratic mind comes with a socialist heart and lots of read tape surrounding the capitalist structure.

· Religiously, I know that India is a melting pot of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islamic faiths, and that this is a source of tension, especially in India’s NorthWest. My perception, then, is that it is a faux pas to bring up religion in conversation, and that there are frequent acts of terrorism by religious extremists.  Again...partially correct here.  India is a melting pot of religions, but it is not a faux pas to bring up religion in conversation.  Most of the people we talked to just generally were happy speak about their beliefs, which carried no expectations of conversions or undertones of prejudgement,

· Socially, I know that there is a sense of community. In watching the video documentary from my aunt’s friend, I noticed that the wedding they attended was enormous. It seemed like half the city was there!  True! I have never experienced a hospitality like that I witnessed in India.  As guests, we were automatically accepted into a larger existing community.   Monica's parents and friends that hosted us were gracious, and accommodating to our (probably halfway ridiculous) questions about the country, culture, and customs.

Business World: Most of my pre-trip conceptions of the more general business world stemmed from research I did for an International Business Management class.  My experiences, showed me a more focused part of the Indian business world--IT Business Process Outsourcing.  Below are three excerpts from previous blog posts that highlight the things I learned a about this industry.

-The growth of IT in India: In a country that does so much technology development work for US clients, the IT wave is lagging a lot in INdia.  Indian clients and US clients have different maturities, and therefore different levels of demand.  The Indian IT landscape mirrors that of the US 30-40 years ago (for example, e-commerce is not yet prevalent in India), and most of the work being done for Indian clients is geared more toward defining a roadmap, or a strategy. Also, in India, employing human resources to do tasks is still much cheaper than paying for an entire IT system to do the same work.


-The challenge of overcoming the mindset that outsourcing is "bad" and will result in the loss of thousands of US jobs.  Those that have this mentality believe that outsourcing will ultimately put a whole class of wage-earners in the service sector in direct competition with their highly skilled overseas counterparts.  This viewpoint ignores the benefits to be realized by BPO.  One of the most important benefits was highlighted in an article of the Wall Street Journal, written by Douglas A. Irwin:

"As many businesses themselves purchase services, their lower costs will result in savings that can be passed onto consumers. If a capable radiologist in India can read x-ray pictures at a quarter of the cost of doing so domestically, important health-care services can be delivered at a lower cost to everyone, putting a brake on exploding medical costs."

-Not only is there is a trend toward smaller deal sizes (now typically around $25-50 million), but also there is an increased demand for global delivery. A few years ago, only about 20% of HCL’s employees worked onsite with the client. Today, this has increased to 30%, and is projected to rise further. 

These post trip realizations, while they show a more complete understanding of India, are still just the observations of a visitor.  Ten days in India passed quickly, and I'm sure that there is much I have yet to learn.  Even though I am visitor, I also think of myself as a friend that has a shared secret with this intriguing country.