Happy New Year from India!

Yesterday was a very exciting day here in India. After finishing my first day of school, we did a site visit to a local hospital in Mysore called Vikram Hospital. I really enjoyed hearing the operations manager speak and give a very informative presentation on the hospital. I was really amazed how many international patients (including Americans) come to Vikram Hospital to get a more affordable price and to get their necessary surgery completed faster.

It relates to Thomas L. Friedman’s book The World Is Flat because it shows that the playing field for hospitals is becoming leveled. An American can go to an Indian hospital and feel confident in the quality of the services the hospital provides while even paying a lower price. It’s “Globalization 3.0” at its peak because as Friedman says “The dynamic force in Globalization 3.0—the thing that gives it its unique character—is the newfound power for individuals to collaborate and compete globally” (10).

Following the operations manager presentation, we received a tour of the hospital. I personally felt uncomfortable getting a tour of the hospital while all these sick people with their families were suffering. I think only some parts of the hospital should have been shown during the tour. I just felt like we were intruding. I know we would not have done it if the manager thought we would be intruding, but it still made me feel uncomfortable. I also thought that many of the patients and their families might have came away with a bad impression of Americans, just because they might assume that we think we can do anything (getting shown parts of the hospital not even open to the patient’s visitors) because we are Americans. I definitely saw some people giving us dirty looks and honestly I do not blame them.

After the site visit, I went back to the hotel and rested. Around 8:00, I got picked up with some of the members of my group to go to Planet X (an amusement park/bar/hookah bar/restaurant/bowling alley/etc.) where I would ring in 2008. I started off the night by getting a couple of drinks and then having dinner. It was just really fun to be with everyone in my group and to see how much fun the Indians have in celebrating New Year’s Eve. It was really interesting to see the contrast from the SDM-IMD students who were so serious when we saw them at the school to how much fun and energetic they were on New Year’s Eve. The New Year’s Eve celebration made me realize how the SDM-IMD students are more similar to American students than I thought. This was definitely a New Year’s Eve that I will remember for the rest of my life. Some Pictures are attached below just give you a taste of how amazing the site was. I tried to attach a brief video but the site is having technical difficulties. I will let you know if they fix the problem. Goodbye for now (another way to say bye in India--this shows again how the world is becoming flattened).