018 The Amazing Race: India

Amazing race day...so much fun! We started the day by returning to FIIB early in the morning for a lecture. Our lecturer, Arvind Bahl, provided us with some background on the real estate industry in India, which I found to be very interesting and insightful. Listening to the level of corruption and bureaucracy that still apparently exists in India was certainly eye opening. I thought it was interesting that so much money is exchanged under the table that it has acquired its own moniker – “black money” and is often built-in to just about every transaction. I know that this will bring about a slew of issues that foreign companies will have to deal with if and when they decide to enter the country. So often we’re taught, even in the Walton College, about the importance of following the customs of another country…does that apply even if it means breaking a law that no one seems to care about anyway? What if companies that choose to stick by their ethical principles and not give into bribery are guaranteed to fail? Walmart can play this game because their pockets are deep enough to survive but this may not hold true for smaller companies. Where do you draw the line? 

Our speaker of the day, Mr. Arvind Bahl.

Another interesting facet of Indian culture that was brought up that a lot of American students couldn't understand was the concept of purchasing property to pass onto future generations, even if no one stayed in said property. A lot of the Walton students felt that it was a waste and that it showed improper allocation of resources towards construction, in that India was supplying too many houses because no one lived in them. Buying property as inheritance is common for Chinese families too, so it wasn’t overly odd for me. I think a lot of Asian families tend to prefer houses or other pieces of property simply because they’re tangible things that (whether true or not) do not appear to be able to lose value as quickly as cash or stocks and bonds can.

In any case, after our lecture, we headed upstairs again for quick lunches as the Amazing Race in Delhi would start soon.

Subway and Diet Coke: Lunch of the Champions

We trusted our FIIB students to plot our path to victory as they knew the outlay of the city fairly well. 

The team!

Before we knew it, we were off, and we had so much fun! We had to visit certain destinations and take pictures in each one, often staying for required periods of time. Our first mistake was that we thought we had to stay within the 1000 rupees that had been supplied to us. This resulted in us taking buses and walking to our first destination – the Train Museum, effectively putting us about 20 minutes behind everyone else. Oh well – you win some, you lose some. 

In an Indian bus...that was an experience.

Success!

Hanging out with the trains.

Negotiating with drivers. We left that to the pros.

We got to see the India Gate and meet some guy from Auburn who recognized us by our Razorback gear (!) and ride bicycle rickshaws through the streets of Delhi.

Me and Jarred at the India Gate.

Yep - found a random Auburn fan in the middle of India.

Another random stop on the Race route!

We had the chance to visit plenty of beautiful and interesting monuments and locations in India and experience all sorts of things we never would have had to otherwise, like buying pastries in Connaught Place (so good!) and buying spices in a random market. 

The famous Wenger's at Connaught Place!

Dericiousss.

Roopak's Pik-N-Pay.

Awesome spices.

We took the subway after getting pastries though, and were definitely not aware of the fact that we couldn’t bring pastries on the train. We didn’t want to waste any of the food we had just purchased, so we ended up eating it before going to the train station – Jarred is convinced that this is why we lost. 

Stuffing our faces with delicious.

We had the opportunity to see of the most incredible and luxurious malls I’ve ever seen and ride the Metro and visit a ridiculously packed train station. 

The Emporio mall...another stop along the way!

At the train station. Geez.

After completing all our tasks, we rushed back to IDSA, ended up tying with some other group and rushed up the stairs to Dr. Anand’s and Dr. Ellstrand’s apartment. Yeah – boys here believe in equal opportunity…they definitely did not afford me the advantage of climbing of the stairs first since I was a girl. I got shoved into the wall, had my hair and clothing pulled and literally got kicked as we ran up – it was crazy. We ended up tying for last anyway, so hah!

After the Amazing Race, a few of us took cars and went out to grab some dinner together. We ended up eating a really nice sushi place, and headed home soon after. All in all, an Amazing day (pun totally intended).