Mumbai Video - Staying at Taj Palace

Here is a short 90 second video done at the Taj Palace Hotel in Mumbai where we are staying in India.

Social Learning Interest High in India

The topic of Social Learning has been a keen and hot conversation in four different meetings we have held with Learning Professionals around India.

There is shared recognition of the limitations of eLearning content that is "just" authored information and remediation. As the speed of business increases, there needs to be alternative ways of enriching and extending the content - while drawing on collaborative efforts.

Here are a few of the conversational threads from our discussions:

• Context from Intentional Communities: Building social learning right into traditional programs from day 1. Whether these be onboarding/induction sessions for new employees or higher education programs - provide learners with communities that include experts, slightly more senior peers and full peers.
• Shift to Video Content and Context: Desire to bring the primary delivery mode from text to video. While the production quality does not need to be "Hollywood or Bollywood", there can be significant value from user created content and authored video content.
• Scalable Mentoring: Great conversations about the role of mentoring in learning and how it can be scaled for HUGE learning projects.

Some of our colleagues also see ways in which traditional instructional design programs can be evolved to include the competencies to facilitate and maximize the social learning dimensions of learning resources.

Images and A Video from Brijesh's and Pinky's Wedding

And a video below of the Ceremony, Dancing in the Streets and Elliott teaching a Jewish Folk Dance at one of the family celebrations. We truly are in a global culture :)

Here are just a few of the images and sounds from an incredible wedding that we just attended.

For three days, we were welcomed into the Vora family as extended members - to celebrate Brijesh Vora's wedding to Pinky Ghandi. There is so much to think about and share, we will start with just these images and a few higlights:

• Dancing in the street outside the wedding hall, surrounding Brijesh, with traffic and community surrounding us.
• The emotional moment when Pinky said goodbye and hugged her mother, moving to live and be part of a shared household with Brijesh 3 hours away.
• The incredible family feelings as two extended families came to this ceremony, with over 250 relatives.
• The way in which we were accepted and given "wedding pajamas" to wear.

Wedding Prep: Food, Henna and Clothing

We are in Ahmedabad, India today for the wedding of Brijesh Vora, who is one of our teammates at the MASIE Center.

Brijesh is marrying "Pinky" on Sunday and we are the guests of him and his family as we participate in this multi-day ceremony. This has been a wonderful set of "firsts" for myself and Cathy:

• Veggie Food Galore. The Vora family are vegitarians and we have been eating awesome food of great spice and flavor. His relatives are hosting hundreds of people in their urban apartment and the food/fragrences fill the space .. along with lots of love from cousins, aunts and more. The tables have flowed with new veggie dishes that would be the active envy of the several vegitarians back at our office. Cathy and I have loved the variety.
  
  
  
• Outfits for the Wedding: Here is a picture of Cathy and Brijesh at the store. The Vora family insisted in buying new clothing for Cathy and Elliott for the wedding. So, we spent part of the morning trying on colorful garb and jewlery for Cathy and a special "wedding pajama" for Elliott. While we were told that it would be fine for us to wear Western garb, the family really wanted us to join them in experiencing the wedding in this special clothing. We will need help in getting into some of the clothing and that is part of this cool experience.
  
  
  
• Henna Galore: A young teenage boy appeared at Brijesh's apartment with the task of adding Henna to the hands of the women. He worked freeland and quickly. It was a communal experience ... from the great conversations amongst the women and the special role that the men had (holding the cell phone to the women's ears - so they didn't mess up the paint on their arms. Tomorrow, it is off to the beauty parlor and the barber shop for more "polishing" before the big day.
  

Taj, Learning, Cow Dung Fuel and More

Spent an awesome 24 hours at the Taj Mahal. The views, the history and the sense of beauty was beyond expectation. And, a perfect place to celebrate a birthday and anniversary. Here are a few random experiences, thoughts and learnings:

• Learning Deep in People's Psyche: Once more, we were bombarded with a sense of how important education and training (and certification) were in people's view of their future and their family's options. In the poorest towns, there were billboards and advertisements for IT Training, Hospitality Training and More. Almost every service person we met talked proudly of the training they had received and the role that education was playing for their siblings. The first words from our drivers were about the programs that their children were in, due to the generous tips of tourists such as us :)
• Weddings and Family Traditions: As we are about to take a flight in a few minutes to a 4 day wedding, we explored Indian marriage traditions in several of our conversations. Clearly, "arranged" marriages are still the norm for a good part of the country. One of the elements driving this is the deep obligation that exists for a son (and his new bride) to take lifelong responsibility for his parents as they age. Our last driver, was from a low income village and as he said "not-rich" caste. He had 5,000 people at his wedding and was now in the midst of finding a husband for his 22 year old daughter, before he turned his attention to this two sons.
• Cow Dung Fuel: As we made our way from Agra to Delhi, we passed carts piled high with organic fuel. Actually, cow dung patties -- that are dried and then used for cooking fuel. A highly "Green" approach to recycling. There is apparently no bad odor and it is seen as a healthy addition to the air as burned.
  
  
  

The Taj... Breathtaking and Emotional on a Birthday

Just a few moments ago we arrived at our hotel, the Oberoi in Agra. It is one of the most incredible hotels that I have ever stayed in. But, even more powerful is the view from our room.

The sun is coming on the Taj Mahal. It takes the breath away and the tears flow in awe. From the moment we arrived in this hotel..with the ancient beauty, peaceful music and a red mark placed on our foreheads ... there is a sense that we are at a very different place. And, what a place to celebrate my Birthday and our Anniversary.

Birthday at the Taj Mahal and Several Notes

Tomorrow, we are heading to Agra, to spend my birthday on May 13th (and a rescheduled anniversary) overlooking the incredible Taj Mahal. Cathy has planned an incredible day for us - starting at 5:30 with a ride to Agra and then an exploration of the Taj. We will be having dinner overlooking the Taj Mahal and then do a sunrise walk to the incredible site. What a cool way to celebrate my 59th Bday and our 14th Anniversary.


Delhi is experiencing a reduction in pollution as a result of the mandatory use of natural gas on public transport vehicles, including buses, taxis and "auto" motorized rickshaws. The traffic in Delhi includes a constant musical set of horns - as these vehicles and cars/trucks weave, duck and "kiss" each other in a most unusual traffic pattern. It will interesting to see what happens when the TATA $2,000 car is introduced later this year. There are over 200,000 reservations for the first batch of $100,000 cars.


A visit to McDonalds was fasincating in a country that does not eat beef. Here is a picture of the Tikka Burger, which was made from Spicy Potatoes. It was interesting to see other variations of the McD's menu - including much spicier alternatives to ketchup. Impressive was the "recycle" bin for all packets not used.



We had a great afternoon at Accenture, meeting with their Learning Development Team - a widely talented group of instructional designers, graphic experts, implementation managers and other learning professionals. Working with their counterparts in Accenture offices in Texas and Illinois, they are producing a wide range of learning projects for Fortune 500 companies around the world. Once again, I was impressed with the depth of interest in next generation models of learning and development.