STUDY ABROAD / INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE : INDIA, Bangalore

Hélène Konè, a graduate management student from Grenoble EM, talks about her experiences at Indian Institute of Management Bangalore.

 

If India was a common noun… I’d say A-D-V-E-N-T-U-R-E !!!

 

From August to December 2012. These 4 months in India were the most fantastic, incredible, unusual, challenging…, of my life.

  
Photos and text by Hélène Konè

 

IIMB had trully a very lively campus where I enjoyed to stay

The Indian Institute of Management was a great place to be: in terms of academic level, it is considered as the best business school of India, and I would add the location – an oasis of greenery in the middle of the city, an ideal place to rest after the numerous trips I was able to make (after I did all my homework, of course )!

India is full of colors, of spices and of smiling people (here at the Bangalore City Market)

My Indian exchange was deeply fulfilling in both ways, good and less optimistic. India is a country of extreme contrasts – you can daily see the destitution alongside the wealth. The atmosphere was not always easy to witness and it definitely changed my perception of the world as I tried to understand the complexity of the Indian culture.

India is a cultural treasure

India is a cultural treasure, from  the Taj Mahal to Mamallapuram to Mumbai passing by Pondicherry, Hampi or Kerala… (yes, if you go to India, you may have the opportunity to visit all of these places and many more )

In order to fully take advantage of this experience, I advise students willing to discover magnificent India to prepare themselves for the exchange experience by reading about history and culture of the country.

Indian roads are all about buses, and auto-rickshaws, and… cows (and, in some regions, monkeys and camels and elephants).

The Hindu religion is full of celebrations where everybody dresses up for the ceremonies (here, Diwali, the Festival of Lights)

See also:

Debunked! Top 15 Myths About India

The Cultureur: “All Indians run around trees, singing and dancing. Good job, Bollywood. I heard this one a few months ago and was absolutely floored. Sadly enough, the person was serious.”

The Tuk-Tuk Lesson

Gallivance: “I’m sitting on our balcony in Ella, watching the kids across the field play cricket. Out of the corner of my eye I see a red tuk-tuk appear with a man driving, and the tiny back seat is stuffed with wife and two little kids. Then it gets interesting. Husband and wife get out and exchange places. Wow! I can tell that he is very patiently instructing her in the art of driving a tuk-tuk – pretty much a hybrid of a 3-wheel motorcycle with a cab.”

Behind Middle India’s Celebration of the Meritorious Marginalized

India: “April-May is the exam result season in India, and one invariably finds news headlines about such fantastic individual accomplishments. Indeed, clearing such demanding exams is a major accomplishment, and to do so with all the odds stacked against oneself is nothing short of remarkable.”

A long but stimulating Friday

Those Little Joys in Life: “Friday we were up early (per usual) and out the door for an international conference held at Rajagiri Centre for business studies. The conference was covering the topic of finding innovative poverty and climate solutions for India.”

A weekend in Tekkedy and Munnar

Those Little Joys in Life: “The further we went up into the mountains, the windier the roads became, making sharp turns at every corner and throwing our bodies from one side of the car to the other every 2 minutes. Every time we turned a corner, I just prayed that there wasn’t a large truck coming the opposite way…”

A 2 Days Trip from Bangalore to Hampi : My Travel Journal

Vikram Roy’s Blog: “Hampi is one of the famous historical village in northern Karnataka state, India. It is located within the ruins of Vijayanagara Empire. The ruins are a UNESCO World Heritage Site, listed as the Group of Monuments at Hampi.”

Taj Mahal on the Horizon

Maria Precioso: “Here’s a view of the Taj Mahal you don’t see quite often.”

The Top 10 Delights of New Delhi

The Cultureur: “The Lotus Temple, otherwise known as the Baha’i House of Worship is a world-acclaimed architecture marvel of New Delhi. The exterior facade is beautifully designed in the shape of a white lotus flower and is resonant of the Expressionist art form.”

The Times Higher Education Supplement: World University Rankings 2011-2012

Textbooks and Passports: “Textbooks and Passports went through this year’s list and plotted all of the non-UK universities in the THE top 50 on a map. We also added the average tuition fees for international undergraduates for the academic year 2011-2012..”

10 Corporations That Have a Major Hand in Higher Education

Online Colleges: “BP has contracts with Berkeley, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, MIT, and more. The energy company regularly engages in multimillion dollar contracts for university research, including a 10-year, $500 million investment in Berkeley’s Energy Biosciences Institute.”

  

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