Our Date with the Press and Scooty Pep+

Today we met with Journalists from the major news papers in India. From what we understand meeting with them would be the equivalent of meeting with journalists from the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal. What can I say; we’re kind of a big deal around here.

The set up initially was that we would ask them some brief questions and then they would take over and interview us, however, our questions ended up taking up the most time and they only squeezed out a couple questions before our morning tea. Most of them were very interested in our educations and the programs we were in and conversely we asked them about politics and corruption.

I found talking to these reporters really interesting because here, as well in other parts of the world, journalists have their fingers on the pulse of the nation and know very well what is going on. They said of course there is corruption, but it’s getting better, especially with the free press and the citizens learning about their rights.

With this freedom of press and online news papers comes Friedman’s ninth flattener, the stage of informing. http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14587871 here is the link for one of the many articles written about us. It’s incredible that papers (which are rapidly being phased out by the internet) which were once only able to be read in one medium, hard copy over a cup of piping hot joe, by a select population can now be read anywhere at anytime from Duluth to La Paz to Ankara.

Our site visit was to TVS motors, a manufacturer of motor bikes and scooters. We had a lovely “brief” presentation capped by a presenter who spoke so fast with such a thick, unique accent it understanding him was like an extreme sport; quite a challenge. The factory was exceptionally clean and we were able to see the assembly line from frame to full Scooty Pep+. Our tour guides were more than happy to answer questions and very gracious. I think us ladies were brought in to boost the morale of the workers on the assembly line who seemed a bit distracted as we observed the Scooty Pep+ process. It still amazes me that the labor in India is so low; labor hovering around 5% is an employer’s dream!

At night I went to the Hookah lounge with a couple guys from the group and, man, it was a good time. It was Friday but there was hardly anyone out. Apparently they were all still recovering from New Year’s Eve. Boo. But we brought the party and met some really fun Indian women who were down on a holiday. And that’s all I’m going to say about that because this is an “academic” trip, not a shopping and going out trip… ;)