Annika Kurz at TecSo Global in Baroda, India

Why India?

I am studying Business Administration with the focus on Logistics and E-Business for the Master degree at the RheinAhrCampus in Remagen. After a time working with AIESEC I liked to go abroad. First I was interested in countries like Sweden, UK or Ireland. So changing to India was a big step but it was the best step I ever did in my life. But why did I decide to go to India?
Already 3 day’s after signing into the database of AIESEC I’ve got an e-mail with a job-description. This job was for business development and marketing so because of my focus Logistics and E-Business not so interesting for me. Fortunately with the e-mail was a file with some other job descriptions. One of them I liked really and I wrote an application. Within few weeks I was matched with the internship and the wonderful journey to a fascinating country began.

My arrival and first day’s in Baroda, India.

After 16 hours traveling I arrived in Baroda. There I got a very nice welcome from not less than 10 AIESECer at the airport. With two Scooters, 4 pieces of luggage and 4 people we drove into town. My first impression of India I’ve got was the traffic and a lot thin cows standing in the middle of the road. The traffic in India you have to see you can not explain it! Also still in my mind is the dirt everywhere. And I hardly got used to it. But that was only the first impression of India. The second impression was the very friendly, nice and smiling people. Always showing interest in you and very hospitable.
The first three day’s I stayed with a local. That is the way how it is working in if you go with AIESEC. The local, called Bady in AIESEC will show you the first day’s around. It was a big challenge because I saw how poor Indian people very often are. I had my own room, what was a kind of storage because the family of my Bady shared the second room with 6 family members. By 40 degrees was a bucket full of water the shower and the toilet was no western toilet but only a standing one. There was no toilet paper. Indian people use water and the left hand. That is the reason they are only eating with the right hand.
But I am very thankful for this first three days because my Bady showed me around the city, introduced me to the other AIESECer and AIESEC Baroda, showed me the way to work and good shops where you can buy telephone cards, food, clothing etc..

After the three day’s with my Bady I met for the first time my roommates in the Trainee house where I lived for the next 5 month. The flat was quite big and we lived with 6 interns together. We were a nice group with AIESECer from the Netherland, Polen, Egypt, USA, China and Germany. We not only shared a flat but traveled together had a lot parties and a lot fun.

The work with TecSo

My work began already on Monday (I arrived on Saturday morning). My tasks were multifaceted and never boring. TecSo is an integrated engineering and global sourcing company. Because I don’t have a technical background I had to learn a lot about machines and engineering work. But my colleagues were very patient and took time to explain me everything. After a while I was responsible to rework the internet page, build up a database for potential clients, call them and try to get business, look for suppliers in Europe and control the whole supply chain.
The work was starting at 9 am and was ending at 7 pm. Also we had to work every second Saturday. We had three breaks’ total around 1.5 hours. I had breakfast lunch and a snack free of cost.
What was a big challenge was the regularly power cuts, sometimes twice for couple of hours per day. The circumstances you have to deal with are enormous in India. In Germany everything is working well like electricity, infrastructure, you get clean water out the pipe and you don’t have to calculate three hours for 20km to get to work punctual because of the traffic. Here you can see India is still a developing country and they have to work a lot to get the infrastructure on a respected level.

I made couple of small trips with my colleagues. One of them was a visit to a temple nearby Baroda. It was very interesting to see how the Indian people go to a temple, pray and to see the different rituals of the Hinduisms religion. For example they don’t wear shoes, the women have to wear a headscarf if they enter a temple and they make oblations. In this temple it was coconuts.

Different culture experience

India is one of the most ancient and diverse culture I ever saw. India’s culture has been enriched by successive waves of migration which were absorbed into the Indian way of life. So is for example the second most spoken language in India English because of the English colony until 1947. Indian has its own religion, festivals, rituals, artifacts, monuments, costumes, music, dance, languages and literature. I had the chance to celebrate two very important festivals, several weddings and few birthdays. Every single one was amazing, completely different compared to the German or Christian culture. In the Hindu culture a lot activity doesn’t matter if business or private life is balanced to their calendar. The festival called “Happy Diwali”. This is the new year of the Indian culture. By sunset there are many lights on the water, in the streets with beautiful pictures painted with crayon and big fireworks in the evening. The families are coming together and eat together.
In TecSo I made also different kind of culture experience. One of them is how to wear a sari. The women have to wear a sari and the men a tie every third Saturday in a month. This is a tradition everyone has to do. And I know that in some companies you have to go every day wearing a sari.
One other experience I made during a visit to a supplier. I visited with my boss and a client a foundry. There I recognized that not every Indian man will give me as a woman his hand for greeting in the public. You have to put you hand in front of your breast together and say “Namasté”.

Traveling in India

Next to the work I always tried during a longer weekend or at the end to travel in India. I saw west India from the very north to the very south with other AIESECer, local people and friends who visited me. India is a beautiful country also in its landscape. I traveled with the plain, train, bus, car, rickshaw and scooter. Lived in a 5 star hotel for over 250€ per night as well in a guesthouse for 5 € per night. Especially during my traveling I saw that Indians have lot of poor people but also very rich people and that the gap between them very often is big.

Back in Germany

Back in Germany I can say it was the best time I ever had. It was always interesting never boring and I learned so much about another culture, people and got friend around the world. Also my internship was great. I learned a lot and I am working further for TecSo in Germany.