Day 4 In India

Day 4-January 6, 2014

Today, the class visited India's version of Harvard.  Rated the number one business school in India, the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore was an incredible surprise.  Turning away from Inner City Bangalore & passing through the gates to IIMB is like stepping through a portal to a different world.  Situated on a lush (& I mean lush) green campus, IIMB is an 100+ acre oasis.

First we met our hosts from IIMB, S Nayana Tara,  Rakesh Godhwani & Samath Kumay in their modern board room.  From there we were given an introduction to the Institute and learned about how prestigious the school is.  I wasn't kidding when I said this was the Harvard of India.  Admission to the school is nearly impossible, accepting only students who score close to 99.7% or higher.  Since these schools are very competitive, there is no time to slack off at all during your academic career or it could affect your post graduate studies.




After our introduction to IIMB, we began a tour that started in the academic library.  Over 4 floors of academic materials make this library better than some of the academic libraries I have visited in the United States.  During the tour we learned about the materials on hand at the library and received some insight on how funding works for both printed and electronic materials.









The campus was incredibly beautiful and one of my classmates recognized that IIMB serves as a movie location for a very popular international film entitled 3 Idiots.










While getting a guided tour from IIMB's head of security, we learned that our tour guide was actually in the film too. 















Our group was then treated to a wonderful Executive lunch with our hosts. If I haven't mentioned it enough, the food is great!

After wrapping up at IIMB, Dr Kanti wanted us to experience another side of popular Indian culture, the spiritual side.  So he arranged for us to visit a Ravi Shankar Ashram outside of Bangalore. Ravi Shankar is a spiritual leader who has turned his philosophy into a multimillion dollar industry that is popular throughout the world, including the US.  Not to be confused with Ravi Shankar the popular sitar player, who recently died in December 2012. 

The visit was "interesting". we got to see a portion of the grounds and were treated to a short dvd introduction to the Art of Living Foundation that Shankar runs.










After leaving the ashram, we went to a Cafe  Coffee Day for a quick cup of coffee. We have been told that Coffee Day is the Indian Equivalent to Starbucks.  It was a good cup of coffee, but I think I would prefer to go to Indian Coffee House again next time.