First day in India!

On Thursday we arrived in Chennai, India. Our first glimpse of India wasn’t exactly the India you imagine. Semester at Sea obviously did not want to dish out the money to port in a cruise ship port, so we ported in a scary shipping yard with chain link fences, back alleys, and huge loading trucks. I was waiting for Cujo to run out and chase me down the dark streets. Luckily, I had to be on a bus for a trip so I was spared from contracting rabies in India.



My first trip in India was to TATA Consulting, the fifth largest employer in the world with almost 150,000 employees. It was part of a field practicum with my International Management teacher. TATA is the largest supplier of outsourcing in India. It was extremely interesting to hear the other side of the outsourcing story. In the US, outsourcing is looked upon so negatively, but in India it is a true godsend for the people who are employed. The employees are highly skilled; each required to be fluent in English. In fact, English is the common language in the company. India has 22 national languages and over 1,600 dialects, meaning many people who work together have different native languages and cultural backgrounds, so English is their only means of communication. We were given a number of presentations by various professionals at the company, from their HR philosophy to their future goals. TATA seems to have a monopoly on every industry in India. They produce the world’s cheapest car (the Nanocar), they are the number two supplier of tea in the world, they produce steel, are one of the biggest outsourcers of financial services, and the list goes on and on. Their capabilities seem endless. For every $1 it takes the U.S. to make something, they can produce it for 18 cents with even higher efficiency. They do the entire payroll for Bank of America, and work with a number of other large banks such as Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley. For the amount companies’ can reduce costs by outsourcing to India, it makes you definitely understand why companies are so ready to transfer jobs to the country. We were given the opportunity to see the operations and call center for Citibank while we were there. It was 5 pm in India, but all the workers were just arriving because it was 7am on the East Coast. Many of the employees took on American names and developed American accents to make the customer feel more connected.

There were probably over a thousand motorbikes outside the building:


We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the building, but I snagged this before my camera was confiscated for the remainder of the visit:


We got back to the boat from TATA around 8, and luckily for us Indians traditionally eat dinner around 9, so we had plenty of time to go out and sample some Indian cuisine. We walked down the dark, dirty streets leading out of the port, passing two sets of armed guards carrying AK47s. We were happy to get settled into the auto-rickshaw once we had safely made it out of the port. This feeling of relief was fleeting. If you remember what I wrote about the horrendous traffic in Vietnam, forget it. India is in a completely different league. Let me explain to your what riding in a rickshaw in India is like:

1) First off, riding in a rickshaw is about as fast and safe as riding in a Barbie Jeep down I-95.
2) Drivers pay no attention to street lines. The majority of the time we spent playing chicken with oncoming traffic. Let me just tell you, our driver was NEVER the chicken.
3) We went about two miles down a one way street, periodically slamming on the breaks and pulling over to the side when cops would pass.
4) Seeing as there are no windows or doors on the rickshaw and India’s roads are only compressed dirt, you are forced to swallow approximately nine pounds of dust.
5) You lose ten years of life in a twenty-minute ride due to the anxiety of figuring out who you should call first to say that it is your last minutes on earth.

Yes, this is a picture of us going to straight for an oncoming car.


I nearly jumped out of the rickshaw when we were let off. It was not until five minutes later did I realize we weren’t even at the destination we asked for. So we tried once more, in a taxi this time, and finally arrived at the tapas restaurant. The food was pretty good, but the music made the night fantastic. From Dave Matthews Band to Sugarland, we listened to our favorite American music in a restaurant half way around the world. Who knew Indians loved Miley Cyrus as much as us?

Annecdote:
3/11/2010: I knew outsourcing was reaching much more advanced levels than just providing customer call service, but I had no idea it was reaching the level of innovation it is at now until my time at TATA. One of the top managers told us during his presentation that it is now possible to walk into a kiosk in Michigan, put a device on your head complete with a comb and scissors, and a person in India can virtually cut your hair. Judging from my luck with hair stylists in real life, I think it would take me a while to get the nerve to try one 10,000 miles away.