Lesson in Breathing, TaeguTec, and InfoSys

I don’t want to turn this into a health blog, but it has dominated my days recently. And, it has been a learning experience. It is amazing how much we take for granted. We think little about numerous daily activities unless the flow is disrupted. So, after feeling much better during the afternoon yesterday, I was forced to realize the importance of the simple act of breathing through my nose. As I lay down to sleep, I found that my nose was so completely clogged that I couldn’t breathe one bit out of my nose. This posed a bit of a problem because breathing only through the mouth is not that easy when trying to sleep. Plus every three breaths resulted in a hacking cough. I tried everything – sleeping in the chair, piling pillows at the head of the bed and trying a semi-prone sleep, trying to sleep on my side, etc. But nothing worked. This went on for a while and I finally must have fallen asleep at some point as the next thing I remember is the alarm going off and waking up, breathing through my left nostril! It was interesting to realize how important nose-breathing is to sleeping. Something so simple and basic can disrupt processes significantly when out of whack. The shower was scalding hot for a change and so I took a LONG extra hot shower to try and clear out my sinuses. It did make me feel a little better and ready to face the day with a slightly clear head. However, the more I think about my situation, I think it would be crazy to go on the all-day sight-seeing excursions planned for the weekend. Since the sigh-seeing visits are optional for everyone, that may be good for me to miss and use the time to visit a doctor here or in Bangalore.

The morning’s speaker was Mr. L. Krishnan, Managing Director of TaeguTec India. TaeguTec is a Korean company in the cutting tools industry. He provided some background of his industry and then spent an hour or so answering questions from the group. He was very impressive in terms of the breadth of his knowledge and expertise. TaeguTec is also 80% owned by Berkshire Hathaway and was, in fact, the first foreign company owned by Warren Buffett’s group.

The visit to InfoSys in the afternoon was breathtaking. Here was an entire mini-city built on a grand scale. The “Global Learning Center” looks like a massive Roman coliseum. The “Leadership Institute” has a façade resembling the Parthenon with massive columns rising over a broad marble staircase with flowing waterfalls on each side. The campus is surrounded by lush green lawns, water fountains, and massive, elaborate buildings. We were given a tour of the campus that included luxurious villas for faculty accommodations, a 4-screen multiplex theater, a shopping mall, a huge recreation center that included a bowling alley, huge halls for table tennis, badminton, snooker, and more. All in all it was breathtaking, but also a little bit unnerving. It is clear that they are not hurting for money. Some of the students seemed to sense a little arrogance from the speaker, but I think that may just be because the surroundings were all on such a large and garish scale.

The evening was extraordinary. We went to the institute in the evening for a “small and informal” talent show to be put on jointly by the SDM-IMD students and our students. It started late and turned out to be an elaborate cultural show with full costumes, spectacular dances and music. We were overwhelmed. We had little to no talent to share – as was clear when the best we could do was get me up on stage to do some “impromptu lecturing” to the group on some silly topics. Only in India will such a “talent” be appreciated. It was embarrassing but a fun and enjoyable evening.

Sickness and L&T

I can’t believe I am in a shape to type again. Last night and this morning, I was ready (at several points) to give in and call for a doctor. You have already read most of the gory details and they don’t even begin to really demonstrate how lousy I felt. I had one disposable thermometer that showed that I had a fever of 102.7 at one point. Even rolling over in bed was a breathtakingly painful experience with a stupendous headache from completely clogged sinuses. My fever broke at about 6 PM last night and I started feeling better, but then it hit me again at about 8 PM. Come morning, I was still in no shape to even walk around my room and I opted out of the morning lecture at SDM. I knew I had to get out of bed and force myself to rejoin the world and told Al to call me before the site visit to Larsen & Toubro. My morning continued with me drifting in and out of sleep, doing multiple inhalations and taking a long, hot shower at 5 AM. Since I had eaten nothing for over 24 hours, I forced myself to have some toast and cornflakes for breakfast at 9 AM.

Although I was feeling a little better, I was still a little woozy as I headed out for the L&T site visit at noon. They had laid out a sumptuous lunch for us on their campus. After that, we visited several buildings on their campus and were introduced to various L&T divisions. The “tour guide” was actually the head of EmSys, the embedded systems division of L&T. He was a fantastic speaker and very eloquent. He explained everything well and gave us a great insight into the incredible global supply chain management system that is our reality today. For example, L&T sources from Israel and manufactures on German equipment for construction projects in the United Arab Emirates using some IT managers in Mysore. They have product development teams consisting of managers from the client in the USA working with engineers in India. It was a very impressive visit – consistently fascinating. They even left each one of us with a gift. Tomorrow we go across the street to InfoSys.

In the evening, Al and I went shopping for some wine (yes, Indian wines are starting to make a mark in the industry) and a few other things. By the time we were done at about 7:30 PM, I was starting to fade and feel a little woozy again, so we headed back to the hotel and I started another round of inhalation. Still, the fact that I was able to be out almost all afternoon makes me feel better.

Wild animals and deteriorating throat

We woke up early this morning and headed out on a jeep into the jungle again. We waited vainly for a view of the elusive tiger, but had no luck. In addition to the multitudes of spotted deer, we saw a pack of wild dogs, a wild boar, the herd of elephants again, as well as some interesting birds. By the time we were ready to leave, my cold had exploded to the point where my nose was constantly dripping and I had several soaked handkerchiefs. By this time, my nose was raw and red, joining my hurting throat. I came back to Mysore in the minivan while the students braved the bouncy, broken, and dusty bus. When I got back, I went to a pharmacy and purchased some Sinarest, Cetrizine, and Benedryl with the hope that this would give me enough options to cover me for the day or two it will take to recover from this misery.

I also went out for a great haircut. The salon offered a nice haircut (including head massage), a shave, a shampoo, and a beard/mustache trim for a whopping Rs. 140 (less than $4). Very nice.