17 Mar India Day 9: Everyday I’m Hustling

Day 9 (Everyday I’m Hustling)

Bright and early, we began the day by setting off to see the famous Bombay Stock Exchange (Bombay is the same as Mumbai and often used interchangeably). Regrettably, I suck at finance and anything related, so I did not have much to contribute. One interesting thing: the current savings account interest rate is a whopping 8%. Unfortunately, the inflation rate however around 12% so people just lose money. Perhaps people could make money in the U.S. if they save their money in offshore accounts in India to get the 8% interest rate. I imagine strict restrictions exists to prevent people from doing such a thing; such as requiring Indian citizenship to participate.

Per my prerogative, I took random pictures in the old stock exchange room that our host showed us, then had the entire group dance in front of the bull.

We stopped by Khyber for lunch because some of the locals recommended it for fine Indian dining. My favorite dish: the Palak Paneer. The majority of the group (particularly the men) gravitated toward a donut hole looking pastry drenched in syrup and served with ice cream. I suspected it tasted delicious, but the guys seemed to like it for its aesthetic qualities. Some comments included, “Want to share my balls?” “I can’t wait for my balls to come out.” “I love balls.” “I came to India to eat these balls.” How immature we must still be as some of us have spouses and kids, and we still giggled like elementary children. Awesome. 🙂

Following lunch we visited the Gateway House, a place designed to address public policy issues in India and put those issues in perspective in relation to the world. The meeting became very interesting when the Gateway CEO, at one point, openly disagreed with Doggett’s “suggestion” as to a better way of collecting revenue for the company. “I hear what you are saying and I wholly disagree with your position.” Vary rarely do people disagree with Doggett publicly; when they do, they should prepare for a good fight.

The company publishes several member-only materials, one of which includes a map showing the stability of different places in the world using selected parameters such as food availability, social geopolitical issues, etc. With limited time to answer questions and explain the process of data collection that went into the creation of this map, one could easily conclude that the map did not seem feasible.

China, for example, shared a group with Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, Russia and India in terms of similar stability levels. Let’s just say that Doggett did not like this map. He spent the next half an hour trying to figure out the reasoning behind the map, providing the class half an hour of dramedy. Paul snapped some fantastic pictures and we decided to add captions to fully emphasize the remarkableness of this moment to our class.

After the marvelous throw down session at the Gateway House, we returned to the hotel. I used our spare time to interview our tour guide about women in the workforce before meeting Paul for a walk along the coastline. Then we made our way to the final farewell dinner. My stomach thoroughly enjoyed the incredible food, although it had many French inspirations. I do not do well when it comes to sitting down for long durations as I cannot stay conscious. Afterwards, a group of us went up to Rohit’s room to party (recreate our Bollywood dance moves).

I worked (because I’m a hustler) for a few hours after the get-together answering SXSW emails, editing, and checking up on my unbelievable team who handled the Moth to Flame SXSW party and interactive booth festivities. By the time I finished, the clock read 4 am. Everyday I’m hustling.