Compare & Contrast ?!?

Today we began our day at FIIB as usual. We were supposed to have a lecture from one of their professors about the Indian consumer, but it was rescheduled until tomorrow. So instead we went over the results of a survey we had taken the day before. We took it and so did the FIIB students. Theirs sad list 3 positive things about America/Americans, and 3 negative things. Ours said list 3 positive things about India/Indians, and 3 negative things.

To recap that quickly...the Indian students all had very similar communal views. The most common themes were Americans are friendly, informal, and hard working. They were really unable to say negative things. Most of them left that part blank, and if they answered it what they put was not necessarily negative. The resounding theme was that they hoped our recession was over soon.
In contrast to this, we answered the survey fully and completely with a very diverse individualistic set of responses. Our positives includeded culture, service orientation, helpfulness, hospitaility, friendliness, history, friendly towards the US, enthusiastic about the future, technology, and government representation of diverse ethnic groups. Our negatives inclulded trash, loss of culture due to westernization, corruption, traffic, lack of development in rural areas, disrepair of world heritage sites, lack of infrastructure, pollution, and lack of policy implementation.

After the discussion we left FIIB to shop and do more market research. First we went to Chandni Chowk. It is over 300 years old, and one of the oldest markets in India. If you watched the Amazing Race and saw the part where they had to count the tags on power lines, that's where we were. It was a series of winding hole in the wall shops with nearly in and everything you can think of. It was by far the most overwhelming experience I've had since we've been here. Apparently some of the shops are very expensive and people shop there for wedding sarees. I found the experience to be so awful I couldn't even really go in any shops. Like stores seemed to be grouped together oddly enough. As we were walking down a row with mostly jewelry the entire right hand side lost power. Business men pulled out their generators like it was no big deal, hooked them up in the streets and went on about their day. We were in a huge group which made it even harder to navigate. We were also on a really tight time restriction to meet back with the bus which made it even more stressful. As what seems to be the norm the FIIB students were not terribly communicative and didn't really help or lead us in any direction. Most of them had never been there before either so it probably was not their fault. We stopped briefly at Haldiram's for a snack and then headed off by bus to the Saket mall.

The Saket mall was probably the polar opposite of Chandni Chowk. If they wanted a comparison between two very different things, these were the correct options. The Saket mall has several malls connected. It is one of the newest malls in Delhi and it is absolutely beautiful. Most of the stores in the mall are western - American or UK stores. They were all pretty high end. They had nine west, Ed Hardy, and MAC to name just a few. There were also some high end saree stores and restaraunts. We were there for a really long time. Some other students wanted to see a movie in the "golden ticket" area. Apparently you get to sit in a lazy boy recliner and they wait on you better than first class on an airplane. They really enjoyed the experience but I was tired of being at the mall.

We shopped quite a bit. I bought mostly gifts. I haven't felt like an American asshole until today. A few people bought quite a bit of stuff and the FIIB students were calling us rich and talking about how they couldn't afford anything in the mall. None of them have ever been to a golden ticket movie. (The golden tickets were almost 600 rupees - around $12). FIIB is not an inexpensive school. Vikas said that their families have to be fairly well off for them to be able to attend school there in the first place. That really doesn't help me feel better about the situation.