Presenting in New Delhi

Today we presented at several partner institutions in the Greater New Delhi area in India. The topic I use at all places is on "leadership", but I adjust/tweak it a bit for each audience and the degree I can get them involved. Of course this is all to promote the programs Seneca offers in Toronto and abroad but rather than directly promoting our programs we present the institution around the topic of how we try ti implement modern leadership for and with students, staff and management, as well as with our partner institutions around the world. And to prove I sometimes wear a suit, see this photo!

Below a few other photos at the two other institutions we visited today and Saturday.

Tomorrow on our way to Mumbai and then Hyderabad for meetings and presentations.

Sunday in New Delhi

Today Prashant took me to the "Red Fort" which was constructed some 400 years ago by invaders from Turkey. They ruled this region for several hundreds of years and eventually fully integrated with the local population. The fort stretches a large area in the Delhi DC area.

Next to the fort an annual Sikh event was being organized. What I did not know and learned during this visit is that the Sikh are part of the family of Hindu religions.

In the area of the fort there are several large temples and mosques each with its own atmosphere in this fascinating country with its wide diversity of peoples. In this busy area also lots of street food vendors. I lived off that food when I back-packed here in 1982. But during these short business visits it is better to resist the temptation...

Some of the transport is still there compared to 1982, but of course the traffic volume is much higher (and a lot louder) nowadays. The drives in the tuk-tuk are always a fun experience.

The street scenes with markets always stay a sight, as well as the advertisements for the Bollywood movies (or also to be called the soap operas from India, but with always good music and dance).

Two more days of meetings here in Delhi on Monday and Tuesday, and then meetings in Mumbai and Hyderabad the rest of the week.

Presenting in Punjab

Yesterday we presented at a reputed State University in Punjab (Punjab Technical University) and afterwards we signed a new MOU with this institution.

This linkage was facilitated by one of our current partner organizations, Pyramid College.

Thanks Bhavnoor! That evening Prashant and I stayed overnight in Amritsar, the city whcih is the home of the famous Golden Tempel (too late, too tired; next time). This city is just 20 kilometers from the border with Pakistan. Today we flew to New Delhi for three meetings.

Back in India after 35 years

Yesterday I landed in New Delhi for the first time after my back-packer visit in 1982. That visit 35 years ago resulted in me moving to Canada in 1990 because I met the lovely Mary Vandenboom at a train station in India (long story). I am here for work together with my colleague Prashant.

Today we visited one of our partner organizations called INSCOL. They have been training medical staff and ventured with Seneca (and my old digs Niagara College) to send groups of BSc Nursing graduates to do post-graduate specialization programs in Canada. Since 2009 the founder Daljit and his son Pukhraj have been sending thousands of excellent nurses who have enriched the Canadian job market especially in the fields of gerontology, chronic health care and end-of-life care.

Before these nurses come to Canada, they first do a three week preparation program. Today I was able to address one of the groups hoping to come to Toronto in May 2017.

In the library of the INSCOL academy they have small things to prepare students such as mittens and hats to be ready for the cold Canadian winters (here temperatures vary between 20 - 40 degrees C).

In the same office complex as where the INSCOL Academy is housed, the Canadian Consulate has its offices. The city of Chandigarh where we were today is the capital of the State of Punjab in the north western region of India. Tonight Prashant and I were at an event where we met the Canadian Consul here, so we learned some good facts from him about the Canadian presence here while we were able to give him a brief update of the activities of Seneca in India in general and in the Punjab in specific.

Still winter

After a couple of nice days in Holland catching up with my two sisters and a few old friends, I am back home in Niagara. Sunday morning March 12 and mother nature reminds us that it is still winter.

Pyramids in Giza

Today - a Friday which is here in Egypt like our Sunday - my colleague Khaled took me to see the pyramids just outside Cairo in the city of Giza, about an hour by car from my hotel. Khaled who was born, raised and educated in Egypt shared a lot of insights with me, and it is interesting that a fair amount of the knowledge around the pyramids is still food for discussions among archeologists. Most of us in other countries think that the workers were slaves; strongly disputed by most archeologists. Most of us think the building teams of the Pharaos must have used cranes; calculations show that with the heavy stones that must have been almost impossible. When Arabs came north from other areas and started building a city wall around Cairo, they took many of the stones of the outside layer of the pyramids. We need some "fact-checking" on all of this, Mr Khaled. On the next photos you can see the top of one of the pyramids which still has some of the original smoother outside stones.

The other story of Khaled has to do with the large sphinx near the pyramids. It was completely covered by sand hen it was discovered. Khaled says that the nose of the Sphinx was broken off by a canon ball fired on command of Napoleon. Some serious fact checking needed on that story!

There are not a lot of instructions to visitors. You can smoke on the site (and people do), you can throw stones (but people don't do that), but you are not allowed to climb the pyramids.

A lot of the visitors ride horses and camels. They are such fun animals and they can make quite the noise if they don't like something. Khaled noticed a lot more tourism than years ago, which is very good for the cash flow to keep these historic icons maintained. Still more domestic tourism, but let's hope that international tourism will pick up as well again after some very difficult years for Egypt.

I stayed away from a camel ride, as much as this fellow was trying to show me how much fun it is (my stomach is giving me some trouble today, so it was wiser to take it easy). The photo below shows how close by the city of Cairo is from this site. A must if you ever go here and have a few hours.

Afterwards we visited a nice restaurant along the Nile. This city never sleeps! Tomorrow on my way to Amsterdam for a few days of visits with my sisters and friends from University.

Back in Cairo a few days

One of those cities which never sleeps. Arrived at 2 AM last night after flights from Maputo via Addis Ababa on Ethiopian Airlines (on time and with excellent services). It is amazing to see how many people still work at that hour of the day at this airport and how many cars are on the road. From my room in the Intercontinental Hotel I have a great view over the famous square where the protests from years ago took place which brought so many changes in this region. The traffic goes non-stop, the drivers blow their horns non-stop and somehow it all functions...

And on the other side of the hotel is the famous river Nile with its evening & night entertain boats. I am here for meetings related to our contract work with the Aga Khan Development Network (see my posts from January 2016). That work is going well and we are all learning a lot from each other.