Trip to the Engineering College

3/14/08

Today we accompanied a small group of students (16 were signed up to attend, but only 5 showed up - always a problem when trips are scheduled before noon..) to visit an Engineering College here in the city. Formerly a Women's Engineering College, it's recently gone coed. The college is clean and modern, but unfortunately, our first impression was of the steaming garbage dump (with scavenging cows) adjacent to the golden entrance gate.

We were greeted with flowers, sprinkled with rose water and received red dots and yellow stripes on our foreheads (the meaning of which was not explained to us, but we wore them proudly). We were ushered into a conference room that contained the deans and all the professors of the college, as well as the group of students who had been hand-picked to accompany us for the day.

As the only grownups in the group, Jim and I were handed a microphone and asked to address the assembly - something Jim does with ease, but, as my status these past few months has been "spouse only", I was not really prepared for. I did my best. We were given a tour of the laboratories and shown the engineering projects the students are working on. Each of us was flanked by two students who kept us informed of what we were seeing, and peppered us with questions. When asked what kind of professor I was, I said I was not a professor, but that when I was a student I had majored in marketing. Within minutes, the young lady who had been at my side was whisked away and replaced by a marketing student, who proceeded to ask me about marketing in America!

As we toured, my student asked if I would like to see their marketing department. Sure! said I. We left the group and walked into another building, where my student (I'm sorry that I did not capture his name) introduced me to his dean. Before I knew it, I was ushered into a large lecture hall, introduced as the Marketing Professor from the University of Virginia, handed a microphone and asked to address all the business students on my subject!

Well... I gave them about one minute of what I remember about marketing, and several more on how happy I was to be in Chennai (liar liar pants on fire). Luckily, a student then asked what I was doing in India, so I talked for a while about the Semester at Sea. Whew!

Then it was back to the main group for a demonstration of Indian singing and dancing, followed by a tradional lunch on a banana leaf (lucky I had practiced in Mauitius, remembering not to use my left hand...)

We were then taken to someone's house to see a "typical Indian home". A lovely, well furnished home, it was probably typical of the top 2% of residents in Chennai. The homeowner was very gracious, and showed us pictures of her daughter's wedding (if you don't know about lavish Indian weddings, rent one of the many movies that cover the subject, like Monsoon Wedding or The Namesake).

Then it was off to one more temple, a living Shiva temple in the heart of the city. This one had all its colorful painted figures (they repaint them every twelve years) and people lined up to offer flowers and candles to the gods and give thanks for their blessings. Our guide burned some jasmine flowers, and gave us the sacred ash to place on our foreheads and to take home to our home altar. It was an appropriate last act for the day, as I am traveling home tonight