Friday 2nd July - We went to a party with our new friends from Cameroon, Nelson and Stephane. Nelson is an aspiring actor and model and Stephane works for Tata, India's biggest conglomerate. Tata are crazy, about 30% of the vehicles are made by them, as well as owning a satellite TV network, mobile phone network, hotels, bottled water and there's even Tata Ceramics! A company could never become such a huge entity in the West, but in India several big companies seem to dominate all the markets.

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, Bangalore , India

Wow, I've been so lazy this week. Well, it could be due to my tiredness... I've been watching the football until 2am every night, and have been up for work at 8 – it could have something to do with it. I have helped re-organise the financial statements this week, and I spent the whole of Wednesday and Thursday answering questions for the company on their background and goals.

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, Bangalore , India

On Sunday I went with some friends to a crafts fair in Bangalore. There was four of us, and one of the girls we were with managed to find us a driver. His van looked ancient, and I sat in the front passenger seat, where I had to lean forward as the recline mechanism on my seat was broken, so if I leant back I'd crush Maceik! (who was sat behind me) This really made me think about the standards of not just transport in India, but everything, and how in the west we really fail to appreicate the flash new cars we can afford and the expectations we have of transport services.

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, Bangalore , India

Day two at my placement and Karen was under pressure for the big meeting, but still maintaining her calm demeanour and cheery outlook. I got straight down to work, re-reading the notes I had made from the day before and discussing my findings with Karen. She was pleased with what I had achieved so far, and shortly after this meeting I cracked on with my work.

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, Bangalore , India

Hi! So I've reached Friday, the end of my first week. The last few days have been hectic and I've really been making the most of my time here in Incredible India! To continue from my last blog, after leaving Hema's house we met up with Vipul for a night on the town.

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, Bangalore , India

Wow! That kind of sums up my feelings towards Bangalore and everything I have been exposed to so far! I arrived at Manchester Airport on Monday at about 12.15pm, the other guys were already in the check in queue. I had neither met nor seen the faces of the other volunteers from Leeds Met so far, so I was a bit apprehensive that I might waste time trying to search Terminal 1 for them! Luckily for me, they had my passport, and spotted me from the queue.

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, Bangalore , India