New Delhi
So, I've been in Delhi for about a week. Well, actually, I've been in Noida, Uttar Pradesh (which is kind of a suburb of Delhi). There are 7 people traveling in India for d.light right now: the president and CEO are here in a ridiculous number of meetings, another MBA and friend are doing some needfinding for them, and I'm in the second needfinding group. I'm here with Erica, a Mechanical Engineer who is one of the original team members for the company, and Rohan, a Mechanical Engineer who was a classmate of Erica's and who is from India.
We're staying with Rohan's family in Noida, and that has made life approximately a billion times more convenient than if we were on our own. His family is great, they feed us really well, and they have a car and driver that takes us to all of our meetings. So we can really just concentrate on the work and not worry about the hundreds of tiny little details that can consume daily life when worrying about where you're staying, where you're eating, and how to get from point A to point B.
Rohan also got here a day later than Erica and I, so we got our sightseeing out of the way then - we went to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and Agra Fort, and then a bit further afield to see Fatehpur Sikri. They're all monumental Mughal architecture - Agra Fort and Fatehpur Sikri were a fort/palace complex and a whole city/palace built by the "greatest" Mughal emperor Akbar for himself. The Taj Mahal was built by the megalomaniac Shah Jahan as a tomb for his favorite wife, supposedly (although he clearly also built it partly to show how great he was). We woke up at the crack of dawn to get to the Taj Mahal by 6:15am to miss the crowds and the heat, and it was definitely worth it. It was every bit the marvel everyone says it is, especially since they've moved all of the industry out of Agra to keep the area pollutant-free in order to preserve it.
This first week we've actually spent a lot of time in meetings and not as much time in the field. We've also gone around to different markets to check out competing products and see what replacement/component parts generally cost. We finally got a chance to go out and talk to people in some of the slums around Delhi on yesterday night, and we are going out again to some slums and a night market tonight. I'm excited!
Also, I've got a Delhi cell phone, so if anyone wants to talk to me my number is: 0091-9958117288 Up to top
We're staying with Rohan's family in Noida, and that has made life approximately a billion times more convenient than if we were on our own. His family is great, they feed us really well, and they have a car and driver that takes us to all of our meetings. So we can really just concentrate on the work and not worry about the hundreds of tiny little details that can consume daily life when worrying about where you're staying, where you're eating, and how to get from point A to point B.
Rohan also got here a day later than Erica and I, so we got our sightseeing out of the way then - we went to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and Agra Fort, and then a bit further afield to see Fatehpur Sikri. They're all monumental Mughal architecture - Agra Fort and Fatehpur Sikri were a fort/palace complex and a whole city/palace built by the "greatest" Mughal emperor Akbar for himself. The Taj Mahal was built by the megalomaniac Shah Jahan as a tomb for his favorite wife, supposedly (although he clearly also built it partly to show how great he was). We woke up at the crack of dawn to get to the Taj Mahal by 6:15am to miss the crowds and the heat, and it was definitely worth it. It was every bit the marvel everyone says it is, especially since they've moved all of the industry out of Agra to keep the area pollutant-free in order to preserve it.
This first week we've actually spent a lot of time in meetings and not as much time in the field. We've also gone around to different markets to check out competing products and see what replacement/component parts generally cost. We finally got a chance to go out and talk to people in some of the slums around Delhi on yesterday night, and we are going out again to some slums and a night market tonight. I'm excited!
Also, I've got a Delhi cell phone, so if anyone wants to talk to me my number is: 0091-9958117288 Up to top
posted by Nora @ 12:19 PM
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