Weekend in Amritsar and Wagah Border

On Saturday we had dinner at our local consultant Jaspreet's, parents house. They had an amazing spread of food for us.  It was very delicious and was great to spend time with a Ludhiana family.

Me with Jaspreet and his parents

The spread at Jaspreet's parents house

We also went shopping for sarees at Bombay Creations.  We sat and had tea while the consultant showed us many different saree fabrics.  I finally chose one and will share it once it is delivered to the hotel!

Saree shopping at Bombay Creations

Cathy, Alessandra, and I with the owner of Bombay Creations

On Sunday, we drove 3 hours to Amritsar, where the Golden Temple is located.  The Golden Temple is a holy temple for Sikhs. 

Golden Temple

Eating Langar (community food) at the Golden Temple

Then we drove to the Wagah Border, the only border crossing into Pakistan.   They have a ceremony where Indian and Pakistani border forces do a ceremony with high kicks.  The ceremony is full of national pride from both sides, and is an interesting display of passive-aggressive celebration.

Wagah Border Ceremony (India/Pakistan)

Word of the day: gurdwara - place of worship for sikhs (gateway to the guru)

Meeting the LSRM Families

This week, we developed our methodology and approach for a needs assessment for a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program focused on girls education.  Phase 1 of the program is understanding how Ludhiana Steel Rolling Mills (LSRM) can best serve the needs of its employees girl children.  Our approach is three-fold: 1) survey 40 employees with girl children, 2) conduct in-depth interviews with 5 employees, the employees' girl children, and the employee wives, and 3) conduct focus groups with employees and 2 NGOs that focus on education.

Peter and Rajeev, our client counterpart, surveying an LSRM employee about girls education

Yesterday we visited a couple of the employee's families from the Ludhiana Steel Rolling Mills.  It was both a very awesome and humbling experience.  The families were incredibly welcoming and open to talk to us about girl's education and challenges girls face.  Both families we visited mentioned that they believe the state of Punjab values girls education more than other states, which was interesting to hear.

Lukas, me, Ruchy, Rolly, and the mother posing with our gifts.  The third daughter, Rani, was playing outside.

These two families were some of the medium-lower paid employees, but were very proud of their daughters and said that education brings pride to a family.   Both families sent all of their girl children to school.  They also told us they were planning to send their girls to school through senior secondary school (12th grade high school equivalent), and hopefully on to university.  One family had a son and told us they wanted both the son and daughter to receive equal levels of education.  From a girl's education perspective, our visits were very encouraging.

Interviewing Rolly, the 13 year old daughter of an LSRM employee

From everyone we have talked to so far, some challenges with girls education in India include:
- early marriage (by age 15 or 16)
- safety traveling to school (someone needs to accompany them)
- cultural belief that girls are not as valuable as boys (some families will send their boy to school and not their girl or not give a girl and boy the same level of education)
- cultural view that girls are a burden on a family (the family is expected to pay a dowry to the husband's family before marriage, which makes it more expensive to have a girl)

In addition, India's education system has its own challenges, such as shortage of teachers, inconsistent quality of teachers, and a grade attainment gap (i.e. 5th graders reading at a 2nd grade level).

Interestingly enough (and unlike Tanzania), money does not seem to be the largest barrier to education.  Low income families definitely have to make sacrifices, but it is not completely out of reach for their children, and especially girls, to go to school.  The families we interviewed told us that there are expenses (books, uniform, etc) and sometimes nominal school fees associated with education, but the government of India has lowered, and in some cases, waived these fees for girl children to promote girls education.  In addition, there are government programs and other organizations that provide support for families that cannot support their children (both boys and girls) to go to school.

Even so, if LSRM could give scholarships or provide another educational program to its employees to promote their girl children to go to school, they could not only relieve some of the financial burden of education, but also show their employees that if LSRM values girls education, they should too.

Lukas, Peter, and I with Pratam, Priyanka, and the mother of another LSRM family

LSRM wants to focus first on supporting the education of their employees' girl children, so part of our needs assessment is figuring out how to best serve these girls.  We have found that some of the employees are migrants, so their families live very far away.  Others still hold some of the cultural views discouraging girls education.  We are working to find a way to bridge as many gaps as possible so we can achieve LSRM's CSR mission!

Word of the day: ap ka nam kya hai - what is your name?

#ibmcsc #india22

Food, Clothing, and Weddings

Food
We have been having some pretty awesome food in Ludhiana.  Yesterday we had sugar cane juice on the street and today we tried gol gappa, a round hollow crisp filled with spicy water and a mix of potato, spices, onion, chickpeas, etc.  For lunch, we eat food from the canteen at the manufacturing facility every day for lunch and it is delicious.  There is so much variety - I think if I lived in India I could become vegetarian.  We also tried a fruit called jujube (which I previously only knew of the candy) and an eggplant dish.  Last night we ate at a local restaurant and had sarsonkasaag, a mustard plant dish that is only available in the winter and early spring.  We also had mushroom mitari, dahi bhalla, and paneer masala.  

Our meal last night

 Today for lunch one of the workers brought us sarsonkasaag from their home and we also had aloo gobi (potato and cauliflower) with basmati rice.  Most meals come standard with an onion, radish, and tomato salad as well. For dinner, we went to a local market and had a dosa, which is like a crepe stuffed with paneer (cheese), potato, tomato, and spices.

Eating dosa at the market

The outdoor market with lots of food stalls

 Clothing
A couple days ago I went shopping for kurtas, the tunic type shirts that most women wear to work here in Punjab.  I bought a short kurta and a tunic version as well as some of the special pants to wear on more formal occasions.  I also went shopping for a sari, but soon realized that sari shopping is an experience that deserves more time.  Many women will go shopping for a sari for multiple hours and sit in the sari shop drinking a cup of tea while the men in the shop model the sari material for them.  I was so impressed by how much pride the men took in carefully assembling the sari.  I decided to postpone my sari shopping until I have a couple hours to go back for the real experience.

The man at the sari store showing me how the sari would fit

Weddings
Speaking of saris, it is wedding season!  A lot of women here wear a Punjab version of a sari to weddings since it is a little colder here.  Since we are staying at a relatively upscale hotel, we have had some sort of wedding related ceremony every night since we have been here.  Everyone gets dressed up in very colorful and beautiful dresses and decorates the banquet halls very elaborately.  Last night there were 2 separate ring ceremonies and tonight there was a shagun ceremony, a type of engagement party in accordance with Punjabi wedding customs.  I am trying to get myself invited to a wedding so I can wear a sari!

That's all for now....more soon about our work with Ludhiana Steel Rolling Mills!

Word of the day: yar - friend

Kicking off our CSC Project!

The past 3 days have been incredibly busy as we kicked off our projects!  My IBM team, including Peter from Hungary and Lukas from Czech Republic, met our clients, Rajeev and Jatin, from the Ludhiana Steel Rolling Mill on Monday.

Our CSC and Ludhiana Steel Rolling Mills team: Jatin, Rajeev, Lukas, me, and Peter

After our first meeting, we had a team debrief with the IBM team and Mamtha, our IBM India contact and Shruti, our Indian contact from Pyxera Global.

Team debrief meeting after the kickoff

On Tuesday, Peter, Lukas, and I went to the Ludhiana Steel Rolling Mills (LSRM) for our first day on the job.  We got a tour of the manufacturing area, which was really cool.  More pictures and info about the manufacturing processes in a future post.  I also gave Rajeev a Chicago Bulls hat so he can promote Chicago in Ludhiana :)

Rajeev wearing his new Chicago Bulls hat!

We also met with Mr. Jain, the partner/CEO of LSRM.  We discussed his vision for the girl's education CSR program and our planned methodology and approach.  More about our project and Mr. Jain coming soon.

On Wednesday, we went to another LSRM manufacturing facility focused on forging.  The forging facility forges steel, which is more dense and stronger, whereas the rolling mill facility uses rollers to create large steel rods which are lighter and less dense.  They also have the largest Chinese hammer in the state of Punjab, which is used for forging the steel and made the ground shake with every blow.  See below for some pictures from our visit!

Workers setting the hot steel to cool

View of the forging facility

Workers forging the hot steel

The company garden, where employees can take vegetables home for their families

Finished goods ready for transport

Forging the steel with the largest Chinese hammer in Punjab

Jagdish, the coolest Sindh
Transportation truck driver
for Ludhiana Steel Rolling Mills!

Peter and Lukas at the forging plant

We will be conducting a needs assessment with our stakeholders using focus groups, interviews, and an employee survey to understand the needs of girl children to help us shape our girl's education program.  We got to interview 5 employees to test out our survey questionnaire today and will continue the needs assessment through next week.

Interviewing an LSRM employee about girl's education

To cap off our day, we stopped to get sugar cane juice from a roadside stand.  So delicious and refreshing!

Drinking sugar cane juice from a roadside stand

Word of the day: dhanyavad/shukria - thank you

#ibmcsc #india22

Arrival and Chandigarh

Smith and I

I finally made it to Ludhiana!  After taking a train to Ludhiana from Delhi with my assigned travel buddy, Smitha, we were greeted at the hotel with a Punjabi blessing (flower necklace, drink, and red dot).  I also got to finally meet most of my team members before heading off to bed.

Fast Facts about Ludhiana:
Population: 1.6M
Language: Punjabi (it's located in the Punjab state, but most people also speak Hindi)
Religion: 60% Sikh,with the rest Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, etc

Some of the team at Rock Garden

The next morning we piled into a 14 seater van and drove to to Chandigarh, an "idyllic" Indian city that has been recognized as the cleanest city in India.  Chandigarh is the capital of both the Punjab and Haryana states, and is in a "state dispute", which means both states try to claim it as their own.  There are also many other regions in India that are in "state disputes" and either want to become their own state or are claimed multiple states.

Chandigarh is known for its urban planning (it was the first planned city after independence) and architecture.  An architect named Le Corbusier built the Rock Garden, a large labyrinth-like park constructed of rock and recycled materials (porcelain, glass, concrete, etc).  The Rock Garden had lots of sculptures and various rock formations and was an interesting use of recyclable materials in urban space.

Sculptures in the Rock Garden

After the Rock Garden, we got some delicious street food, which were potato pancakes with chickpea and sauce topping.  We then went to the Rose Garden, which claims to be the largest rose garden in Asia.  It was full of families picnicking and enjoying their Sunday afternoon in the park.

Delicious street food

The driving here is definitely more intense and nerve-wracking that most countries I have been to.  Cars squeeze into seemingly nonexistent spaces, and there are often 3 lanes of cars on a 2 lane road.  Horns are used to communicate regularly (i'm passing you, watch out I'm coming, don't move left, speed up, etc).

Weighing some oranges

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at a stand on the roadside and bought fresh-squeezed orange juice.  It was so delicious one team member bought some oranges to take home and got to weigh it on this awesome scale.

For anyone that wants to read our official Corporate Service Corps team blog, here is the link! 

Word of the day: chalta hai (hay) - it's all good

#ibmcsc #india22

Off to Ludhiana!

I started reading the book (and inspiration for my blog title), India Calling, by Anand Giridharadas, a couple weeks ago.  The author grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and in his 20's, moved to India for a consulting position.  It has been really interesting as an American to read about India from the perspective of an Indian-American because he is experiencing India as both a familiar and foreign place.  In fact, I became so intrigued by the sights, smells, and cultural nuances described in the book that I stopped reading the book (and will pick it back up when I arrive) so that I can experience a direct connection to the author's words once I arrive in India.

As a Chinese and Business double major in college, my Asia experiences are limited to China, Korea, and Japan.  Most of my (limited) knowledge about India comes from my the families of my Indian and Indian-American classmates and Indian colleagues.  And, in such a large and diverse country, most of my classmates and colleagues are from all different regions, which have their own culture, language, food, etc. Thus, I'm excited to learn more about Ludhiana and India from the locals and my experiences.

I'm very grateful to IBM's Corporate Service Corps for sending me on this assignment to Ludhiana (in the Punjab state) and for giving us the opportunity to donate our consulting skills to very worthy organizations.  I'm excited to be working with 11 other IBMers from around the world to help four Ludhiana organizations improve their programs, establish CSR initiatives, and strengthen their organizations.  I will be working with the Steel Rolling Mills company to create a business plan for a more robust Corporate Social Responsibility department.  We will be focusing on initiatives that promote girl's education, a topic about which I am very passionate.

Finally, I'm prepared to be immersed, challenged, and most of all, blown away by the awesome and inspiring work of our clients in Ludhiana!  Stay tuned....