Last day in Bangalore...by Tommaso Scafroglia

It is so sad to write about the end of a great experience like that of the Summer School ‘09. I really would like to escape this last blog writing…. But I’m forced to do it for the simple reason that all the other students complain about the fact that I did nothing during our stay in B’lore. Hare babre! (see it Stefano, Matteo Sandrini is not the only guy who learned a bit of hindi…). This is a distortion of the truth! They say this just because I’m a little bit shy, and perhaps a little elusive as well. Should I have to remind to everybody that during the second week I was always the first to reply to Mària’s roll calls on the bus (perhaps because all the others were sleeping)? Should I say that during the last lesson at the IIMB I was the lonely one to ask a question (unfortunately my voice is not that loud…and the Professor did not heard it…). And who was the lonely one who was always 100% healthy throughout the trip? And who was the lonely one who never complain about the spicy Indian food?
Anyway, let’s coming back to the reason I’m writing this last post of the blog, that it is supposed to be a retrospection of the last day of the Summer School ’09. The day started with one of the hardest wake up of my whole life. Aargh! After two weeks I really needed some extra sleep!!! But we had to be awaken soon for the ceremony distribution of Certificates by Professor Philip. After the ceremony and the filling of the feedbacks we got our day free in town. It was a very good opportunity for everyone for the last shopping and the last hard bargaining…some of us had to stay longer in B’lore, some small groups planned their trips to Kerala, Delhi, Jaipur, Agra, Ladakh…so we took some rooms in a typical Indian one star hotel….Hotel Brindavan, a “home away from home”…rooms were not exactly very nice, but the corridors on the court within the hotel building were perfect for a last night party (ho jaega balle balle!).
Now it is the moment for me to make a confession without duress …I was the one who did not pay the room bill, making Matteo Zaramella absolutely out of his mind…But it was just a joke… Who could say now that I’m too serious and that I’m not a funny guy?
Finally we got our last dinner all together, with Chateubriand fillets (not exactly a typical Indian dish), mugs of beer, and chants, and tears….everything you could expect from a real farewell dinner. We said goodbye to all the tutors and students who were going back home. And it was a very emotionally moment. But for the people who stayed…the party was going on at the Brindavan hotel! The highlights of the party were a great monologue of Bruce (I was laughing in hysterics…but I can’t really understand what exactly Bruce wanted to say…somebody could help me please?) and the meeting with two Indian guys, whose profession was really indecipherable…I could only understand that one guy was the manager of the other….and that they were quite drunk….that’s all.
So, with the farewell dinner and the last party at the great location of Brindavan (should we suggest this hotel for future parties for cool Bangalorians…) the Summer School was over. I can only say that it has been a great experience for me. It was not my first time in the fascinating Country of India…but the whole experience was absolutely great anyway. It has been hard in so many moments, but now after few weeks I can keep on my mind just the enrichment I had in attending the lessons, in visiting companies, NGOs, schools, temples, in living the vibrant town of B’lore, in meeting the Indian students and in preparing our cultural show.
I really would like to thank the mastermind of the Summer School, Prof. Fabio Corno. I knew from the students of the previous years that the Summer School was such a great opportunity for personal enrichment, and I had no doubt that it would be. But having living the whole event from the inside I just could be grateful to Prof. Corno for giving us the opportunity to enrich ourselves with this very good experience.
I want to thank particularly our Mission Chief, Paolo Brusaferri, who got the difficult task to look over the organizational aspects of the event, and all the tutors as well, who have been very helpful to all of us, even in the moment of illness and extreme tiredness...
I want to thank the XIME as well. We passed a very good time there, and for that I want to thank the institution that hosted us.
In the end I would like to thank all of you, girls and guys. I think we have been a very good group. We are very different from each other, we are coming from different backgrounds and we have different interests, but, I can’t explain exactly why, the chemistry of the whole group was just brilliant, almost perfect. Everyone brought with him a small brick to built a wall made of interpersonal relations that I hope will last. And finally, even with some difficulties, illness, tiredness, exhaustion we were able to complete all the duties given to us (blog, reports, acknowledgements, cultural show, Country presentation…).
And now let me coming back to some jokes, I would like to finish my long post (I have so many things to say…perhaps because I never spoke before…), with my personal top ten moments at the XIME. I want the other students to add their personal top tens as well, if they want.
Bye bye dears, the blog is closed...
Phir milenge!
Tommaso Scafroglia



Tommaso’s Top Ten Countdown

10. Bruce’s monologue on the last night at Brindavan hotel
9. Visit at the village on the way to Tiruvannamalai
8. Ride on the bus coming back from the visit to METRO, stuck in the horrible Bangalore traffic but at the end...very happy!
7. Train ride back from Mysore (with dinner at the railway station)
6. Punjabi dance at the cultural show
5. Meeting with Indian students for questionnaires filling in the garden at the end of the day (with daylight fading…great atmosphere…)
4. Bella Ciao
3. Friday night’s party....till 10,30 pm!
2. Last dinner with chants, greetings and...
1. Presentation of Italy during the cultural show. A real touch of Italian pride!

Last night @ XIME!

Last day of lessons here in India!

We went to IIM B, the first Business School in Bangalore. There we attended two interesting lessons, the first about “Religion & Society in India”, the second about “Entrepreneurship in India”. These are the last days and we were tired but it doesn’t mean at all that we weren’t interested!

We were supposed to have lunch there, but…there was no lunch! XIME and IIMB had a little misunderstanding, so we had to come back at our hostel and we could eat only at 2.45. We were just a bit nervous because of the full schedule, and on the bus we had a discussion about this journey and about what can be improved for the next Summer School.

Then…it’s time for the Cultural Show!

After lunch we had to practice a bit for the Italian Show (and it never seemed enough!!). We started singing songs all together and after the dance group practiced with the Indian dancers. All of us were really excited for the Show that started at 6 o’clock. The performance begun with our national song “Inno di Mameli” : it was a moment of great emotion!

Suddenly our great showman Andrea made all the audience burn out introducing the dance group that performed an Italian traditional dance, called “Tammurriata”.

Italians and Indians girls were wearing long skirts and shirts, OK those are not the traditional dresses but we didn’t bring them with us in India!!

Then the dancers could have a break; it was the moment of a presentation of our Country that included history, food, art and all the great things that Italy has, including football!!! We should emphasize that we are WORLD CHAMPIONS!

Now it’s “Bhangra” time! Some of us tried to perform this energetic Punjabi dance, with typical Indian dresses and turbans! We hope we didn’t look ridiculous!

The show continued with another Italian song, “Bella ciao” a partisan song written during Italian Resistance against fascism. We got a good appreciation from our Indian friends!

The show ended with a video presenting our university Bicocca, and prof. Corno made a touching speech concluding the great experience of India Summer School 2009.

At the end of the day we had a gala dinner with the President Philip and the professors of XIME.

Now we are sorry to leave, but it’s our last night at XIME and we want to pary all night long!

Stefania e Chiara

Lost in the sky!

Ok, here we are, guys!

This morning we left XIME at 7:30. The bus was more like a dormitory, you know, with all the people sleeping in their seats just like babies...weariness is growing stronger and stronger but... hey! These are the last three days!

In spite of that, we were able to reach the ISRO ( Indian Space Research Organization) at least 20 minutes before the estimated time! There we had the extraordinary opportunity to see with our own eyes a real satellite that will leave for the space in october. It was completed just a couple of days ago, so we were lucky to have a chance like that! Unluckily they didn't let us take a pictures of it for secutiry reasons, but..hey! that's life!

After that, we left for the HAL (Hindustan Aeronautical Limited) where we spend some time visiting the local museum, and the exposition of old planes' models, situated in a lovely garden.

Thereafter we came back to XIME for lunch, had a little rest, and we prepared for Professor Iyengar's lesson. That was an interesting lesson, indeed! We talked a lot about the ethical ways of conducting business and the unethical ones...and we found out that in this particular field, differences between India and Italy are less than anyone can imagine!
...but after a so compelling lesson, we just deserve some rest, dont' you think so?

And that's when happened!!! It started to rain like a monsoon!!!

And just istantly all the things messed up!!! The meeting arranged with the the indian students became a major issue because of the rain, and it required quite an effort to set up everything for compiling the questionnaires, but somehow we managed to gather each other and complete them thoroughly, even in spite of the adversities!
In the meanwhile rehearsals for the cultural show resumed, and they're going on even now! While we're writing this blog's page, our wonderful dancers are working hard to prepare a great show for us all! we wish them good luck!

and for the moment, that's all folks! Stay tuned, 'cause time's running out!!!

Matteo Z & Leo

Summer School has all its members back!

This morning we were very happy to find the breakfast room almost full.
We can finally say that the Summer School team is mostly fully recovered from health diseases.
Today, after the last programme change we had only 2 lessons instead of 3.
During the first lesson we had an introduction on retail development in India. The lecture was held by a professor very experienced in this growing reality who used to work for United Colours of Benetton in India.
The second lesson was on CSR mostly based on Tata Group experience and some ethical aspects implemented by the Group.
Following the previous days trend, we found a very healthy buffet  based on plain rice, boiled potatoes and chicken, so that we cannot complain about Indian spicy food!!
Anyway we will have soon the chance to taste again our “beloved” tandoori chicken, samosa, masala dosa, aloo gobi and so on…
In the afternoon the bus took us to HMTM, a BPO company where we met some nice guys who talked us about the company structure and programmes. As usual it was a good occasion to have a good cup of coffee and tea.
After the visit, the group had some proposals about how to spend the rest of the evening.
Somebody suggested to celebrate Tommaso’s birthday and the idea was really welcome!!
So it can be the time for partying and dancing in a disco … until 11 PM, of course… as per Indian time standard!!!
As today we had enough spare time, the group has also chosen to split for shopping around Bangalore city, dribbling crazy rickshaw, very fashionable motorbikes and calm cows walking everywhere as usual…. But today we have some news: for the first time since we were in Bangalore, rain falls!!!

Luisella & Claudia

Work in Progress!

Our day started with a surprise: the first lesson about “Villages – Soul of India” was deleted. What a pity! The topic sounded so interesting and we were looking forward to it! Anyway, we didn’t waste time: we could discuss about the program, summaries and Cultural Show.

Today our classroom looked quite empty: some of us are suffering tiredness and “intolerance to Indian food”! In addiction, the group of Law student went to Bangalore to visit the High Court. Their vacant places added sadness to our sleepy status.

Our program today was full of lessons, and we had to stay in our classroom both morning and afternoon, enjoying intensively the small breaks we had. The first topic was “SMEs – Small Medium Enterprises- in the Indian Economy”, later Mr C. Singh told us about “Some Interesting Cultural Aspects of Bangalore”, then “India – a brief Socio – Cultural Introduction” and, last but not least, a speech on “Human Rights” with a particular focus on Constitution and Women in India.

We had little time to take a deep breath before interacting with Indian students of XIME. In the dialogue, that lasted more than an hour, we spoke about our different life-style, our countries, our aspirations and started to know each other better. On Thursday we will meet them again, in order to fulfil the “Cross Cultural Assessment”, which is a questionnaire dealing with different aspects of our life.

But our day was not finished: in order to balance mind and body , we were ready to practice the traditional dance steps for the Cultural Show that is going to take place on Friday! We were assisted by some Indian students, professionals in the energic and amazing Punjabi dance, who tried to teach us Bhangra. While some of us showed them “Tammurriata”, a dance from Campania.

Well, we confess we had a lot of fun in that rhythmic atmosphere…but the result of these efforts will be a surprise!

We’ll see…

P.S. It’s 2 o’ clock and some of us are still working….what is called WORK IN PROGRESS!

Clara, Lucia, Chiara

WHY?

Monday 27.07.09

It's almost time for dinner, Rise&Curry is waiting for us but anyway we find the time to update this blog.

It's Monday again!Time to wear formal dress for a formal day...

If we start to think about last week, at the beginning we could count 27 student and 6 tutor. After only seven days we are more or less 20 students and 4 tutor. What's going on? Well, someone has not a good feeling with indian food, someone else doesn't like the abuse of the Air Condition on the bus, while there are more than 30 degree outside, others are suffering for the quite intensive timetable.




The day started with three really interesting lessons about “Multinationals in India and their impact on India Management” - Mr. Salil Punoose, “Rural Marketing” - Prof. V.M. Cavale and “Health Management” - Dr. Dara Amar. The last one wasn't focus on the topic that was expected to be hospital management, public and private sanity, but it was focus on the different way to look at the reality and learn from children the curiosity for the world without prejudice.The professor finally told us that we always have to ask “WHY?” about everything around us.

As Professor Amar told us, we feel natural to say: WHY are you like that Andrea?




“Because i'm sick and tired, and my immune system coudn't keep this way of life” he said. Mmmm...actually, Andrea (and the others) maybe are not strong enough for this India Summer School...eh eh eh eh :-)

Around 2:00 pm we left XIME to BOSCH where we visit the manifactury unit. In India Bosch Group has about 18,030 employees and it is a leading supplier of technology and services, and has a strong presence in the country at numerous locations in diverse industry segments - both automotive and non-automotive. Bosch set up its manufacturig operations in 1953, and has grown over the years to 11 manufacturing sites and 4 development centers.



After dinner some students will have a meeting to prepair our Cultural Show; on friday night we will have to show to our indians collegues “The Italianity” through our dancing and singing.

We invite all of you to read this blog to know how is proceeding the preparation of our show and, of course, to know more about our health!

Enjoy your dinner

Dario Cinzia + Andrea

Indian Dancing

I can't believe it: I finally managed to upload both the videos Paolo Brusaferri recorded during the Cultural Show that took place on July, 21th.

It looks like you gotta be very, very patient with this network.

Enjoy the videos!