The Other India

It was quite a week through India with a client team. Modern campuses of several Indian and Western outsourcing vendors. Spanking new planes of Jet and Kingfisher, two of India’s new generation carriers.  Shiny Toyota Innova minivans. A fusion meal at the Leela in Bangalore. 

The trip was punctuated by having Sunita Williams , the NASA astronaut on my flight back to the US. She had delighted India during her 2 week visit here. She graciously wrote and signed a note to my chess playing daughter Rita: “Chess will challenge your mind to great heights”.

All symbols of the the new, global India. So it was a nice change of pace to catch a meal in the old India- at the Leopold Cafe in Mumbai. 126 years old! Run by descendants of Persians who migrated to India starting in the 7th century.   

But the visit to the Leopold brought the biggest gift of all. Someone introduced me to Shantaram. The book starts off at the Leopold, and takes the author Gregory David Roberts, a fugitive from Australia into the slums of Bombay, to a farm, to a leper colony, to Bollywood and more (and later to the war in Afghanistan). The 900 pages will be put to film next year with Johnny Depp as the main character.

The book is set in the 80s, but the locations and characters are timeless. And not stuff visitors typically get to explore. And topics the modern India would rather not discuss. It is a book about survival – and the pursuit of happiness - at the bottom of the pyramid. It’s set in India. But it could as well be set in China. In Africa. In the immigrant slums in Paris. In the ghettos of many US cities. What's unique of course, is the varied Hindu, Muslim, Christian and other philosophical perspectives the author liberally sprinkles on the pages – unique to India’s liberal multi-culturalism.

 On a flight during the week, I also read an article on Malgudi - a fictional town in S. India set in the 1930s. More of timeless India.

In the razzle dazzle of India's technology success, it is easy to forget that TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Satyam and other tigers still only make up 5% of India's GDP.

Comments

[Krishna]

Yup...rare unbiased observation.

But have you noticed Vinnie, that dichotomy suits many. They pick on the 95%, when they want to tell off India. If they want to set up shop and poach some heads, well, it's the 5% that matters. Funny, ain't it?

[anonymous]

Cold monday morning here and you had to remind us of Leopold.

I miss Mumbai.

[vinnie mirchandani]

Dear Anonymous: I do not typically allow anon comments on my blog...but if you were doing interesting things in India like Shantaram was, I will protect your privacy -)

Not sure when you were there last, but Mumbai is chaotic as ever. Someone did tell me with business moving to the suburbs, the traffic in South Bombay and Colaba is actually more manageable now than 5 years ago...

[Karl Waldman]

I read Shantaram a few years back - what a great book. He describes many of the places I've been in Mumbai and even more of the the places I have thankfully not been! Fascinating book and city.

[vinnie mirchandani]

Krishna, most outsiders (professionals and execs anyways) have such a basic understanding of the 95%...and in fact think it holds back the 5% they do come to India to do business with. The book is an unbelievably symptahtic portrayal of parts of that 95%. The westernized Indian is quick to criticize US policies and Bush but does not like to be asked about the 95%. But I would suggest they have as little exposure to that 95% as the average visitor. The more everyone understands about that 95% - Indians and outsiders - the better. It is a mountain of raw talent with plenty of ambition. Or it is a time bomb. Either way cannot be ignored.