Final Posting

I'll use this post to take another look at my pre-trip perceptions and discuss if they differ from what I experienced on the trip or if they are confirmed by what I experienced on the trip. The first pre-trip perception I mentioned was that this would be much more of an intense experience than I've had in my past travels. This was true, India was probably the fist place I've been where I don't think I would have been able to easily get around on my own, but I think that just made the entire experience better for me. I always felt like anywhere we were, be it at a tourist site or a just roaming the streets, there were things around to take notice of. I also had the perception that India had a very strong, traditional culture and this was very true. I could tell the culture was very strong and the people were very proud of their culture and wanted to share it with us, which I really appreciated. I was expecting to see a lot of poverty alongside a lot of wealth, this was present in India. Considering the population density and the fast economic growth, this wasn't extremely surprising to me. I was hoping to get an understanding of how the rich and poor interact with each other, from my observations, it seemed like class was still very important and interactions would be different between two people from different classes then they would be amongst two similar classes.

In terms of the BPO/IT industry, I was very interested to see how this new business culture would mesh with the overall culture of India. It was clear that being a world leader in the IT industry was something the Indian people I spoke to were very proud of. There seemed to be a lot of motivation to expand on the success the country has had so far in the BPO/IT industry. There was also interest in applying the IT prowess they have developed to help grow and modernize their own infrastructure instead of just exporting the service. I think Indians understand how important they are to the global economy and they are taking advantage of this and using it to help catapult their economy to one of the biggest in the world.

Overall a lot of my perceptions were similar to what I expected to find in India, it was just as loud, crowded, and congested as I expected, the sanitation was as bad as I thought it would be. I experienced a very strong culture that understood how important its place in the global economy is. Even though I had an idea what it would be like, it was something completely different to actually experience. The culture shock is what made the experience so great. This trip opened my eyes to a culture that is very different from my own. I had an opportunity not many others have or would take if they had the chance, and I really appreciate this experience. I hope I have the chance to return at some point, I have continued to study the history of India since my return and I've learned there is so much more to see and do.