2013 Scouts in the Field

Vittala Temple

Queen’s Summer Palace

So Hanuman was a monkey. Of course all the monkeys hang out near Hanuman Temple.

Huge Ganesha statue that people used to pray to on their way into the city.

The Vittala temple has these columns that are tuned chromatically, like chimes. If done properly, they make real music!

Our hotel in Hampi

Elephant stalls because, you know, it’s India

Hampi – the ancient Hindu capital

I had the opportunity last week to take a little bit of time away from work to vacation and explore South India, specifically the states of Karnataka and Goa. I’ll break up the trip into three parts to make sure to not overload on one particular post. First stop, Bangalore!

BANGALORE

For those who don’t know, Bangalore is one of the major cities in India and may be one of the more Americanized parts of the country. It’s essentially the Silicon Valley of India — a new city with lots of tech-related jobs and startups and even similar weather to boot. Of course part of what comes with it is that Bangalore doesn’t quite have the same level of history that some of the other cities here do, but no matter because it’s a pretty awesome place as it is.

I met up with several other members of my FMS cohort there, and we got to share our experiences at our individual placements and catch up over drinks and food. I was surprised to see how many expats (specifically Americans) I ran into and quickly realized that I was leading a much more “Indian life” than some of my counterparts in other cities. We visited some nice spots for food and took a trip to Nandi Hills, which was a short drive away from the city and offered some great views.

A shot of a very Americanized bar in Bangalore. Could’ve sworn I was hanging out in SF…

The bull at Bull Temple on Nandi Hills. It was kind of tucked into the side of the mountain. Why must they make it so hard to get to the temples?

HAMPI

Next stop was Hampi, one of the ancient capitals of India. To get there, we ended up taking a sleeper bus, which as fun and cool as that sounds, wasn’t quite that comfortable when you’re in the back seat. Turns out there was a reason the back seats were the only ones left available.

Unassuming and unprepared for the 20 or so times I’d go airborne throughout the night due to the bumpy road.

Hampi is now mostly ruins, but I was told that it was a place you just had to see. It did not disappoint! As soon as we got off the auto rickshaw in Hampi, we were greeted by Laxshmi the Elephant, who gave each of us a blessing (i.e. wonked on he head) for the small price of 10 rupees.

We ended up staying at cute little place with hammocks, rented scooters to drive around the mountains, took a coracle ride (round half shell-like boat rowed by a local), and got to see some historical sites.

View from Hanuman Temple. The mountains around Hampi all have those weird boulder things going on.

Another temple

I actually have a bunch of other picture from Hampi I’ll upload in a bit as a separate post. Stay tuned!

Exciting week over here! I’m actually in Bangalore right now as a part of a weeklong vacation through Southern India and will be posting lots of stuff about my travels. 

Earlier this week, I had an opportunity to spend an evening at a slum nearby and found it to be such a rewarding and interesting experience. The slum was made up of migrant workers from Rajasthan and Kolkata, and you could see the visible difference between the two groups that were living there. The residents were extremely kind and were excited to be receiving guests like us. I think we often come into these communities thinking that we will save them, but who really likes being told that their way of life is not good? I just felt blessed to have been received so warmly by these people who could not even communicate with me (very few of them could speak any English). 

So now about how they received me…I was essentially a celebrity! Regardless of what I communicated to them through my Indian friends, they kept asking me to perform kung fu (I faked some “moves” after maybe the 5th request) and asked me if I had trouble seeing because I had small eyes. I guess we’re all racist hahaha. But nevertheless, they loved us, and particularly the foreigners. The boys continuously grabbed at me and introduced themselves over and over, and the girls kept blushing when I looked their way. Perhaps one of the most interesting interactions I had was with this one elderly man who I shook hands with, thinking that it was the appropriate way to greet him. After shaking my hand, he turned away from me shyly and said “you’re so beautiful.” I really think that might be the first time in my life someone has actually called me “beautiful,” you know, apart from when you hear it at one of those super emotional church youth group retreats.

Here’s a guy who was my friend and main guide throughout the night. He would hold my hand and lead me around, which I think made the other kids a little jealous haha

And…I made it into the local newspaper! That’s me in the red circle 🙂

View of the lake most of the city is built next to from an outlook on top of a mountain.

View from the rooftop restaurant at our guest house

Donkeys in the market

The Taj — this was used in the James Bond Movie “Octopussy”

Locals taking a dip

One of the many courtyards in the Lake Palace. The torrential downpour kept us stuck here for a while.

So apparently Udaipur is a popular destination for Korean tourists!

Chilling with beer while overlooking the water. Guess it’ll be a little while before we can drink legally like this again.

Beautiful drive through the mountains of Rajasthan.

Weekend in Udaipur, the City of Lakes! 

Along the same vein as my post just now about entrepreneurship coming in all shapes, forms, and age —

This kid has his own business at age 5! What a stud 😀

There’s that saying that “age is just a number,” but it’s really got me thinking the past week or so as I look around me. On one hand, there are all of these entrepreneurs in their 20’s who have decided that the path of starting a company is the one for them. On the other hand, I’ve had discussions with young coworkers and colleagues about graduate school and the application process. And while this may not actually be true, the overall sentiment that I’m receiving is that this decade of our lives is meant to a time where you keep proving yourself on some level (e.g. working at a reputable firm, getting into the top business schools) and that to be entrepreneurial is to be counter-cultural and eschew what that “typical path” represents.

One of the perks of my job is just getting to be around some of the eager young minds that are shaping Indian entrepreneurship. What constantly strikes me is that the majority of the entrepreneurs in the programs CIIE runs are not really much (if at all) older than me. It’s quite impressive that someone with probably a similar skill set to mine have decided to take on the task of starting their own company with that limited experience. 

It makes sense to me that entrepreneurs should come in all shapes, sizes, and thus, ages as well. I ran across one company in California while I was doing some due diligence on other support organizations that focuses specifically on senior citizens being entrepreneurs. A pretty cool concept if you ask me. I think about my own grandfather, who since retiring has taken up computers and now goes around the local elderly Korean community in my hometown teaching others how to use them. While he does this mainly because he’d otherwise be bored and the sense of purpose it gives him, he too is being entrepreneurial in pretty much running his own little non-profit service. Of course there are limitations to scale and profitability that accompany old age — try telling a 70 year-old to put together a financial model in Excel — but this is an example of how anyone can be an entrepreneur.

So how does this relate back to us? I think that too often those who have been successful are used to following the tried and true path to supposed “greatness.” There’s a lot that smart people can accomplish, and while I’m not saying everyone should go and start their own company, I do think that everyone should challenge themselves to think more creatively and challenge the current assumptions. Entrepreneurship can come at any age, and honestly, the more experience you have (so long as it doesn’t keep you from still thinking innovatively), can only help in my mind! Thus, I see entrepreneurship as a way of thinking more so than a specific career path, which I think is lost sometimes in our rush to measure number of venture deals and companies founded. 

On a completely unrelated note, Ahmedabad celebrating the Ganesh festival!