10 Days in India…Part I
January 10th, 2008 by 
Amit
This was my 6th or 7th trip to India ever since I first went when I was about 1 and a half years old. I gotta tell you, every trip to India is an AMAZING experience.
This is my 3rd trip to India since they started implementing economic reforms and started moving towards a first world market economy. And each time I’ve gone the changes have been remarkable!
At the rate India’s economy is growing and creating wealth it will blow pass the US in 10-20 years from now.
No joke.
This time around I saw the biggest changes yet : the infrastructure has dramatically improved, especially the roads and the airports.
The airports are just as good as the US, and extremely fast, efficient, and yes, air conditioned, a far cry to what they used to be in the last eighties when I remember spending 8 HOURS at the Mumbai airport because someone had stolen our luggage.
The roads have also improved, I remember going to India in the past and having to hold on tightly while riding in a taxi or a car, if you didn’t your head would hit the ceiling every time you hit a pothole - which was about every 3o seconds!
Now the roads in Mumbai (my first stop) are just as good as Boston roads, and sometimes better-you know what I’m talking about if you’ve ever road down Commonwealth Ave.
LOL
Air quality has also improved in the cities now thanks to the widespread use of unleaded gas and natural gas. Now the major problem is all dust resulting from a lack of landscaping, but even this is improving in cities such as Vadodara in Gujarat.
It’s amazing how entrepreneurs can transform & uplift a country when they’re freed from draconion government controls and protectionist thinking, something our government seems to have long forgotten, but I’ll get into that later!
Anyhow, let me tell you more about my trip…
My wife and I had the pleasure of taking business class on Lufthansa airlines.
If you’ve never flown business or first on a long haul flight before you’re missing out! It’s an awesome experience. Gourmet food + a fully reclinable seat makes for a virtually stress free flight. If you have the cash this is one area NOT to be stingy in, pay the extra several thousand and fly in style.
The only thing that sucked was the whopping 7 hour layover at Frankfort airport.
Our trip started in Mumbai where Shilpi and I were staying with Bhaveshbhai and Sejalbhen. Shilpi and I were blown away by their hospitality. They provided us with one of their 2 bedroom and fed us so much food we could barely get out of our chairs.
If that wasn’t enough they coordinated our whole stay in Mumbai, sightseeing and all.
Bhaveshbhai actually gave us a tour of Mumbai by car. We saw a number of major sites, museums, homes of Bollywood actors/actresses, the Gateway of India, and we also had a chance to see some of the new modern buildings and developments coming up in Mumbai …very cool.
Here’s a picture of myself and Shilpi with my parents, Sejalbhen (next to Shilpi), Seryabhen to the right, parth (Sejal’s son - holding on to Sejal), and Ishan (Serya’s son - between Sejal and Serya) :
Here’s another picture that includes Bhaveshbhai (green shirt and glasses) :
Also check out the gateway of India :
Another thing I love about Mumbai is the food.
Every time I come to Mumbai I always indulge in a South Asian delight call Falooda. You can read all about it here.
It’s amazing, and you can’t get it in the US.
Overall, I have to say that the people, the culture, the hospitality in India are simply amazing. Oh yeah, my mom and my wife also had a blast shopping!
I can’t wait to tell you about the rest of my trip in Part II.
So stay tuned…
Posted in lifestyle | 
Glad to hear that you made it to visit your home country!
I know how that feels when you get to visit where you are “really” from.
I’ve grew up in Portugal until I was 7 and then I moved to Switzerland. Every year since then I get to visit my home country for a couple of weeks.
I gotta agree with you that so many things can change in a couple of years (and that Lufthansa is indeed a very nice airline ;-)).
hey Amit,
sounds like you had an awesome trip. I usually go to India once a year and have an amazing time! My favorite city (after London) is Mumbai
bhuwan
Oh, forgot to mention the streets in Boston! They suck! And it isn’t just BOSTON, it includes the surrounding areas as well (brookline, newton to mention a few!)
I guess we have the snow / winter to blame for that?
P.S. Amit - are you a big Bollywood fan?
Thats great Amit. Everything is soo colorful. You are blessed. Glad to have you back.
No Amit! Don’t eat the falooda! You have so much to live for!
My girlfriend and I are big fans of Indian food and we made the mistake of ordering falooda in a restaurant one night. I can only compare it to eating face cream. The waiter recommended it and when we asked what it tasted like, he said “pink”. Apparently faloods tastes pink. I didn’t realize he meant it was equivalent to chewing a mouthful of rose petals.
Different strokes, right?
Amit’s not kidding about India’s economic growth trajectory. I just finished Greenspan’s Age of Turbulence and he seems to be on board with this one. Must definitely be cool to watch all of this unfolding firsthand.
Anyhow, glad you had a safe trip.
Welcome back Amit,
Yours is one of the few blogs I regularly read and , as usual, you keep it interesting..
I wish we had some Falooda here in the Patagonia
Amit, I’m glad you both had such a wonderful trip. A quick question…how do you have any plans to invest in India? I don’t mean just real estate or stocks, but in the people? If you currently do or plan to in the future I would love to know your ideas. I live in the D.C. area and this last summer I spent 3 weeks in east Africa (Rwanda) and was really moved by the country’s desire to improve itself…not with aid or handouts but with direct investment. It’s something I’d like to do, but I’m not even sure where to start. Thanks for writing this blog. I just discovered it 3 days ago and have spent a good chunk of my time since reading all of your old posts and articles. I rarely do that with a blog, but when I find something I like I tend to devour all I can as fast as I can.
looks like a great trip to India. A lot of our India calling card customers were on leave back to India for the holidays.
Enjoy the big perk to travel as an affiliate.
Nice. I also have had the pleasure of traveling to India a few times over the past couple of years. I’ve got to tell you I’ve never seen anything like it. The city (Delhi)was non-stop 24×7. The roads are bumper to bumper around the clock. This is why their economy is growing 9% per year. The only thing keeping their economy from growing 15% per year is the infrastructure. But, as Amit referenced their is incredible resources being deployed around this issue.
I also spent time in a city outside of Delhi called Gurgon. Simply AMAZING!! The amount of fiber optic being deployed was astonishing. Every building being built has fiber optics allowing them to have incredible internet access. I wish I had some picture to show you building in this city (i.e. American Express).
btw- the real estate prices in Mumbai and New Delhi are every bit as expensive as New York and San Francisco. And to purchase homes typically they are ALL cash deals. I’m sure Amit can share with us more of the culture around such transaction….. Yes, people carry bags of money to close real estate deals…
Great pictures thanks for sharing, India is very interesting country.