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A Week Full of Trips: Week Five at RBI

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A bright and early start saw the group wake up at 8am sharp on an overcast and gloomy Sunday morning in anticipation for our field trip to the National Defence Academy (NDA). The NDA campus was the first military education training centre in the world to comprise of all three services of the military – the Indian Air Force, Army and Navy.  The aim of the campus is to train and develop the future officers of the Indian military, meaning admission to the academy is not only prestigious but also highly selective. Not only do officers study the art of warfare, they are also encouraged to learn a variety of subjects including Maths, Sciences and Foreign Languages. Most recruits also take up physical activities such as horse riding and swimming, with some even excelling at national level. For all we know, we may have passed the Indian Michael Phelps!

The hospitality at the academy was excellent, all the recruits spoke excellent English and introduced us to their famous Iced Coffee. The sprawling green campus was home to 2,400 new recruits and a variety of wildlife including monkeys, snakes, peacocks and hyenas. We received a tour from each respective service, including the opportunity to play on the Ship Simulator at the Navy base. This was a surprise to our supervisor Ramani, who squealed when Luz and Jiseop started pressing random buttons – perhaps not quite understanding the simulation nature of the program!

In regards to the work projects, it was business as usual. All groups have up to this point made sufficient progress. For example, Ben and Jack this week were able to head over to the archives department of the CAB, where the staff were extremely helpful as they provided us with any RBI printed out documents which should prove to be very beneficial for the project. Unfortunately they had to say an emotional goodbye to one of our supervisors who had been very helpful in guiding and supporting us with the project.

On Tuesday the group as a whole were taken to a local slum where we were given the opportunity to hand out relevant questionnaires to the local people in regards to their banking services. The experience of getting deep into a slum was an overwhelming experience for us all, the people were very friendly and the conditions were of course nothing most of us had experienced. It really did put the poverty into perspective.

On Wednesday as part of their project, George and Luz went on a field visit to various commercial banks across Pune, guided by their supervisors who offered translation services. However, these supervisors weren’t quite as helpful as first appeared, insisting that to fully absorb local culture they should try some local “delicacy” from a random shack offering street food.  After eating the mystery food, their stomachs began to feel the full effects and an hour later they were glued to the toilet seat back at campus, with faces as pale as a ghost.

Unfortunately on Thursday we encountered the most difficult and challenging test thus far in the internship – having to wake up at 5am for an exhausting four hour car journey to Mumbai. We arrived around 10am in the sprawling economic city, under the mammoth structure of the RBI central headquarters. This colossal skyscraper towered over the city, providing excellent views of the port of Mumbai when inside. Security was so tight that it felt like we were about to walk into the White House! However, we were a tad early for our meeting so we explored the RBI monetary museum where we saw a wide variety of coins and currency showcasing the history of money throughout India. This was a particularly overwhelming experience for the avid coin-collecting enthusiast that is David , who certainly felt quite at home in the museum.

In the afternoon, we had an informative presentation by two representatives from the ISME accelerator bank who gave us a detailed overview of Financial Technology (FinTech) in India. Whilst this benefitted Joe and Jiseop’s project the most, the presentation was our best to date and captivated everyone, particularly when talking about intriguing and relevant financial topics such as Bitcoins and Blockchain. We were told to stop asking questions as we had to rush back to Pune so we would be in back in time for dinner! We returned exhausted and immediately went to bed, with some choosing to forego dinner.

-Jiseop, Ben and Luz

Bollywood Films, Brownies and Birthdays: Week Four at Bharti Foundation

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This week has been fairly quiet as it has involved long days at the office collaborating all of our data we had collected from our week in Punjab last week. We had over 100 graphs, tables and pie charts to fit into a brief presentation next week. After work one day, the girls decided to go and see a Hindi rom com at the cinema. After the vigorous security search when we entered the mall we were greeted with it again going into the cinema. Unlike back home there is no way of sneaking food in as you have to leave your bag behind if you get caught with snacks. Annie found this out the hard way!

After the cinema, we decided we wanted to take a break from the normal curry, roti and rice. We found ourselves back at the famous Cyber Hub. There, we saw a Taco Bell…the British were completely clueless on what it was and eventually discovered how much they are missing out on amazing Mexican fast food.

This week was also Annie’s 21st birthday! We celebrated by ordering an Oreo cake and various other desserts (or as the British say, pudding) …and yes, we got desserts delivered right to our door.

On Friday after our dinner at California Pizza Kitchen, we happened to see a typical Indian concert where the bands were playing hard rock music but the audience didn’t seem to be quite engaged (probably because of the heat??). After all, this was another interesting experience, besides listening to the Hindi music on radios on the roads everyday.

Over the weekend, we went to a unique restaurant. There, they made a dish called “Dodha Brownie Bath Tub”, and when they served it, it was literally brownies in a bathtub. They added in chocolate foam to make the bubbles, and this was probably the best brownie dish we have ever had. The most interesting part was the vessels they served our drinks in. One was served in dried ice, so it was smoking when we got it. And another was served in a glass mug, which is odd for a cocktail. The views from the restaurant were exceptional as we were sitting on the rooftop.

After this we decided to see what else Delhi nightlife had to offer and ventured out further and found ourselves at another bar. There was some fun dancing and, by Indian standards, some expensive drinks! We danced with some very enthusiastic Indians and had a bit of a laugh with them and found their enthusiasm very entertaining.

Two more weeks to go!

-Avnee

Another Week, Another Round of Restaurants: Week Four at SEWA

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Hello, my name is Nathan. I am Boston University student entering my third year of college this fall. This week we did lots of things around town in places we have never been to and visited a couple of old favorites in our never-ending pursuit of the tastiest bit in town! Our week consisted of mostly working independently in the mornings and venturing out of campus at the end of the day to try new restaurants suggested to us by the IIM-A students.

This Saturday we joined several summer school exchange students along with a few members of the Heritage Club on campus on a walk around the old city. We made our first stop of several at the Siddi Saiyad Jali Mosque which is the oldest mosque in all of Ahmedabad. It was a beautifully simplistic structure that had a three-walled concept where the rear side of the mosque was open to the air. The structure had a carved stone window in the rear of the mosque that has since been adopted as the local symbol of Ahmedabad. We then proceeded to walk through the streets of central Ahmedabad to see the Bhadra Fortress and through a small market to the Jumma Masjid Mosque. The Mosque is enormous and was the largest Mosque on the entire Indian subcontinent for several years! We walked around the Mosque for about half an hour and then made our way to Ahmedshah Badshah’s Tomb, for which the city is named after. Only men were allowed into the innermost sanctum, with their heads covered, where the tombs of the late leaders lay. We finished off the great walk with a dining experience at the Manekchowk Market. Amongst the chaos and bursting tarps full of rain water precariously hovering over our heads as we ate we were seated and given food. We were served Poha, a type of bread, and a tomato sauce with a healthy knob of butter in the center of the sauce. We also had a meatless version of Dosa and some Thumbs Up Soda to drink. We were then given “Mango Ice Cream Sandwich” which was white bread without the crusts and traditional Indian ice cream. Then another layer of bread is added which is where the Mango sauce is added and a nice helping of shredded cheese. To say the least we were all confused. They paired that sandwich with a chocolate cheese sandwich which was less confusing due to the overpowering nature of the chocolate of which there was a fair amount on that sandwich. It was a fantastic night all around and meeting all the other transfer students was a welcome delight.

Over the next few nights we continued to eat around town and visited Jassi De Paratha for lunch and got it delivered several nights later for dinner. I think we have found a dish we are all fans of. We also went out to dinner at Hyderbadi Hut with some friends we met on the heritage walk. We had several Biriyani between the six of us and had a few other local foods. The following day we went to Punjabi by Heart and ate some Cholle Bhatura and some curries. I had some Mango Lassi that was chilled into almost a custard like consistency that was very refreshing. We even managed to slip in a night of Indian Dominos which was strikingly similar to the US and UK Dominos. To say the least we had a very diverse array of meals this week!

On Tuesday Beanie, Shobhit and I went to the office to talk to Rushi, one of our supervisors, about our presentation and the progress of our research. We received good news that we were on track with our direction and that we were meeting the directives laid out by SEWA. This was good news considering that the presentation we have is approaching quite fast. We also discussed the possibility of another field visit which we were very excited about.

Beyond just working and eating we also got to attend the Annual General Meeting that was held for the SEWA Trade Facilitation Centre. We got to see a Google Executive speak along with the founder of SEWA and the current CEO of SEWA TFC with several others. It was super unique just seeing how they structured their meeting around personal experience of the members and not just the high up executives. I found this to be a very unique and fun approach to something I would generally assume to be a mundane activity.

The highlight of the week was when Kristin made us watch the Game of Thrones Season 7 premiere at our favorite Café-the Project Café.  We met some very nice people there and Liv, Beanie and I all discovered that we were missing out on a great show for years now! It was super fun hanging out with other people who liked the show and coached us through the episode. We had a great week over in  Ahmedabad and are even more excited to see what week five has in store for us!

-Nathan