Back from India: Mission debrief
I’m back from India!
I’ve been on a 2-week trip to India attending a 10-day course series offered by the renowned usability consulting firm called Human Factors International (HFI) (read more in my original post).
So I’m now in Dubai airport with 8 hours of waiting time till my connecting flight back home. That’s plenty of time to reflect on the whole trip and that’s what I’m going to try and do here.
Overall, I’m really glad to say that objective of the trip was achieved in excess of what I’ve expected. I got out of the courses with such solid foundation of the material that it feels like money well spent. But what’s more important is that it reaffirmed my passion for this field since it was my first official exposure to the principles and methodologies followed in the world of usability and human-computer interaction design. I can safely say now that I’ve truly found my career passion!
For the rest of this post, I’m going to make a quick run through some of my observations and experiences during the trip in general. The outline will be as follows:
- Training courses
- First impressions
- Hotel
- Food
- City (Bangalore)
- People
- Funniest moments
Training courses
It’s really been a while since I was thoroughly impressed by the quality of an onsite training. For the past year and half, I was plagued with a streak of really bad training sessions that were in consistently horrible quality, both in terms of content and presentation.
This might be part of the reason HFI’s training seemed so impressive to me. But that’s not to deny they were actually well thought-out and presented. We had 3 instructors for the 4 courses, and they were all experienced working usability engineers with impressive academic background.
Honestly, my biggest fear going to India was finding it difficult or impossible to understand their unique English accent. However, none of that was ever an issue. All of the instructors were really easy to understand and their vocabulary was really good they could deliver complex concepts like a breeze.
My only complaint about the training is HFI’s decision to hand us the material (slides and supplements) in paper. By the end of the course, we had a huge pile of training material, so huge I had to pay for a 10 KG excess luggage weight that costed me a hefty amount at the Bangalore airport. I was really pissed off!
First impressions
It’s funny: my biggest mistake going to India was going through Dubai! It was a huge downgrade leaving Dubai airport and being greeted in Bangalore airport. The difference is impossible to describe in simple words, but Bangalore’s airport can be described in a simple analogy: a glorified mall, with planes instead of shopping carts!
For example:
- It is too small travelers actually stumble upon each other trying to move around the place. Also, some of check-in lines extended beyond the doors to outside the airport!
- It is so dirty in and out it made me question whether the department of sanitation was on a strike.
- It had all these complex procedures and pointless forms you have to fill when you’re coming in or out. Really aggravating when no other airport you’ve been through made you go through them.
Hotel
HFI recommended that I stay at this hotel which is a walking distance away from the training center. It’s supposed to be the best business hotel in Bangalore, and it’s really not that far from it. Although it’s a little bit on the expensive side, my experience staying in it for two weeks was generally positive. The best part is availability of broadband wireless internet in the rooms which really helped me stay in touch with family and friends.
Food
The hotel had a complementary breakfast, which wasn’t too bad. However, the training center served the same exact 5 meals for lunch for 2 weeks. All were traditional Indian meals. Speaking of which, next time somebody asks you to describe Indian food, go ahead and use the following pointers:
- Tell them it’s spicy. No actually too spicy. You know what, just tell them it’s spicy enough to build a nuclear bomb, provided sufficient Uranium.
- Tell them it’s too oily. If you have a minor form of cholesterol like I do, Indian food would be your best option to step up the game!
- Tell them it’s too sweet. Their dessert menu will almost always have that 1 item that makes you think you’re digesting loads of sugar.
I thought I was going to starve there the first couple of days. Then I realized the hotel had it’s own restaurant which served some humanly meals like good-old burgers and noodles. What a life saver!
City
Bangalore is an industrial city. It’s heart of India’s IT industry. Many big corporations have offices there and Microsoft is even building its very own university. When I read all that on the Web I thought I was going to a very hi-tech city, or at least something in that category.
With all the development that’s going in, you’d think the government would pay attention to to the outlook of the city, or at least provide it with uninterrupted stream of power supply. I guess that was too much to ask, because power interruption was very normal for them, but very frustrating for me.
I used to walk back and forth from the training center everyday. I’ll admit that I’ve never seen the larger portion of Bangalore, but from what I’ve seen, the city is extremely poorly-maintained. Streets look like they were last paved in celebration of India’s independence. The largest crack I could spot in one of the streets was enough to replicate a mini swimming pool in your backyard. It didn’t look far from that especially when it rained. I was tempted!
Pollution is another thing you can’t help but painfully notice walking down the street. There are apparently no rules imposing regular maintenance of automobiles and those 3-wheeler things.
Traffic is more of a fun movie to watch than an absolute disaster. At a big intersection that I used to pass, there used to be these traffic contentions, involving the following:
- Cars
- Bikes
- Bicycles
- 3-wheelers (whatever they’re called)
- People crossing
- Cows (also crossing)
- Dogs (just screwing around)
One of those days I just stood watching how the traffic contention would clear out. I’m telling you it was the most fun I had while being there. I’m pretty sure I was there for several minutes while dogs were dancing to the rhythm of the horns. The cows got their way in the end. Fair enough.
People
The most interaction I had was with the people who were taking the courses with me. The general impression I got is that Indian people are very social and welcoming. In these kind of courses, I usually stay away from emotional attachment due to the short time we have together. But some of our class mates insisted we go out for bowling. On another day, he suggested we stay after the course for some open heart-to-heart discussions, which was really fun. On the last day, he even arranged for a McDonald’s meal which was a breath of fresh air for me, albeit a spicy one.
Funniest moment
The funniest moment I can remember was that night when I was watching TV in my room. Here is what I saw:
I was flipping through the channels; lots of boring stuff. Then I stopped on a channel where an Indian version of American Idol was on. I curiously watched it for few minutes as some aspiring Indian singer was giving a performance. One of the judges seemed to be a popular Indian singer and he was really into that guy’s singing. He really loved the song that he felt the need to go out on stage in the middle and start dancing with the guy who’s singing. So he started making all these trademarked Indian dancy moves, until he did that move that just cracked me up. Here is what he did:
He pulled a scarf the singing guy was wearing. He pulled it from his neck and literally cleaned his balls with it! I’m not kidding. He held it from end to end and rubbed it again his balls in a dancy move. Right after that he returned the scarf to the guy and put it around his neck again. That’s it. He did all that and everybody in the audience chanted and clapped for that "cool move". Man, am I missing something here?!
Conclusion
The short version of all of this is:
- Training was awesome.
- Country wasn’t even close.
I realize now that Middle Eastern culture is far different than Indian’s culture. We’re so different in many ways. Sure, we share some family values but as far as everything else is concerned, we have more in common with the Western culture than the Indian counterpart. This isn’t meant to offend anybody, it’s just my observation and it’s just the way it is.
Below is the photo album for my entire trip. Enjoy!
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| Trip to India |
45 Responses 
Leave a Reply 
Nice post, nice photos, but I did not read any thing regarding the experience of elephant riding ! :p;)
@Rafat:
Elephants were the only thing missing to add to the traffic contentions scene. I was very disappointed not to have seen any free elephants just wandering down the street. Had it been otherwise, I may have taken a ride to the training center. Cheap, but bit bumpy :)
lool , I had the same observations when I was in India last week .
:)
Very interesting to read and funny, too; especially the part where you described the street having a crack enough to be a mini-pool. However, you should remember that the same scene can be seen in most of the Middle East countries and in particular your country of origin.Yet, after all it’s been a wonderful experience to a young guy like you.
Keep up the good work and ambition. Wish you the best always.
@moone:
Hey Mom! thanks for your (first) comment :)
Street cracks in Middle Eastern countries are a unique breed. They reproduce on their own. Big cracks bring along smaller and cuter cracks. If one doesn’t get you, the next one will. They make driving experience all the more fun. Like an Atari game, your objective is to avoid all cracks and get to your destination with all 4 tires intact. You also have to avoid the mighty cracks that swallow your entire ride.
[...] for my long-awaited Certified Usability Analyst exam. If you guys remember, the whole point of my trip to India in July was to take a bunch of courses to prepare me for this [...]
[...] traveling all the way to India for a 10-days training course in July. That went pretty well. I came back and had about 2 months to study for and prepare for the certification exam. I wasted no effort [...]
I am from Bangalore too…..what u’ve said is right..City corporation needs to buck up.
[...] of usability (more broadly known as Human-Computer Interaction) which culminated in traveling to India for a two weeks training in this field. It was such a wonderful experience. When I came back, I had [...]
“… that Middle Eastern culture is far different than Indian’s culture … more in common with the Western culture …”
Dude, you have some cheek. Don’t compare a bunch of lazy parasites and terrorists with established civilizations.
Middle east, is hell on earth. The people are lazy and criminals who want to feed off the world and do not have anything to give back in return. Yes, your culture gives the world great leaders up people like Ahmedinizad, Khomeini, Saddam and Gaddafi, and a corrupt house of saud. And I dont even want talk about the politics or judicial system of middle east. Yuck.
Just keep youir filthy trap shut and dont pass judgement on the ‘civilized’ world.
entertaining to read how different impressions can be of any place … i have met many non-indians either in india or abroad … most of them have strong judgements about my nation (i am as hardcore as indian as they come) just like you … your experience of bangalore wouldn’t be much different from other indian cities …
yes cities in india are dirty .. unorganized and chaotic … yes they suffer from power cuts … yes their maintenece is poor … yes they dont look very glossy … but being too judgemental about it is callous ignorance … india is a (largely though insufficeiently) open democracy and it provides and cares for all its citizens … it is a generous civilization (if you ever thought what it means) .. it tolerates and encourages differing thoughts, ideas, religion, creed and aspirations (too much for my comfort as it also tolerates terrorist incursions, but that is going astray) .. and it is a formative and young nation (literally as well as demographically) with a ancient surviving civilization/culture …
such a country will have chaotic cities … but those same cities are cities of the future .. look out for them 20-30 years from now … such a time span is nothing for india … india will be here for 1000 more years … how many of the countries you know will have even 10% of this life span …
anyway i liked your article .. keep writing ..
Niraj (from Hyderabad, India)
Hmm… not a very positive description huh? Well, India’s a lot better than you think.. so you come.. and go.. and talk like a whole lot of shit about here? Tell you what… don’t come back to India. You won’t like it.. because the way you are… you’d find faults in heaven as well…
And lets not start talking about Saudi and how you guys treat women eh? Take a chill pill, look at you’re own back yard… and learn to appreciate things in life instead of being a major cry baby…
In defense of India versus Arabia, the Arabic/Islamic influence on India is undeniable if you look at it through a historical lens in places other than Bangalore. From art, architecture, language, food, religion, values and even genetics, there is a world of similarities (far more than with the West) evident if you had visited any of the major cities of North India, or even the coastal cities in Western India, the historical links and cultural affinity are pretty evident.
Also, the traffic, blackouts and other problems are largely because India is a democratic, bottom-up developing country (much like the US in the 1800s) and not governed in a top-down, command system like China or most of the Middle East where decision making is simple. Despite whatever they inherited from their past, India has to develop its own modern framework indigenously, it doesn’t have China’s luxury of central decision-making or the oil-rich ME’s absolute monarchic rule and desire to import wholesale everything from the West (i.e., labor, skill, infrastructure and organization) instead of developing an indigenous model.
And, also, Indian food is the most varied and diverse ethnic category of food in the world, largely because the Subcontinent is blessed with more varieties of fruits and vegetables than any other part of the world. Add to that the myriad ways in which dishes can be prepared and seasoned, you’d be surprised at how “healthy” many dishes can be– there are so many, many alternatives to the spicy, oily and overly sweet food you were exposed to on that trip. I hope your future exposures allow you to taste better food. I’ve tried so many ethnic restaurant in the US (even though that’s probably not the best way to judge) and nothing beats the food I get to eat when I go to Bangladesh (a former part of India).
This article shows how you are personally. Meal you got at training session is not humanly, we like that. There are many more things to mention in your article, anyways I am not you.
Congratulations on passing…
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