The Mughal Empire

I could just show you pictures of all the different landmarks during our sightseeing tours in Agra but I think it may make more sense if I give you the history as well, it’s really interesting.

Babur was the first of the dynasty and ruled for 4yrs. One of his greatest stories was his willing to sacrifice his life to save his sick son, Humayun. In his daughter’s memoirs he was quoted to have said, “Although I have other sons, I love none as I love Humayun. I crave that this cherished child may have his heart’s desire and live long because he has not his equal in distinction.” He prayed for God to take his life to save his son’s and that same day he fell ill. Not much is ever accounted for Humayun’s reign due to his son’s accomplishments, but that he ruled in exile. He ended up dying by accident; he fell down the stairs of his library, but his tomb is considered to be an important milestone in Mughal architecture.

Humayun’s son Jalaluddin, better known as Akbar then took over the throne but he established the dynasty as an empire. If you haven’t seen Jodhaa Akbar yet I suggest you do, you have probably heard about the recent controversy, keep in mind the controversy is all about Akbar’s wife’s name but the story is an accurate depiction of Akbar’s rule. As far as the love story that makes it bollywood, inaccurate- most mughals had more than one wife.
Fatehpur Sikri was the political capital under Akbar’s rule, it was where he welcomed his new court of Brahmans, yogis, Jains, Jesuit priests, Zoroastrians and Muslim scholars.
He didn’t have any children so he sought after the Sufi Saint, Sheik Salim Chisti and made a wish to have a son, shortly after his wish was granted. So he built Fatehpur Sikri to mark the birth of his son. It was created with Muslim and Hindu elements in the architecture. That’s apparent through the depiction of the faces in the birds and animals which would never been seen in Muslim architecture.
We visited Sufi Saint’s tomb (right) next to the tomb is this fence like structure with strings tied to it. How funny is it that the 4 of us girls were confronted immediately and told to tie a string to wish for “true love” and even funnier that we had all denied.
Akbar’s son was Jahangir, and Jahangir’s son was Shah Jahan, who built the Taj Mahal.

The Taj Mahal is a tomb for Shah Jahan’s wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Of all the amazing aspects of this structure i find the symmetry the most facinating, not only is the entire structure completely symmetrical but everything around it is as well. She gave him 14 children and was his favorite of all the wives. Out of the 14 I think only about 5-6 survived (don’t quote me on that), most of which were girls. Aurangzeb was one of the surviving sons and he ended up killing/executing the other sons so that he can take over the throne. He hated his father and was against his rule completely, he felt that his need for the architectural extravagance led to a huge increase of taxes for peasants and his need for ruling led to his betrayal of his father. Shah Jahan fell ill and Aurangzeb decided to keep him in house arrest at the red fort. To stick it to him even more, he made sure his father was caged so that he was always in view of the Taj Mahal.

He was the last Mughal ruler.

To give or not to give

Picture this you are in NYC and a homeless person on the street approaches you for some money, do you give a dollar, more than a dollar, or do you just walk away? You start to justify not giving money by assuming that the person will use it to buy drugs or alcohol. Now picture you’re in India and there are thousands of beggars in all different directions ready to pounce on you as soon as you walk out of the airport. They won’t go away and they are all children who did not choose this life but were given this fate, some less than 5 yrs old. Your heart breaks but at the same time you know if you give some money to one about a million will come out of nowhere and harass you some more. You know you can’t help them all and with all the hassle of helping one, you realize the easiest thing to do at this time is to just walk away.

Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying you’re a horrible person for making that decision, in fact most of us do. Its that constant struggle we go through in our minds, do you reach out a hand or do you ignore what’s in front of you. Its human nature to want to help, to instinctively reach out a hand when another is falling. We also love the feeling of knowing we made a difference in someone’s life. At the same time when you know that you cannot make much of a difference and after you assess the pros and cons, its just as easy to say no. But the thing about living in the US is that we barely have to go through that struggle in our minds, to wonder if we should. How often do you deal with that issue of giving? We get so consumed in our daily lives and our own problems that we forget how the rest of the world lives.

I know before this trip I felt so sorry for myself and my financial “problems.” By financial problems I mean that since I decided to take the job I love I have had to pay for my mba on my own. So I moved back home to my parents to save some money. By financial problems I mean that I was actually upset that I had to decide against buying an Ed Hardy t-shirt at the moment but considered what I can forgo to get that t-shirt before the summer. Those of you that know me well know that I’m a complete label whore and know how much I’ve been complaining about changing my lifestyle to deal with my recent financial issues.

Now after thinking about that, what does it really matter what that few dollars I give away will be used for. I’m obviously not using it for anything important. I think that the chance that the money I earned can be used to save someone’s life (may it be slim) is still worth the effort. Even if it’s 1 in a million, at least using the money for the sake of that 1 chance is more worth it than for an ugly t-shirt w/a signature on it. After doing some research on www.giveindia.org I realized that what I would’ve spent on that 1 tshirt I could help educate 5 illiterate women. Or to http://www.sksfoundation.org/ where I can help with microfinance loans to women in villages (more on that to come).

What if we did that, went through THAT struggle in our minds before spending on some frivolous item- what sort of difference could we make?

As you start to calculate your tax-refund and think about what you will be spending it on, all I ask is that you at least take a look at the sites.

“Be the change you wish to see in the world…” -Gandhi

Nandita Das

Nandita Das is an actress, I’m not really sure about most of her films, but I know she was in Deepa Mehta’s “Fire,” and “Earth.” It was absolutely necessary for me to do an entirely separate posting on her…
She discussed issues that are prevalent in India and social issues she contributes to.

• Dowry Deaths
  this is when a wife’s family cannot pay the dowry promised to the husband and so he kills he wife if the dowry is not met. Most of the time he drowns her or burns her and then claims it to be an accident.
  The husband usually gets away with these murders b/c of the corrupt system and the culture which usually favors the man.
  There were about 6,000 this year which was a vast improvement. But that’s just what was able to be quantifiable, think about all the obscure villages and/or cases that were not proven to be dowry deaths. So how can this number accurately portray the amount of dowry deaths throughout the entire country?

• Female Infanticide/Sex-selective Abortion
  killings of girls soon after or before they are born.
  This is done for socioeconomic and religious reasons. A son carries on the family name, a son can help with the family income and a son brings a wife/dowry. A woman will just marry off and leave the family and is more of a liability than an asset.
  While most think this must be something that is prevalent in the villages or amongst the poor and uneducated, think again its taking place in the most affluent parts of India. Because you need $ to find out the sex of the baby and to get an abortion.

• Bollywood
  Nandita Das usually selects roles that tie into her social work at the time
  She spoke about the current state of Bollywood and discussed how much it has changed for the worst.
  She made a point about how the hero is not connected to the “real world” anymore and how the hero lives in a palace and how most movies only focus on a particular class.
  We got into a discussion on Rang De Basanti, I have not seen the movie, but I remember how desperately I wanted to see it when it came out. But Nandita was completely against it, she talked about how Bollywood is starting to give such simplistic answers to complex problems which in turn does not encourage thinking and discussion.
  Now imagine how big bollywood is and imagine “AbhiAsh” in a Deepa Mehta film. They’re influence on the society could make a huge difference but instead they focus on the same theme in every movie, falling in love.

• Indian Men in America- “oh yes son, I’m talkin to you”
  How funny is it that Nandita Das had something to say about you guys! She brought up the issue of caste and how it is still prevalent throughout the country. But even more astonishing to her was the behavior of Indian guys living in the U.S.
  She talked about how stupid it is that you guys are coming back to India to get married and how you are digressing and a disgrace. You are giving our generation a bad name and keeping the caste/segregation system alive and well. She was disgusted how you would come to the US for your education or how your parents came to the country for that reason but how you choose to marry a woman from India that is of the same caste- regardless of her education. How your only criteria for marriage is to find a woman of the same caste to take care of your kids, your parents and yourself.
  I know a lot of my friends and even family members plan on doing the same, but you claim the reasons are different and have nothing to do with caste. But whatever the reason, the underlying issue is that you don’t regard women as equal. Whatever the claims, lack of culture, too much “experience,” etc, you embody all these things as well; but believe its okay for you, just not for the woman you marry. Anyway, I hope for the sake of all the educated woman out here, you do marry out there, the less of u in the pool the better. But please don’t pretend its noble of you to do so and that its for your parents and not you; there is absolutely no nobility in keeping sexism and segregation amongst Indians alive.
  She loved that my sister and I were there and that she got our POV; however, there was also a guy w/in our group that was Indian and had plans to marry in India. He was astonished that he needed to defend his future plans and didn’t even see anything wrong with it. So she was very diplomatic about the issue and ended the discussion before a war broke out about the issue, my sis was about to go crazy!!

• Giving
  We discussed the corrupt system in India and how difficult it is for us to help out. There are about 20,000 NGO’s in Delhi but we can’t even be sure how many actually do the work. She suggested using http://www.giveindia.org/ to donate. I have yet to donate so I don’t want to promote just yet but I’ll give more details on the site once I do.

CII

I woke up around 6am completely refreshed even though I barely had any sleep. After breakfast we headed to a meeting with CII at India Habitat Center, Lodi Road, New Delhi.
I’m going to start off with a brief, straightforward overview of the panel, for those who are interested…but don’t get discouraged if you’re not, this blog will not encompass bullets and facts but I promise will have more personal insight, passion, and of course some controversy, just keep reading!

Perspectives on the “Indian Economy & US Businesses” in India.
Speakers:
1. Mr. Ashwani Gupta, County Director, Honeywell
2. Mr. Naveed Hussain, Director of Research and Technology, Boeing India
3. Mr. Marut SenGupta, Senior Director, Confederation of Indian Industry
4. Ms. Nandita Das, Actress and Social Worker

Mr. SenGupta spoke first, he had a slide show and discussed the current state of the economy in India. Some of his key points…
· India is the 4th largest economy in the world
· GDP 8.73%
· Mining and Electricity are controlled by government restrictions so they contribute a low GDP
· The economy is driven by the Service Sector, with the Industry Sector coming in second, and the remaining to Agriculture
o There are current issues going on with Walmart wanting to set up shop in India but the effect it would have on the economy would be drastic. (I’ll get into this more in my later posts dealing with an economic evaluation and the informal sector).
· India is competing with a major player, China and although India is not able to produce cheap goods in mass amounts, India is still strong due to technology.
· Investments are driving the economy
· Public sector was negative in savings for awhile but now the public sector is turning very profitable
· Domestic Savings Sector- “India has yet to use credit cards like the US”
· Average age of home owner went from 50 to 37 in 2 yrs.
· Currency Rate= 39.7 US

Mr. Gupta from Honeywell was next, his section mainly focused on Honeywell products and their contribution to the GDP, he also discussed Honeywell’s Energy Performance Contracts but he contributed much more when debating with Nandita Das. Mr. Hussain was next, he discussed Boeing and the growing consumerism – people want to fly these days, they no longer want to take the train. Every plane but King Fisher in India is a Boeing. They are currently competing against Lockheed and European Markets- India has a great army but is poorly equipped.

That was a very brief overview just because I’m dying to tell you about Nandita Das, how odd that out of the entire panel this lady captured and inspired all of us. If you would like more info on the panel please let me know and I can fill you in on the entire discussion. But the main point is that they provided a very optimistic view of India. Which is the POV we had throughout the trip, it was only Nandita that gave us a more realistic view of India.

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog! This blog will encompass my study abroad trip to India. I'm currently enrolled at the MBA program at Rutgers and this trip was through a class in the program. There was 10 of us that took the trip, 1 professor, 1 assistant, 2 alumns, 2 guys currently in the program, 2 police officials from Turkey studyin for a PHD in global affairs, and my sister and I. The trip was exactly 10 days long and i will try my best to give you an accurate description of each day as well as my thoughts on the program. Enjoy!