Dinner in Paradise…

Today started off with a fun adventure with me, Drew, Felix and Nancy. We did not know where we were going which is part of the reason it was so fun. We got dropped off past Planet X near the big hills. As we were walking, we saw the beauties of India (pictures attached below). Also as cars and buses would pass, we would get honked, waved, and smiled at. The locals were so friendly to us. Although, I think most of this is due to the kindness of Indians, I think part of it can be attributed to what Varma describes in Being Indian. As previously stated, Varma describes how obsessed Indians are with status and power. I think the reason some Indians were so nice to us as we were walking was because they thought we had high status or power because we were Americans. This is completely just an assumption, but according to what I read in Being Indian, I think it is a great possibility. Here is a passage from the book that describes this: “In India there is a social acceptance of the fact the powerful need to have their egos massaged, and that supplicants must fulfill this vital need…Flattery is not expected to be subtle. It must be obvious, and excessive”(34-35). I am not saying that I have power, but am saying that part of the excessive honking and being waved at could possibly be associated with the fact that the locals think we are powerful because we are Americans and want to make their flattery obvious to us. Pictures are shown below of this adventure.














After the adventure, we took a site visit to AT&S Company which manufactures circuit boards for various electronics such as computers, cell phones, and digital cameras. I thought this would be a fun visit, but unfortunately was proved wrong. This was definitely my least favorite site visit so far. The main reason was that the tour was unorganized. There was only one man leading the tour and he had a very quiet voice. Also the space we were touring was very small, so only a small amount of the group could hear what was going on. From what I heard, I enjoyed listening to. It was cool to see the machines but I wish I could have heard what the man was saying about each machine. One interesting piece of information I did pick up was how they standardize most of the parts, but when needed customize the boards according to customer specifications. This relates to what we heard yesterday at TVS Motors, Inc. which is that they only paint a certain amount of bikes and leave some blank when they send them to the dealer so customers can customize the colors and they dealers can just paint it there. I think both of these companies are using mass customization and lean production effectively. Also another interesting piece of information AT&S said was how they export 90% of their finished goods, which was just astounding to me. A picture of the plant is shown below.















Finally, we went to a real south Indian restaurant at Hotel Paradise. The name of the restaurant sums up the ambience of the place. There were fountains everywhere. Below I attached some pictures of the hotel and believe it or not I am in one of them. The dinner started off with tomato soup, then a kind of bread, then a round plate with a large amount of bowls filled with all different kinds of Indian food, and then a Ice cream sundae with fruit it the bottom. But just when I thought it was over, they topped it off with fennel seeds (tasted like licorice), which was very refreshing after a very spicy meal. It was truly an amazing experience. This was the first dinner that I felt fully immersed in the Indian culture. I really enjoyed it.