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Our Final Week in India – Week 6 with the Bharti Foundation

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Our final week here in Gurgaon started off with a hectic trip to Agra to see the Taj Mahal (it would be rude not to when in North India!). The train journey1 was just as crazy as the bus journey to Rishikesh in week 5. A lack of understanding resulted in the team buying the wrong tickets and the first hour of the journey was spent playing musical chairs across nearly all the carriages. We arrived at the hostel Saturday evening but had an early night in preparation for viewing the Taj at sunrise on Sunday morning.

It was certainly worth the effort, for when we arrived we were part of only a handful of people in the complex. The monument itself was even more spectacular than we had been told, however the ongoing maintenance work prevented any of us getting new Facebook profile pictures! Another highlight of the trip was bumping into another Economics student from Newcastle who had just graduated… Small world!

An equally stressful journey back returned us to Delhi on Sunday where another quiet evening was needed to prepare us for work. The last week has been the most stressful with the report needing to be complete for Frida2y and the small matter of presenting our findings both to the Vice-President and CEO of the foundation. We quickly realised that presentations in India are very different from back home. There is no etiquette for waiting for questions till the end and a phone will be buzzing every 30 seconds, however these proved to be nice breaks when presenting and the feedback we got was incredibly positive.

We finally finished the report after a painfully slow process of making sure the formatting and grammar was perfect, this had to be done because there is a very large chance the report will be published!

It was extremely sad saying goodbye to everyone at the office, as we have had the opportunity to work with the most amazing, dedicated people who have gone above and beyond to make us feel welcomed. We have all learnt so much from the experience and the chance to work on such a meaningful project that will help the QSM team in the future is the best thing for all of us.

The 6 weeks has been full of ups (and maybe a couple of downs)… from Chris falling in a giant puddle to working with the amazing students during the field work. We’ve been so lucky to experience the most happening place in the world that is Delhi!

Over and out,

GEO Bharti Interns

Saying Goodbye is Never Easy- Week Six with SEWA (RUDI)

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We were welcome3d with open arms into India, IIM-Ahmedabad, SEWA and RUDI and it is with heavy hearts that we have slowly begun to say our goodbyes to this beautiful place. Keeping in mind that this was our final week in India, we all tried to make sure we to do all the things we want to do before we leave on Monday.

Josh, Shari, and I made it to Agra last weekend via a short flight to Delhi and a 3 hour train which departed from the incredibly busy Delhi Train Station. During our visit, we managed to hit all of the mainstays of Agra: the Taj Mahal, Agra Fort, and Baby Taj. However, our two additional, personal favorites, also included Akbar’s Tomb and Joney’s Place, a rather suspicious looking restaurant that served amazingly delicious food for cheap prices. With that, our time in Agra was up, and we headed back via train to Delhi. We had hoped to see some of Delhi during this visit, however, rain and train delays had different plans for us.

Back in Ahmedabad, we made our final touches to the 44 page document that we were to present on Tuesday to the officials of RUDI and SEWA. However, we showed up to our office to present and, in classic Indian fashion, we were told that the presentation would have to be delayed until Thursday. Though disappointing, this was good news for Sofia, since she had been running a fever all night and was miserably sick with an unknown illness that took 2 days to recover from.

When Thursday came around, Sofia’s health had improved and we were able to present our final report. They thoroughly enjoyed our presentation and were impressed by the recommendations that we provided. In fact, they were a bit shocked at the amount of time it required us to present our whole report. Despite this, you could tell how grateful they were by their engagement and questions. After this, it was time to say some our first goodbyes. We had built a close relationship with Mr. SS Patel and were sad to part ways. A few pictures later and we were taking our last rickshaw back to IIM-A from the office.

All in all, this has been an incredible experience that we both have enjoyed greatly. We have taken a lot away2 from this internship, including the numerous skills we have developed, the many friendships we have made, and the incredible memories of our visits around India. Not only was working with an Indian union and company an amazing opportunity, but so was working with people from the US, UK, and India and seeing how our different working styles and viewpoints came together to make a flawless group and a fantastic end product.

India has treated us so well, but all good things have to come to an end. We say goodbye to the IIM-A and international student friends we have made tonight and soon we will have to say goodbye to each other too. We have become a small family and made a small home in India and it will be hard to leave, but we will forever be grateful for the time we have gotten to spend here.

GEO SEWA Interns

Week 5 in India with SEWA

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Last weekend we ventured to The Blue City of Jodhpur! We booked a sleeper bus once again after not getting the tickets on the train we had booked (India has a odd booking system!) but nevertheless we arrived in Jodhpur after a long restless nights sleep. We arrived early in the morning, checked into our hostel and did the first thing most tourists do in Jodhpur, check out the Mehrangarh Fort! As13775494_10153847883788261_7335014717373254917_n we edged up the hill in our auto, every moment was so picturesque as the blue city slowly emerged beneath the towering fort. There we spent hours admiring the intricacy in the architecture, the history and the spectacular views of the blue city below us. We then had lunch at a restaurant called Real Taste, probably one of the best meals in India we’ve ever had (even the butter naan was so delicious). We then wandered through the blue city, checking out the clock tower, market place and stepwell. The city was much bigger than Udaipur so we relied heavily on autos that took us down narrow and pothole filled roads, that were very much like Boston.

The next day Josh and I, went ziplining around the fort while Shari and Sofia went on the search for some bargains in the market. The food was that good at Real Taste, we couldn’t resist and had to come back again for lunch. We ended our trip with a walk about Rao Jodha Desert Rock Park, where we saw a number of different birds and plants, a monitor lizard, some weird looking insects and witnessed a pack of dogs trying to catch a rabbit! We jumped back on the bus that night and headed back to Ahmedabad to get to work the next morning.

Our second to last week has involved trying to finalise our Marketing Plan for SEWA Manager Ni School (SMS). Our goal has been to enhance the marketing strategies of SMS in order for them to be able to fully market themselves towards their trainees and in
vestors. In addition to this final proposal, we have also created a brochure, a video script, and a proposal for an external webpage. Everything is slowly coming together and soon we’ll present our plan to the SMS team, we hope they like it! As our fifth week comes to an end, we’re slowly realizing how little time we have left.

We’re also realizing that soon we’l13782204_10153862430858261_8840684078355884798_nl all be back home in the UK and US, not knowing if and when we’ll see each other again. But we are glad we’ve had the opportunity to work and travel in India together. We’ve learnt a lot about how different the work culture is in India and even our own cultural differences between us, such as in the way we speak, and the words we use. While we often tried correcting each other and debated about which was right, we’re appreciative of the differences we have and will cherish this opportunity we’ve been given to work in such a culturally diverse team. While it’s sad this internship is coming to an end, we’re also looking forward to our trip to Mumbai for our last weekend in India together.

GEO SEWA Interns