Delhi.1

January 8^th

Jaipur to Delhi

Today, we traveled from Jaipur to Delhi. On the way, we stopped for tea, and I tried my first samosa! Plane buddy was right…they are delicious.

Apart from this newfound treat, I was amazed at the dichotomy that exists between the quality of life in Jaipur and Delhi. Here, there was very little garbage on the streets, people lived in homes rather than slums, there were sidewalks, and I saw children coming home from school. I saw more people coming and going from work, and less people begging off the streets.

Traffic was especially bad, and our group had to quickly check into the hotel and get dressed in order to make it to HCL on time. Standard check in procedure at hotels in India requires that they make copies of each guest's visa and passport before issuing room keys. But in the IT capital of the world, these copies were made on a machine that was about to croak. This is just one of the many things that demonstrates the dichotomy I was talking about earlier...that one of the largest players on the global IT landscape is still lagging behind internally.

HCL Visit

The HR department gave an interesting presentation about HCL's position in the Business Process Outsourcing business. Below are some of my key take-aways from the presentation:

1. Coding used to be 50% of IT exports to India. Now, it’s data centers, networks, and infrastructure management that are being exported. As these new processes are being exported, there is a greater standardization. Custom application design has been decreasing yet it represents 34% of HCL’s revenues.
2. The United States and United Kingdom represent 80% of IT exports. Indian countries are now focusing on attracting business from Nordic countries. These Nordic countries represent an under-penetrated area for IT outsourcing contracts. Others include Japan, healthcare, government contracts, and infrastructure services.
3. IT and engineering services are projected to grow 5-6 times the current market size; global sourcing and BPO services will grow 7-8 times.
4. 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.

Dinner at the Parashars' home

After the HCL visit, we were invited to dinner at the Monica's parents' house. The dinner was delicious, the hospitality warm-hearted, and they had hired hena artists for all of the girls (and some of the boys) in our group.

Waiting for the henna to dry.

I learned a lot about Indian culture through my conversations at this dinner. First of all, it is customary for the host to give the guests gifts, rather than the other way around. The significance of this gesture is two-fold. First, it is a token of appreciation for coming to their home, or in our case, more generally to India. Secondly, it is a gift to the god within. The word "namaste" means "I bow to the god within you", and Hindus believe that gifts to their guests also represents an offering to the god within the guest.

Secondly, gemstone studded jewelry is popular among Indians. These stones are worn according to astrological charts. Some stones are believed to have healing powers, others are meant to protect against poisonous substances, and still others are worn to ward off evil spirits. Different colors of diamonds have connections with different gods and their attributes; for example, green is associated with Vishnu and preservation. Aside from the benefits of the stones themselves, Indian women love to decorate themselves, especially if they are married.

We had talked about the Hindu god, Ganesha, which has an elephant's head and is a very popular god. He offers protection against obstacles and is the god of all things auspicious. Hindus pray to the Ganesha before big life events, like starting a new job or getting married.

Later in the night, Monica started showing us pictures from her wedding ceremony and explained to us that most of her wedding pictures were taken of men hugging. These snapshots of male affection as well as men walking with their arms around one another is not viewed as weird, nor are the men perceived as homosexual. Instead, it is a sign of friendship. In the event of a wedding, the men are pictured hugging because it is the first time the men in the extended families meet. The hugs are meant as a welcome to the joined family.