I had a trip to India for work. There were 2 work parts – a work part and a personal part, so I will make this in 2 posts, spanning Mumbai, Mysuru, and Bengaluru. Part 1 is more my observations from the cities.
My company has a growing footprint in India, both for manufacturing and retail, and it was the latter that I was there for. The leadership team was doing a bit of leadership development, and a bit of market exploration at the same time. So, a few of us flew to Mumbai, had some meetings, and did some home visits. I did not take so many pictures of the home visits, as others were more focused on that.
There were security and bag checks everywhere. My bags were scanned multiple times at the airport, every time going into a hotel, and going into any kind of special place (like a temple or a palace).
When I arrived in Mumbai, it was 2am. There was more traffic at 2am from the airport to my hotel than there is at rush hour in Copenhagen. It was crazy! And I was in a weird headspace being as tired as I was! Speaking of traffic, I and some colleagues left Bengaluru for an excursion. We left on a Friday afternoon, and returned on a Sunday afternoon/evening. So, basically the same window as all the rest of the people going to get out of the city or visit friends and family. And for the record, Begaluru is a city of 13 million people. So, the weekend traffic was AMAZING(ly bad). One friend slept the whole way back to the hotel from our outing, lucky devil! It was about 150km, but it took 5,5 hours. Oof.
Of course, I ate a lot of Indian food. I have to say, it was overall amazing! I was a little over it by the end of my 9 days, but I loved most every thing I ate! From lavish dinners to roadside snacks and everything in between, I dove into the food! But I did not take a lot of pictures – was too busy eating!
The first thing I noticed is that my flight there avoided Iran airspace …
Another thing is that basically everyplace is under construction. It is amazing, regardless of the scale, there are building projects everywhere!
A lot of the buildings have an exterior stain that I think is a mix of smog and monsoon. And there is an overwhelming sense of layers – colour, buildings, ages, etc.
I took a lot of pictures of traffic, and a video of the flow of scooters and motos all honking. Honking all the time. And mostly, people just getting on with living the best they can.
Also, there were some funny random things! Spices, signs, monumental statues, and an Indian Bidet!
Overall, it was an amazing work trip to visit offices in both Mumbai and Bengaluru! But it was part 2 that was the most fun!
Leave a Reply