Lucknow..

The academic term of my MBA program brings me to India where I will spend the next 3 months travelling, studying and exploring India's capacity and tendencies. I blog my experiences both good and bad every so often. Feel free to contact me at valiantca@gmail.com.

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"yatriyon se niwedan hai ke aap apni seat petian baandh le, hum 457 km ke doori 50 minutes me poori kar 10:23pm baje lucknow pahunchege..." I was on a direct flight to Lucknow, the place where it all happened, nothing like the wall street or anything but the place where my institute, the Indian Institute of Management was located. My cousin in delhi was very helpful in teaching me some important techniques of bargaining amongst other things. I tell you women are amazing at bargaining, I am sure after a day of bargaining their life feels more accomplished and complete. Well, what she had not told me is that bargaining doesnt work everywhere, such as the airline check in counter, the prepaid taxi stand etc. I looked out of the window of the airplane as I spooned the complementary alloo tikki i received from the flight attendant and thought so after all said n done, here it is! I am actually in India.

I must say that flight attendants are amazing looking ppl, ok ill get to the point, they are MAD HOT! I wondered if that was me really thinking that or was it my comparative evaluation of what I had seen in the last 2 days. Dude! concentrate on the alloo tikki, I told  myself and looked out of the window again. In no time we landed at Lucknow airport and was bussed to the main terminal, well there was only one! Soon after, I was on a taxi en route to my best friends aunts' daughters' brother-in-laws' older sons' house. We are great at fostering relations and keeping them of course! A safe accommodation in an otherwise scary looking place classified as "dangerous due to political unrest" by Canadian immigration was something I would take any day. I was welcomed with wide open arms at the Older Son's place and soon jumped into the bed only to hear super loud chanting of mantras and bhajans over a loud speaker. I wondered why were ppl expressing their love for God out loud while I was peacefully praying to God to not to listen to them for destroying my jet lagged sleep.

The trip to IIM (Indian Institute of Management Lucknow) was breathtaking. Ever sat on a roller coaster like the behemoth at Wonderland or something similar, well i was on one lets just say. For some strange reason, I was actually enjoying it and I felt like we were participants of a crazy taxi game with a great operator of the game for we reached our destination safely after dodging almost everything imaginable. IIM was very different than what I had imagined it to be and little did I know that my life was going to change for some time to come. A campus spread over a few thousand acres/square kms with trees, wildlife, buildings and ppl, I was really amazed at the first look of the place. A statue of Krishna with Arjuna from the Mahabharata stood in front of me, of course the "yada yada hi .... " quote was missing along side some other statues that I didn't recall seeing before.

The next few hours of my life were spent in finding a half decent room that I could stay in for the next 3 months. I didn't know if my life's problems had started or ended as I threw my bags on the bed exhausted out of my skull. I locked my doors and made my way to the Mess (Cafeteria) with some help of a fellow student in charge of all the exchange students. The food was amazing I told myself looking at the mountainous heap of rice and yellow lentils in my plate. I ate it all as if I had never eaten in my life before and still had room for a glass of chai (tea). Directionless, disoriented and clueless I was shown the way back to my hostel where I broke my bag's zip for i had lost the key to the lock and brough out my sleeping bag. What?  I wasn't going to trust the blanket they got for me as the last one i got was brand-new yet came with at least half a kg of hair stuck on it, even if some1 convinced me that was for extra warmth I was not going to use it. Laying down i questioned myself... WTF were you thinking but consoled myself that tomorrow is going to be a better day.....