Monday, December 14, 2009

Leaving Chandigarh 12/10/09 Part 2

I attempted to inquiry without success what was happening to an all-Hindi workforce. I got that a catered dinner event was to take place tonight. Anu returned home shortly after me, to be as surprised as I, but with the advantage of having her inquiry answered completely. She discovered that Puneet could not secure an adequate venue to host twenty-or-so VIPs to commemorate his new post to an international business organization.

With the strained events of the day I missed lunch, wishing I had said, “yes” to Busanti’s request to pack me a lunch. Anu brought some food home and asked Busanti to prepare a quick meal. Anu whipped up a salad of chopped fruit and vegetables with lime juice, salt and pepper dressing. It was delicious. With the dinning area prepared for tonight’s event we chose not to disrupt the stage and eat in my room. We had a lovely chat about achieving harmony in ones life and the importance of taking care of oneself. She even expressed her concern if I could handle the journey I’ve embarked on, because my emotions indicated to her a frailty and lack of strength to continue. I assured her that I would be fine and that I’m a veteran of transforming fear into personal strength and courage. She presented me with two small metal statues that represent the Ying and Ying, which she too was gifted when setting out to return to India. Just after Puneet opened the door to say that guests were arriving that were asking for Anu. I said I’d just stay in the room and complete my preparations to leave. He would hear it, “No, you will come out enjoy the festivities too. You too are our guest and I want you to join the dinner.” Puneet’s demeanor was invitingly forceful, which was difficult to refuse. To honor their mostly Indian guests I thought it wise to dress in traditional Indian clothes of the Punjab state.

On my first official day in India, after returning from Nepal, I met Raj, a wonderful English-speaking tuk-tuk driver who took me to the India Gate, said that if I wore the traditional clothing of India I stand to be cheated and over-charged must less than if I only wore Western clothes. Doing this would give off the impression that I was a veteran and that I knew the customs of being a foreigner who has been in the country for a while. After checking in with my intuition I agreed to let him take me to a place that pre-made these garments, which he said, “the sales of these go to help disabled people in Delhi.” Now my intuition was saying, “get those clothes on quickly, it’s getting kind of deep!”.

I changed into the Punjabi I bought in Delhi, and emerged from my room. I didn’t know that the house could hold as many people. There was a mixture of mostly Indian entrepreneurs and business owners, some who had employees in the Finland, which explains why the Finish Embassy Director was in attendance. Gus, who’s here with his wife, is a handsome cleaned shaven young man with a shaved head that stands 6 feet tall. This profile causes his fair skin to stand out even more than mine. He wore a blue and white pinstriped with a white collar and a red tie with a deep navy blue blazer, which are the lightest and most cheerful colors in the room. All the other men from this region are in black, grey or brown with either off white (maybe due to the elements in the water that turns whites gray), even the women are were dark color, yet the richness of the fabric gives them a subtle shimmer over the men. Gus has completed one and half years of his three-year-post here in India. I am still naïve with only nine days under my belt, which is hardly enough to make any truly logical assessments, which made listening to Guus’ impressions of India stimulating and educational, especially when it comes to business matters. It was especially fascinating to witness an Indian business-owner plead his case with Guus regarding issues of taxation and lines of credit for an Indian owned company operating in Finland. The man was deeply concerned and maybe even a little bit annoyed about the doors he’s unable to open if the ownership of his company should become more than forty percent Indian owned. Interesting, is that this man laughed and smiled all through his passionate plea. I believe this is what Devdutt Pattanaik is addressing in his attempts to improve East and West business relations. I see how this behavior can bring about the opposite results, as I thought to myself, “He can’t be truly upset about this because he continues to laugh and smile,” as though it’s not really a problem to be solved but a topic of conversation, like the weather.

I asked Guus if he was familiar with TED.com or if he saw the India Devdutt Pattanaik_ talk about the business styles of the East and West and what can be done to bring more synergy between the two. Another Indian man in listening distance chimed in, happy he and I--this creature of everything opposite, shared something in common. At least that’s what his deeply relieved demeanor said to me. He expressed how much he liked it the presentations he’d seen on the site. Guus, to my surprised had no knowledge of TED.com. I promised Guus I would send him the link at the same time we were interrupted by our host in attempts to be sure all the power players had at least an introduction to one another.

I mingled a little and the varied conversations I had told me that Raj was right. These people thought I had been here for a long time. One Indian woman asked if I lived permanently Chandigarh! Another couple expressed their pleasure that I was wearing the garment correctly as “So many Westerners, just put it on not understanding how it is worn correctly.” I have to admit I was proud.

I was very near my room when I ended my last conversation and thought it was time to excuse myself to continue my efforts to ready myself for two long train trips. It was about 11:30 pm when I finished packing and eradicating items into three compact piles that will be left in my Panchkula-homebase. It was midnight when I started to feel my body drop off to sleep even with the very loud voices of those who still lingered just outside the bedroom door.

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