On Wednesday morning, Amanda, Yoshi, Maria and I did a tentative victory dance- we figured out how to get to work on the bus! No more autos or walking in circles for us, thank the lord. Anyway, once we arrived at work, Maria and I spent the whole day looking over HLC's website and facebook page. We made lists of strengths, weaknesses, and suggestions for improvement for each- Maria even made a chart to accompany all of this :) Rams, one of our supervisors, took us out to lunch at a nice and casual place around the corner where we all split some dal and roti. The afternoon at work was largely the same as the morning for Maria and I. We left work around 5:45, and while the bus was a bit trickier to figure out on the way back, we made it home nonetheless. Wednesday evening was relatively uneventful, except that we learned that a transportation strike was planned for Thursday due to rising petrol prices across India, and as such, we were all excused from work the next day. My supervisor told me that occasionally these protests get violent, but more often than not it is just an inconvenience because buses are not running, and therefore auto drivers charge extremely high prices for rides.
So, to avoid confusion, we all worked from home on Thursday. Maria and I were actually supposed to present our feedback about the website and facebook pages to Lily on Thursday morning, and since we obviously couldn't do that from home, we more or less had the day off. Thursday was a very lazy day- I did some reading, watched a little tv online, and a group of us went to the grocery store in the afternoon (the store was right around the corner and we walked, so we didn't see any issues with the transportation system- the roads were just emptier than usual).
Yesterday it was back to work, and for whatever reason, the buses were more empty than usual, which made for a pleasant ride to the office. We got to the office around 9:45, but most people don't come in to the office until after 10am, so we had a little time to review our notes before talking with Lily about the website and facebook. When Lily came in, we moved into the conference room where Amanda and Yoshi were working with Rams. We began going through the HLC facebook page and ways to improve its reach when the power and internet went out. There isn't a whole lot we could do to work on the facebook page without internet, so we all just began visiting, when Umesh Maholtra, the CEO of HLC came in to meet us. He had been traveling throughout this week, but it was wonderful to meet the founder of Hippocampus, even though we won't be working with him on a regular basis. Umesh is an Ashoka Fellow (Ashoka is the leading organization for social entrepreneurship across the world), which is a very notable distinction. Because we were without power and electricity, we sat and talked with Umesh for almost an hour about Hippocampus, traveling around Karnataka, and policy issues. By the time the power came back on and Umesh left, we didn't have much time left to work because we all had to go to a lecture in the afternoon.
Lily was kind enough to drive Amanda, Yoshi, Maria and I to the location where the lecture was being hosted by CSIM (the Center for Social Initiative and Management). However, when she dropped us off in the right area, we had trouble finding the exact right building, and we asked a woman if she knew where it was. She was kind enough to spend almost 15 minutes walking around with us, looking for it and calling friends to get directions. We finally found the office with an hour or so before the lecture started. Now that we knew where to go, we went out to find a quick lunch in the area and settled on a biryani place that was nearby. After a tasty lunch, we went back to the building and sat in for a lecture by Tanya Jairaj, who works with the Ashoka India office. We learned about the founding and evolution of the Ashoka foundation and about social entrepreneurship in general. After the lecture was over, a group of us decided to try and find a restaurant called Little Italy, which was recommended to us by one of the CSIM staff, Aruna. We walked for a ways, and when we couldn't find it, all of the guys in the group decided to head back to a different restaurant, and all of the girls headed back to the apartments to drop off our backpacks and then head to another neighborhood biryani place. Along the way, we saw a dead dog in the road, which is just horrifyingly sad. I don't think thats something I've mentioned about Bangalore, how many stray dogs there are. We had been told about the street animals before we left, but it is so sad to see so many animals that clearly don't have homes and aren't cared for by anyone. When we made it back to the apartments, we all chugged down some water (it was quite a long walk from the offices where the lecture was back home, and then we had another good dinner out. After getting back at around 10pm, we settled in for the night. Maddy and I decided to try and make chai again, and we both want to try and perfect a recipe while here and bring back the spices to make it at home. This batch was quite yummy, but what made it even better was the digestives and crumpy (the Indian equivalent of Nutella) that we had with it. Then it was off to bed!
This weekend is dedicated to exploring Bangalore a little, something which I haven't really had the chance to do yet- I'll let you know how it goes!
So, to avoid confusion, we all worked from home on Thursday. Maria and I were actually supposed to present our feedback about the website and facebook pages to Lily on Thursday morning, and since we obviously couldn't do that from home, we more or less had the day off. Thursday was a very lazy day- I did some reading, watched a little tv online, and a group of us went to the grocery store in the afternoon (the store was right around the corner and we walked, so we didn't see any issues with the transportation system- the roads were just emptier than usual).
Yesterday it was back to work, and for whatever reason, the buses were more empty than usual, which made for a pleasant ride to the office. We got to the office around 9:45, but most people don't come in to the office until after 10am, so we had a little time to review our notes before talking with Lily about the website and facebook. When Lily came in, we moved into the conference room where Amanda and Yoshi were working with Rams. We began going through the HLC facebook page and ways to improve its reach when the power and internet went out. There isn't a whole lot we could do to work on the facebook page without internet, so we all just began visiting, when Umesh Maholtra, the CEO of HLC came in to meet us. He had been traveling throughout this week, but it was wonderful to meet the founder of Hippocampus, even though we won't be working with him on a regular basis. Umesh is an Ashoka Fellow (Ashoka is the leading organization for social entrepreneurship across the world), which is a very notable distinction. Because we were without power and electricity, we sat and talked with Umesh for almost an hour about Hippocampus, traveling around Karnataka, and policy issues. By the time the power came back on and Umesh left, we didn't have much time left to work because we all had to go to a lecture in the afternoon.
Lily was kind enough to drive Amanda, Yoshi, Maria and I to the location where the lecture was being hosted by CSIM (the Center for Social Initiative and Management). However, when she dropped us off in the right area, we had trouble finding the exact right building, and we asked a woman if she knew where it was. She was kind enough to spend almost 15 minutes walking around with us, looking for it and calling friends to get directions. We finally found the office with an hour or so before the lecture started. Now that we knew where to go, we went out to find a quick lunch in the area and settled on a biryani place that was nearby. After a tasty lunch, we went back to the building and sat in for a lecture by Tanya Jairaj, who works with the Ashoka India office. We learned about the founding and evolution of the Ashoka foundation and about social entrepreneurship in general. After the lecture was over, a group of us decided to try and find a restaurant called Little Italy, which was recommended to us by one of the CSIM staff, Aruna. We walked for a ways, and when we couldn't find it, all of the guys in the group decided to head back to a different restaurant, and all of the girls headed back to the apartments to drop off our backpacks and then head to another neighborhood biryani place. Along the way, we saw a dead dog in the road, which is just horrifyingly sad. I don't think thats something I've mentioned about Bangalore, how many stray dogs there are. We had been told about the street animals before we left, but it is so sad to see so many animals that clearly don't have homes and aren't cared for by anyone. When we made it back to the apartments, we all chugged down some water (it was quite a long walk from the offices where the lecture was back home, and then we had another good dinner out. After getting back at around 10pm, we settled in for the night. Maddy and I decided to try and make chai again, and we both want to try and perfect a recipe while here and bring back the spices to make it at home. This batch was quite yummy, but what made it even better was the digestives and crumpy (the Indian equivalent of Nutella) that we had with it. Then it was off to bed!
This weekend is dedicated to exploring Bangalore a little, something which I haven't really had the chance to do yet- I'll let you know how it goes!
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