Today was our first day of class at the Institute. The introductory talk by an SDM-IMD professor focused on all India has been able to do despite the huge problems facing it. He talked about rays of hope emerging from social entrepreneurs who are using business systems and technology to bring some of the benefits of modernization to the rural masses – from water for crops to prosthetics for amputees. Some of his statements seems a little unbelievable and over-reaching. For example, he talked about the failures in America after 9/11 and after the Katrina disaster and compared it to the successful operations in Mumbai after the bomb blasts and the record floods. While talking about the incredible caring in India for their fellow human beings, he said that unlike America, there has never ever been any recorded case of looting in India. When the system breaks down, he said, people come together and looting stores is completely unheard of in India. Really? I seem to recall quite a bit of looting in Delhi after Indira Gandhi was shot when I was there. It was also a bit of a turn-off when a primary source for his quotes were listed on his slides as “wikipedia,” something we tell our students NOT to do. Wikipedia is a fine starting point for research, but hardly the best source to cite to build credibility.
The students headed to a new year’s eve party that evening at a local club, while Al and I chatted at the hotel before being invited to Ramesh and Thangam’s house for a quiet dinner. We had some great conversation, drank some good Indian wine and beer, and gorged on dosas, poha, and aloo tikkis.
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