Bob Goes To India

Last Post

Today is my last post from our trip to India.

I hope the blog speaks for itself, so I'll add only a few wrap-up comments.

I have several people to thank for making this trip so extraordinary:

1- I'm very grateful to my wife, Janice, and my daughters, Elizabeth and Meredith, for letting me be away for so long and for so graciously accepting all of the presents I brought back from India, particularly the 4 Indian carpets

2- I want to thank my sister-in-law, Lynn Cutter - SVP at National Geographic, for her travel advice. The National Geographic connections proved invaluable and I would highly recommend the National Geographic Journey Through India itinerary.

3- Thanks to Franceen and Tammy at Allscripts for coordinating my travels with Glen's schedule and for inserting and extracting him from India like Delta Force commanders

4- Our trip was made very special by Raj Singh and the staff of his business, Exotic Journeys. I would highly recommend his company for any travel you might consider in India. His firm is simply outstanding. Raj can be contacted at exotic@del2.vsnl.net.in

5- Finally, I want to thank Glen Tullman, who made a great trip to India into a truly extraordinary, high-bandwidth, high-speed experience of a remarkable country and culture.

India was a profound journey for me, so profound, in fact, that I'm going back on January 20th for another week or so. Though I plan to continue sightseeing, this trip will be geared much more toward assessing both new business ventures and real estate investments in Bangalore.

My belief is India over the next 5 years will be a combination of San Francisco during the Gold Rush, Texas during the Oil Boom, Silicon Valley in the early 1980's and America in the 1950's.

India is exotic, exciting and inspiring, but most of all, India today is about opportunity and I personally plan to capitalize on it.

A Random Walk Through Rural India

Rural India is beautiful -- the air is clean, the farms fertile, the people friendly.

While poverty was visible in every rural town we passed through, so was the Indian commitment to educating the next generation.

In every village, there were dozens and dozens of school children; in uniform, under the watchful eye of their teachers.

The rural India of tomorrow will certainly be better than the rural India of today.

From The NY Times ... Again

"Microsoft Corp. announced plans to invest more than $1 billion in India, joining other multinationals expanding operations in the fast-growing economy."

"Intel will invest more than $1 billion in India over the next five years, with $800 million going to expand its research and development center in Bangalore..."

"Intel's Bangalore center employs around 3,000 engineers. Intel will invest the rest, $250 million, as venture capital in technology companies."

"Cisco Systems said it would invest $1.1 billion and triple its work force in India to more than 4,000 from 1,400 in three years."

"J. P. Morgan Chase said it would add 4,500 employees in Bangalore by 2007, doubling the size of its Indian staff."

"The bank made news two years ago when it became the first global investment bank to hire 35 equity researchers in India to support its operations on Wall Street."

"UBS said it would open its first center in Hyderabad, with 500 jobs, in early 2006."

"Goldman Sachs has 750 people in its center in Bangalore but has a capacity for 1,500 employees."

"Recently, high-end jobs in areas like chip design, derivatives research and complex product design have been added to the relatively low-end call center and paid-by-the-hour software coding work."

"Though salaries in India are climbing rapidly for entry-level workers and top managers, Indian employees still earn less than a fifth of what their peers in the United States do."

I know I should not encourage this...

There is an Indian tendency, it seems to me, to make holy anything that is odd or unusual.

In India, wild monkeys are considered holy and having a bunch of monkeys climbing around your house is considered auspicious.

These monkeys are pretty aggressive, they bite and many have rabies. I mean no disrespect, but having them crawling all over the place strikes me as just odd and less than auspicious.

I'm fine with the cow thing and the wild boars in the road eating garbage and the elephants as SUV's and the holy pigeons, but I must draw the line at the monkeys...

OK, well they are very cute.

Now, about that stomach problem...

I mentioned in a previous post that on my last night in India I became violently ill at the Delhi Airport. This had both its good and bad aspects.

THE GOOD

1- the security clearance process which normally takes nearly two hours, lasted less than 5 minutes --although I felt badly about barfing on the people in line ahead of me

2- medical care at midnight in the Delhi airport was absolutely superb - they even have a fully stocked pharmacy with State-controlled prices -- no need to bargain!

3- the people in the First Class lounge were so very quick to let me have the couch, both chairs on either side and lots of room to breath - they could not have been more thoughtful or kind

THE BAD

1- 26 hours on an airplane with excrutiating abdominal pain and a very bad taste in my mouth

2- a week to recover back in the US

3- a few scowling people on the airplane pointing and whispering -- "that's him" or "he's the one"

So, what happened that caused this problem?

Well, when Glen was traveling with me, he enforced a strict "no weird Indian food" policy. But then, Glen left a day ahead of me and I could not control my desire for some "Authentic Indian Street Cuisine".

This was not smart. I don't know if it was the spicy "take-the-back-of-your-head-off" Indian dish, or if it was the delicious milkshake-like yogurt drink called a "Sweet Lassi" -- how I could I resist a few of those babies.

I do know that, contrary to its aggressive -- some might say misleading -- advertising, I cannot recommend to you the Shalimar Foods establishment when you are in Delhi. Perhaps the pharmacy next door was a clue...

Bargaining As A Cultural Imperative

In India, every transaction -- EVERY transaction -- is negotiated. Merchandise, cab fare, restaurant bills, wedding doweries -- the list is endless.

As our guide Vishnu explained, "In India, we bargain to the level of the individual vegatable purchase."

While awkward and uncomfortable to most Americans, that level of negotiating can be quite valuable.

Hotmail founder Sabeer Bhatia, a CA transplant from Bangalore, credited the bargaining skills he learned in vegetable markets at home for getting Microsoft to push its acquisition price for his company from $160 million to $400 million. Bill Gates' eye teeth were floating in tea with that deal.

Here are a few rules for bargaining on the buy-side when in India:

Rule #1 - The true price of any item is what you pay -- there are no suggested retail prices in India. Nothing is labeled, so it pays to talk with several vendors before making a signifiacnt purchase.

Rule # 2 - Try for 70% off; don't accept less than 30%

Rule # 3 - Make them show lots of merchandise - if it is a rug merchant, you want the demo guys sweating profusely before you make your first offer. Get the vendor to "invest" in the transaction -- emotion, time and energy.

Rule # 4 - Offer on one item at a time - if you plan to buy a couple things DON'T let on at the outset. Act like you intend to buy only one item, if that much. Get the seller to give you prices on each item; play one item off another to show you are looking for the lower price point.

Rule # 5 - Wait for the pad of paper - every Indian sales person has a pad of paper and a pencil that they pull out when the bargaining gets a bit more serious. Though they write down the price for an item, this is only the starting point - remember rule #2.

Rule # 6 - Say "TOO HIGH", a lot -- don't even start negotiating until the salesman has scratched through the initial price and lowered it at least twice. I found that simply staring in silence at the pad of paper for a long time would result in the vendor cutting the price.

Rule # 7 - Imply a bundled purchase - OK, now that the price has been cut 25-30%, ask the salesman what deal he would give you if you buy two items. Expect 5% off. Ask for three items; get another 5%. Then add a very expensive 4th item -- one which you do not intend to buy. This will excite the vendor and he will do a bunch of calculations which you will be unable to follow. The price will come down for the expensive item as well as for the other items you intend to buy. Lock those prices and drop the expensive item.

At this point, you should have been able to shave close to 50% off the initial price. Most Americans generally are satisfied at this point and close the deal.

If you have time and patience, there are 6 more bargaining rules that you can follow to get 70% off. For 5000 rupees, I'll email those rules to you.

Otherwise, you'll notice I have added a Tip Jar to my blog. No obligation -- "as you like" as they say in India.

BUT you should know, I have just saved you a bundle on your first trip to India. So...as you like...

One final point - no matter what price you pay -- if the sales guy is smiling when you leave -- guess who won...

Thank God...they don't all want to be engineers

Relax American kids, I was wrong. They don't all want to be engineers when they grow up.

Just a couple of typical high school seniors

Glen and I stopped at random to talk with these two 17 year old boys at NPS.

Are they really that different from American high school teenage boys?

Judge for yourself.