India: Day Nine

We started our day with a visit to India's largest vocational training provider for the apparel sector, Apparel Training & Design Centre (ATDC).  We heard from professors and students and had the opportunity to look at their facilities.  It was great to meet other students our age and exchange knowledge and experiences.

We met a particularly charismatic young woman who wants to become a merchandiser.  She eagerly told us about her work experience and the variety of her classes.  It was very cool to answer questions she had about the fashion industry and in reference to our career paths.

We ate lunch at ATDC and then traveled to Textport Overseas, a company that manufactures and finishes garments for brands such as Gap, American Eagle, Loft, Old Navy, and Banana Republic.

It was exciting to see how the products were distressed or otherwise finished, and especially interesting because the tags were brands we knew!  I also want to mention that personal protective equipment was widely used in this factory, and emergency plans and signs were clear and informative.  Things weren't perfect, but it definitely seemed much better than other places we visited.

Our next visit of the day was to Savanth Dyes, a company that does heatseal transfers.  It was interesting to see such a specific operation that so often gets overlooked.  They make the logo that's on your shoe's insole, or the raised lettering on your shirt.

It was a small and cramped space, and the workers were not wearing masks, which was an obvious piece of protective wear based on the powder adhesive that coated the floor and was floating in the air.

To finish our visits for the day, we stopped by the ISKCON Temple in Bangalore, which is a prayer house of the Hare Krishna movement.

We weren't allowed to take photos inside the temple, but it was beautiful and very lavish.  I enjoyed learning about the significance of food in the religion, as you could buy fruit and offer it to Krishna, and it was blessed and then returned to you (so that you could eat the blessing).  There were plenty of places while making your way to the temple's exit where you could buy blessed foods and sweets and you were even handed a small bowl of food before you left.

We returned to our hotel and a few of us decided to venture to the Hard Rock Cafe next door for some much needed American food.  We ended the night with another visit to Commercial Street to do some shopping.