India: the IT Sector

The library at the IT school we visited

The next day of our trip to Hyderabad, we went to visit the IT sector. As we were driving by we saw huge skyscrapers and tall buildings, one after another, and I couldn't help but compare it to Kolkata which doesn't build up and instead builds out. Anyway, we saw buildings like Google headquarters and other top companies while we made our way to an IT school to take a tour of their campus. We were greeted at the door and proceeded to walk around the college which was only 10 years old and cost approximately 40,000 USD to go there a year. The college is privately funded so the school doesn't receive any money from the government. Some of the architecture in the school was really cool but then we had to sit down for a presentation and I started to feel myself drift off. I'm not really a fan of management, economics, computers, etc. (Oh no! What will Sucharita say when she finds out?!?! She is an econ professor!)

Statues outside the market

After touring the school we went to the mall for a little break because we didn't want to walk around in the blazing sun. The mall was rather upscale but it was nice to walk around and some people even got their feet cleaned of all the dirt that was on them by putting their feet in a tank and having little fish nibble at their toes (I was told the experience was really weird). We left the mall after awhile and went to a local flea market where they were selling goods from all the different states in India. I ended up buying a couple things (mostly for my parents) and it was fun to look around and have Sucharita try to bargain for us.

Some more statues...these ones were creepy though

The market was fun but we had to leave eventually and go back to the hotel to have dinner and celebrate Brenna's birthday. The only problem was that we had decided to go to the Hard Rock Cafe for Brenna's birthday, and when we got there we were told that it was a holiday celebrating Hanuman (the Hindu monkey god) and most of the bars/clubs in the city were closed. We ended up walking around the mall next to the Hard Rock for a little while and then went back to the hotel where Brenna ordered something to drink. I came downstairs after a little while and Brenna was almost finished with her birthday drink and I looked at the bottle and started chuckling. There on the bottle it stated, "Drinking alcohol is harmful," in case you didn't already know. After Brenna was finished we went back upstairs and Brenna started chasing Tiffany around and vice versa (this is a regular occurence) and then we all went to bed.