A Big Green Weekend

This weekend I spent immersed in two types of green 1) the lush tropical greenery of Karjat, where I took part in a waterfall rappelling adventure and 2) the Dartmouth community of Mumbai, which convened for a luncheon get together.

Karjat is located in the mountains outside of Mumbai in a beautiful valley. Our excursion consisted of a 45 minute hike to the top of a waterfall and then rappelling down through the falls. I have done quite a bit of climbing so that part wasn’t that novel, but having the waterfall streaming down on you as you rappelled was very cool. Also, the rappeling route descended down to the entrance to a set of large caves in which ancient buddhist monestary had been built. If I only had my floppy hat and whip it would have been straight out of Indiana Jones. The trip was organized by some Dartmouth / Parthenon people - yeah for Parthenon for being so hospitable to me.

The Dartmouth event was hosted by Patty Greene D’83 (wife of Chip Greene D’83 T’90), at their house in Malabar Hill. With a dozen or so alums in attendance, some great food, and a bit of reminiscing about life back in Hanover; the event was really fun. Among the group, there were four Tuckies in attendance from the classes of “02, ‘04’, ’07 and ’08. The presence of so many distinguished alums from the world’s best business school is clearly a testament to the growing importance of India as a global economic power. Yeah for Tuck! Most of us will be attending the admissions event in Mumbai on October 10th, trying to further spread the gospel of Tuck in India.

Work in Progress - Please Cooperate

I realize that recently the blog has been a little prescriptive, too much of the foreigner identifying the challenges that lie ahead and not enough praise for the progress that has taken place.

A sign along the road today, from the MMRDA (Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority) brought this to mind. The sign read “Work in Progress – Please Cooperate”. India is indeed a work in progress. It has achieve much in the past few decades as it has transitioned from a poor agrarian-based economy to a burgeoning services based-economy, emerging as the back-office to the world. Still it is hard to ignore the fact that there is still much work to be done, particularly in the area of infrastructure (roads, transit systems, buildings, plumbing – see previous post). We take all these things for granted in the U.S., but in fact they are the hallmark of a mature developed economy.

In the not too distant future India will join the developed world and will have all the amenities that we in the US currently enjoy. In the meantime, India remains a “work in progress”, and I and the billion other souls on this subcontinent will have to “please cooperate”.

In Memory of Hot Showers

Since arriving in India I have not had a hot shower and chances are good that this will continue. Let me tell you about my bathroom. On the far wall is mounted a strange appliance called a Geyser (pronounced "geezer"). The function of a geezer is to provide hot water on demand, although your typical geezer takes at least 10 minutes to heat up. Once warm, the geezer provides intermittent hot water as the tank empties and refills. Next to the geezer is my shower area. At about knee level there are two faucets, one for hot and one for cold. Below the faucets is the bucket (I’ll return to that later). Higher up the wall you have your typical showerhead and hot and cold controls that stare mockingly at me each morning. You see the geezer, great salvation of the developing world, is in fact not attached to the showerhead, but solely to the hot faucet at knee level.


So basically what happens is that I freeze my ass off in the cold shower, and occasionally douse myself with a bucket full of lukewarm water from the faucet attached to my surly friend the geezer. This continues until I achieve a reasonable level of cleanliness or hypothermia sets in.

The messed up plumbing in my bathroom is symbolic of India’s infrastructure woes, all the components are there (or could be) they just don’t work right. As I learned from an expat friend today, an equally big problem is that this passes as acceptable under the rationale that “this is India”. India will have to expect more from itself if it is to achieve its goal of truly becoming a global economic power.

A Very Civilized Evening

This evening I attended a piano concert. “Why”, you might ask. “Martin you don’t strike me as a classical music lover”. The reason was that I was invited by my parent’s friend and sponsor of my internship, Nadir Godrej, and I thought it would be rude to turn down his hospitality. The concert was held at the Tata Theater at the National Center for Performing Arts. The pianist was Andrei Gavrilov, who performed a pieces by Chopin, Scriabin and Prokofiev (Yeah, I didn’t know the last two either).

In any event, it was a great opportunity to see how the other half – make that the .0001% - lives. Very wealthy Indians are extremely cosmopolitan, speak flawless unaccented English, and enjoy the finer things in life. This lifestyle is enjoyed by a privileged few and wealth distribution in India is one the concerns surrounding continued development (although India currently has more equal wealth distribution than the U.S. as measured by Gini coefficients). The current boom is making the rich, richer but the poor are not really participating. The consequences of this dynamic can be seen in the recent opposition to development projects such as Tata’s Nano plant in West Bengal, which they are the process of abandoning in the face of opposition by villagers whose land was “purchased” by the government. Just to editorialize a bit, the land was indeed purchased and the villagers were paid, some politician has just taken up the cause and the villagers are happy to go along hoping to double dip, either to get their land back or to be paid an additional sum. Meanwhile the surrounding area is deprived of the jobs and economic development that the plant would bring. Obviously, very self-interested in short-sighted.

Returning to the concert, it was a very nice event and I think I even liked the music. Am I getting to that age already? I mean, its not going on my iPod, but still pretty good. Clearly I am much in need of an evening of heavy drinking, pong, and 80’s rock. Missing Tuck already.

The Indian Head-bob

Body language and gestures are something one seldom thinks about, but nonetheless are critical to how people communicate. Nowhere is this more obvious than the in the head gestures that we use to signify ‘yes’ and ‘no’; nodding and shaking of the head, respectively. In their typical fashion, the Indians have done us one better, adding to their repertoire, the head-bob, and unleashing on foreigners a torrent of confusion.

The Indian head-bob is executed by drawing a horizontal figure eight (an infinity symbol) with one’s chin. The Indian head-bob can mean yes, no, I have no clue what you are talking about or any gradation in between.

I have been head-bobbed at number of times, evidently with varying meanings as derived from the different outcomes arising from the experiences:

• Head-bob 1 / the guesthouse staff: I was head-bobbed at by the guesthouse staff in response to my question about whether the wi-fi router could be fixed. A week later I’ve seen no attempt to fix it so apparently the meaning was “I don’t understand you and even if I did I’m not going to do it.”
• Head-bob 2 / the rickshaw driver: I received a head-bob from the rickshaw driver on Sunday when I asked for confirmation that he knew the way to my destination. A little after getting underway he pulled up next to another rick and asked for directions. Evidently the bob meant “more or less, plus I can always ask for directions while we in route.”
• Head-bob 3 / my colleague: One of my colleagues employed the head-bob on Monday when I told him my approach to the project that I am working on. At the end of the day today he told me that the approach wasn’t at all what he was looking for. In this case, the head-bob meant, “Not really, but why don’t you figure it out.”

Next to byzantine red tape, corruption, political deadlock, and inadequate infrastructure the insidious head-bob must rank up there as a serious impediment to India’s contined development and global integration.

An Inauspicious Period

As I was doing my morning real estate industry reading today I came across an article entitled “Shardh May Burn Rs 500-700 Crore Hole in Market”. The article went on to explain that during the Shradh, the two week period preceding the Navrati festival, the real estate market slows down dramatically (~ $100M decline) because the time is thought to be an inauspicious period in the Hindu religious calendar and hence people refrain from buying assets.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Companies/Shradh_may_burn_Rs_500-700_cr_hole_in_mkt/articleshow/3507655.cms

Fascinating stuff, truly. Perhaps herein lies an explanation for the subprime debacle and the market meltdown, the last few years have been an inauspicious period in the financial markets calendar and we have failed to head the warnings. More likely, I think the problem lies in greed, lack of regulation and market manipulation, but that is probably a post for another day and another forum. Btw, thumbs up for Paulsen and the rescue plan. Hang in there fellow Tuckies in the banking (formerly investment banking) sector.

The Umbrella Guy

On Saturday morning my new friend Mitali and I set out to buy a few provisions for our weekend trip to the country. We hopped in the back seat of her car and Mitali told her driver to head to the bakery down the street. This sort of thing seemed normal enough. Everybody in Mumbai has drivers. The traffic is horrendous and requires the skills of a Mario Andretti to navigate. But my confusion began to grow when I noticed another passenger in the front seat. Was he one of Mitali’s friends? I was not introduced. Huh? My perplexity was shortly resolved when we arrived at our destination in the midst of a monsoon downpour. The silent passenger suddenly sprung into action, darting from the car brandishing two colorful umbrellas. With the skill of no less than a Buckingham Palace soldier at the Changing of the Guard, he popped up the two canopy’s and all of a sudden he was at my door offering me the hilt of his multi-colored weapon. Ah hah, the umbrella guy!

People in India have servants. It is a strange concept for foreigners (even the pampered ones like myself) to fully grasp. The cost of labor in India is extremely low and in the fine tradition of outsourcing those that can afford to do so use servants to alleviate some of the stresses of everyday life. I am fortunate enough to have a driver that mitigates somewhat the frustration of the one and half to three hour (each way) commute to and from work. Thank god for Nathu, my driver, without him I would be faced with the mildly life threatening chaos of the train each morning.

I, of course, do not mean to sound pretentious or entitled. These people are obviously much more than the services that they provide. Although his English is somewhat limited, Nathu and I have had some conversations about Indian life and culture and I try to be respectful of his time and needs in determining my transport plan each day. The umbrella man also proved himself much more dynamic over the course of the weekend, rendering some amazing service, preparing the house, cooking some excellent omelettes, and attending to our every need. These people are the bedrock of the Indian service economy and through their industriousness and hardwork, illustrate the qualities that in a broader sense are driving India’s amazing growth.

Weekend Trip to Amby Valley

I am headed to some ridiculous luxury development described as "India's first aspirational city" with a colleague and some other expats.
http://www.aambyvalleycity.com/
It looks pretty cool. I will of course share the highlights when I return

A fork, a fork, my kingdom for a fork

I know it is going to sound culturally insensitive, but I am not down with the whole eating with your hands thing. One of the other guesthouse occupants presented an argument that eating with your hands, or at very most a spoon, makes sense because of the greater use of gravies and flatbread (chapati, nan, etc.) in India cuisine. I have given it some thought and I don’t buy it. Here is why:

• Germs, Germs, Germs: Hands are used for everything, even in an office environment your hands come in contact with a host of common items that can carry germs. From door knobs to keyboards to copy machines, unless you work in an ISO 14644 Class 5 Cleanroom your office has germs!
• Hand not optimal the optimal tool for the job: My hands are rounded, lack stabbing ability and are generally not as well designed for the conveyance of food from plate to mouth. If they were, utensils would not have been invented (anywhere).
• Neutral if not negative impact on efficiency: More hand washing required leading to elimination of efficiency gain from not having to wash utensils. Obviously, if you are going to eat with your hands, you wash them both before and after. At least in the office environment this is the practice. I am hopeful that it is more widespread.

The hand vs. utensil debate came to a head today when I was presented with a chicken leg(drumstick + thigh) in green sauce accompanied by the optional mini plastic sugar spoon. After starring at the saucy chicken for a while and making a few attempts at stabbing it with my tiny ineffectual plastic spade, I cracked and asked for utensils. A fork and knife were summoned from a distant land (upstairs closet) and order and harmony were restored.

View from the top

Today we visited Planet Godrej, Godrej Properties’ signature project in Mumbai. At 50 stories Planet Godrej is the tallest residential building in all of Mumbai. It is perched on a hill and commands amazing views of the city. From the top of the tower, you can see India rising, literally, as a dozen or so half finished buildings rise from the city floor of marshland and tenements below.


I can see how the real estate business can be so alluring. The opportunity to create functional monuments that change the landscape of a city, to imagine a huge skyscraper where before there was nothing, and then to realize that vision in concrete and steel and glass – very cool indeed. Also I suppose the ridiculous amounts of money that you can make when you do manage to catch a shooting star are pretty exciting as well. Planet Godrej is a total homerun. The selling price for the units has increase 10x since the project was conceived. While some of the units were presold, suffice it to say GPL shot the moon with “Planet” (shamelessly lame pun I know, but I couldn’t resist).

Also, I look very cool in a construction helmet. I think it is second only to the fireman’s helmet in overall badassedness in the headwear category. I wonder if they would let me wear one at Bain?

Herbie arrives in India!

After a long journey (about 8,000 miles from the Mid-west to Mumbai) our portly friend Herbie, beloved star of the gripping business novel, The Goal, has made it to Mumbai. Fellow Tuckies and other fans of operations management, hold onto your seats because Herbie is in the house, the house of Godrej, that is.

I just sat through a training session on project planning that began by singing the praises of none other than Dr. Eliyu Goldratt and the Theory of Constraints. Having read the book I was asked to relate the central point to a room full of my Indian colleagues who had not been so enlightened. I struggled to tell the story of Herbie in a cross-culturally sensitive way, but eventually switch course and managed to convey the point that the book was about a plant manager realizing that the presence of bottlenecks in his factory was hurting production. I also was delighted to find an answer to the question of how does an operations guru, such as the esteemed Dr. Goldratt, get paid. Half of India’s largest companies including Tata and Godrej, employ this guy as a consultant.

Returning to the main point…Quite understandably, real estate development incorporates many elements of operations management to keep projects on time and on budget. There was a significant discussion of critical path and a related methodology called CCPM (Critical Chain Project Management). Interesting stuff, who knew that I would so quickly be able to apply my knowledge from The Goal in a real world context.

I haven’t seen Herbie, yet. My guess is that he is ensconced at the all you can eat Chicken Tikka Masala, but I’ll let know if I find his fat operations-rockstar ass.

One Lakh, two Lakh, three Lakh, Crore

So I am sitting in an orientation session talking about marketing spend and apartment prices. I am prepared for the quick conversion that I’ve been having to make between rupees and dollars (drop a zero and divide by four) when suddenly the presenter starts talking about total media spending during the cricket tournament amounting to one Crore. What the hell is a Crore?

Did you know that they have a different numbering system in India? Neither did I? Who does that? I understand the calendar thing, I mean there are not down with JC, I get it. But seriously, numbers? Here is the deal. The system is still base ten and all, but India adopted special names and strange comma placements for larger numbers. A Lakh is one hundred thousand, while a Crore is ten million. The comma placement is different too. One Lahk is written 1,00,000. One Crore is written 1,00,00,000. If they didn’t start this whole number thing a few millennia ago I’d say someone should straighten them out for being so pretentious as to have their own system. But they did, so I guess I’ll have to learn to make more conversions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakh

Maybe this is why Indian guys are so good at math, because they have to run all these crazy conversions between Crores and Lakhs before still arriving at the answer thirty seconds before me. Huh!?

Blow Horn – Not OK

On the back of almost every commercial vehicle (primarily box trucks) in Bombay is written the curious phrase “Blow Horn OK”. I think the sentiment that this is trying to express is, “hey I am driving a big truck and might not be able to see you, so if I am about to crush your tiny shockingly fuel-efficient compact car please honk.” Unfortunately it seems to be interpreted in Mumbai as a kind of call to arms to add to the absolute cacophony of the city.

Mumbai faces many of the traditional development challenges including serious environmental pollution, but I think it may be at the far end of spectrum in terms of noise pollution. Even out in the suburban area where I reside the sound of car horns fills the air day and night. While I have adapted to the noise, as I am sure most residents of Bombay have, I think after they resolve the issues of clean water, clean air, adequate infrastructure, adequate housing and acceptable living conditions for the 6 million people that live in the Dharavi slum they should hop right on the honking issue. At least put some “I heart Mumbai” bumper stickers over those silly “Horn Please” signs.

India is quite confused by my presence

It is my third day in country and it has become quite apparent that I am quite a novelty here. Every where I go people are curious about why I am here. Perhaps after the government finishes rounding up the terrorist bombers in Dehli they could send out a memo advising the population to not be alarmed by the strange blond white guy roaming around. “He is not here to hurt you, he is here to contribute to your economy.”

I went to the zoo today which set me back 30 rupees (15 cents), so maybe I am not contributing that much yet, but I digress. I am pretty sure that the average India would pay 10 rupees to hang out with me, such is the level of interest and attention that I appear to be receiving. This manifests itself in different ways with different people, from the nice Indian guy that helped on my first train adventure to the beggars in the train stations who know a good mark when they see one. In between there have been the kids that jogged along with me while I was running on Marine Drive and the random teenagers who came by to chat and asked me where my girlfriend was at Chowpatty Beach (I think they were hoping for a little bikini viewing action, some things are universal I guess). The adventure continues.

Perspectives on India

India is a fascinating country. Its rich history, impressive size and recent emergence as a global economic force have inspired travel writers and commentators for centuries. There has been much ink spilled of late as business authors compete for shelf space at airport book stores. I too am guilty of buying the pre-trip India hype book, but I think for real perspective (and literary talent) you have to look back a little further. The two quotes that follow from Mark Twain and Nehru do a nice job of illustrating the rich heritage of India and the almost palpable sense of change and opportunity present here.

"India is, the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only."
-Mark Twain

"A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new; when an age ends; and when the soul of a nation long suppressed finds utterance."
- Jawaharlal Nehru

While I am unlikely to achieve either the wit of Twain or the wisdom of Nehru, I hope you’ll at least find my blog entertaining and perhaps even educational. At very least, I hope to be able to share with you, my friends and family, my experiences in India.