This photo shows (left to right) me with Jerry Buckley of Buckley Kolar LLP and Arihant Patni, CEO of Bodhi Global Services, and Ed Burke, President, Bodhi Global Services, during Arihant and Ed's visit to Washington DC on March 2, 2007.
Sunday, March 11, 2007
With Executives from Bodhi Global Services, Ltd. (a Mumbai & NY based LPO)
This photo shows (left to right) me with Jerry Buckley of Buckley Kolar LLP and Arihant Patni, CEO of Bodhi Global Services, and Ed Burke, President, Bodhi Global Services, during Arihant and Ed's visit to Washington DC on March 2, 2007.
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
DOs & DON’Ts FOR BUSINESS TRAVEL IN INDIA
I’m not an expert on India travel, but hope my thoughts might help others, I’ll list my do's and don'ts. These are based on my own experiences, and should be read with that in mind. I traveled to India in February 2007 for 16 days. I am a middle-aged American female lawyer, reasonably well-traveled, and in good health. I speak English plus some French and Spanish (neither of which were used on this trip). My air travel (roundtrip Washington DC) was in coach class on British Airways, and my in-country air travel was on Jet Airways (coach class). I stayed in 5-star hotels in Bangalore, Mumbai, Jaipur and Delhi. All hotels provided airport pickup and drop-off, and had in-house car-hire services, which I used (supplemented by taxis in Mumbai). All my business contacts and clients sent chauffered cars to pick me up and return me to my hotel, and when dining out, the drivers parked and waited for me. With these caveats and my background, in mind, here are my observations (but if you’ve been in India before, or if you are Indian, or speak Hindi or if you’re in India for a tourist adventure, rather than business, this list might not be appropriate for you…).
My Top 10 “Do” list:
1. Do take taxis or private cars (either from the hotel or those booked with reputable taxi companies) rather than walk in the cities, unless you know the area. On foot, you will likely be followed by auto-rickshaws, taxis and other vehicles, whose drivers honk incessantly to persuade you to accept a ride.
2. Do drink only bottled water that is provided by hotels and restaurants, and make sure the cap is sealed when the bottle is presented to you. Use this water for everything, including tooth-brushing. If you get a Coke or a soda, make sure it is served in a closed can and don’t take ice in it (or in any drink).
3. Do accept the exceptional Indian hospitality you will find everywhere. Your Indian hosts want your visit to be pleasant and successful and go out of their way to make sure it is. Put your skepticism aside – Indian hospitality is the real thing (and it’s wonderful).
4. Do bring along heaps of business and professional cards – everyone will ask for one and will offer you one. Even when you are meeting 10 people from the same company in the same room, you’ll be expected to give each person a card.
5. Do try and remember the names of the people you meet and address them by name – most of the Indian businesspeople I met used my first name (and expected me to use theirs) right away.
6. Do study up the companies you visit before you get there – they’re likely to make a big effort to prepare for your visit and it’s only reasonable for you to learn about them in advance.
7. Do take a day or two out of your schedule to see tourist sites or simply enjoy the city or town you’re in. Simply looking out a car window in India is more interesting than any movie you’ve ever seen if you haven’t been here before. Hire a guide if you’re especially interested in art or history – they’re knowledgeable and inexpensive and love to demonstrate their knowledge.
8. Do talk to strangers. I met interesting and friendly people in airports, on trains, in hotels, and even on the street. I never felt threatened or intimidated and everyone I met with a smile and a hello seemed eager to engage in conversation.
9. Do dress modestly if you are female and professionally (not in shorts, even when it’s hot) if you’re male. Indian ladies have a wonderful and colorful look with their loose bright sarees, but these garments are designed to cover a lot of the body. Form-fitting clothes on women just aren’t seen (except perhaps in Western-style nightclubs). In the cities, men don’t wear shorts, t-shirts, baseball caps, or sandals. Although the dress code is casual, it’s also modest and businesslike.
10. Do keep an open mind – you may be frustrated by the apparent contradictions you face everyday, but this is an ancient country with a complex history and there’s simply no way to figure out “what’s what” on a short business trip. So et go of any preconceived ideas about what a business trip should be, and accept that India is very different from Indiana.
And my Top 10 “Don’ts” are:
1. Don’t neglect to prepare for your India trip with more attention that you might give if traveling elsewhere. For example, Americans need a visa (and a documented business purpose to obtain a business visa valid for 6 months), and you’ll probably also need shots for hepatitis, typhoid fever, and perhaps tetanus, and pills for malaria, diarrhea and other potential illnesses. Bring along special foods you can’t live without (none of my 5-star hotels had a convenience store) and special toiletry items, plus loads of hand sanitizer. Don’t forget your camera and computer and all the cords, cables, converters, chargers and adapters you’ll need for plugging it in. Figure out how to get all your hand-carried items into a single (1) carry-on.
2. Don’t be late for meetings – although I was told that Indians are routinely about 30 minutes late for everything, I found all my Indian hosts to be not only punctual but often quite early.
3. Don’t over-schedule yourself. It takes 30-90 minutes to reach some offices from downtown city hotels because traffic is heavy and unpredictable. I would aim for one meeting a day rather than two if it’s possible, unless the second meeting is a dinner meeting or something late in the evening. By US standards, Indians eat dinner on the late side (8-9pm or later).
4. Don’t engage in public displays of affection (PDA) with members of the opposite sex. You often see men and boys holding hands or with their arms draped around each others’ shoulders, and you sometimes see women walking arm-in-arm, but rarely do men and women touch in public and I never saw any overt displays of affection between men and women, which I assume means PDA isn’t appropriate.
5. Don’t give money to begging women and children – they will approach you on the street or knock on the windows of cars you’re riding in. Distributing even a coin or two makes many more children materialize instantly. On the other hand, I often carried apples or candy bars with me and passed them out when asked (but once or twice, this led to fights between the recipient and other kids).
6. Don’t assume everyone eats meat and drinks alcohol. Many Indians are “veg” (eat only vegetarian foods) and others don’t drink. I never saw a restaurant with beef on the menu as Hindus revere the cow. Be careful what you order when eating with Indian people and be prepared to give up beefsteak and the burgers. Follow your host’s lead in this department.
7. Don’t make flashy displays of wealth or property – this is a poor country and foreigners stand out enough without flaunting themselves and their property.
8. Don’t insist on “self-help.” We Americans carry our own bags, make our own beds, drive our own cars, and are generally quite self-sufficient, but in India, you’ll be waited on, so relax and enjoy it. In the high-end hotels, waiters, concierges, travel desk attendants, butlers, housekeepers, and other service-providers are eager to do things for you – and that’s how they make a living. With more than a billion people, India needs ways to keep its people working. Business travelers contribute to much-needed employment.
9. Don’t dive in to business conversation immediately upon meeting your contacts. They’ll want to know something about you first, and you should ask about them. Many conversations with Indian professionals began with two simple words – “tell me” – which was an invitation for me to tell them something about myself and my intentions. Eventually you’ll get to the business part of your conversation, but take a little time upfront to get acquainted. It will make for a smoother business relationship if you do.
10. Don’t go off on your own or wander into unknown parts of the city by yourself; let someone know where you are all the time, and always carry a photocopy of your passport (not the original) on your person. There is a high price paid in the black market for foreigners’ passports and it would be easy for a novice traveler in India to be taken advantage of or end up in a dangerous situation because he/she misreads what appears to be a friendly overture.
My Top 10 “Do” list:
1. Do take taxis or private cars (either from the hotel or those booked with reputable taxi companies) rather than walk in the cities, unless you know the area. On foot, you will likely be followed by auto-rickshaws, taxis and other vehicles, whose drivers honk incessantly to persuade you to accept a ride.
2. Do drink only bottled water that is provided by hotels and restaurants, and make sure the cap is sealed when the bottle is presented to you. Use this water for everything, including tooth-brushing. If you get a Coke or a soda, make sure it is served in a closed can and don’t take ice in it (or in any drink).
3. Do accept the exceptional Indian hospitality you will find everywhere. Your Indian hosts want your visit to be pleasant and successful and go out of their way to make sure it is. Put your skepticism aside – Indian hospitality is the real thing (and it’s wonderful).
4. Do bring along heaps of business and professional cards – everyone will ask for one and will offer you one. Even when you are meeting 10 people from the same company in the same room, you’ll be expected to give each person a card.
5. Do try and remember the names of the people you meet and address them by name – most of the Indian businesspeople I met used my first name (and expected me to use theirs) right away.
6. Do study up the companies you visit before you get there – they’re likely to make a big effort to prepare for your visit and it’s only reasonable for you to learn about them in advance.
7. Do take a day or two out of your schedule to see tourist sites or simply enjoy the city or town you’re in. Simply looking out a car window in India is more interesting than any movie you’ve ever seen if you haven’t been here before. Hire a guide if you’re especially interested in art or history – they’re knowledgeable and inexpensive and love to demonstrate their knowledge.
8. Do talk to strangers. I met interesting and friendly people in airports, on trains, in hotels, and even on the street. I never felt threatened or intimidated and everyone I met with a smile and a hello seemed eager to engage in conversation.
9. Do dress modestly if you are female and professionally (not in shorts, even when it’s hot) if you’re male. Indian ladies have a wonderful and colorful look with their loose bright sarees, but these garments are designed to cover a lot of the body. Form-fitting clothes on women just aren’t seen (except perhaps in Western-style nightclubs). In the cities, men don’t wear shorts, t-shirts, baseball caps, or sandals. Although the dress code is casual, it’s also modest and businesslike.
10. Do keep an open mind – you may be frustrated by the apparent contradictions you face everyday, but this is an ancient country with a complex history and there’s simply no way to figure out “what’s what” on a short business trip. So et go of any preconceived ideas about what a business trip should be, and accept that India is very different from Indiana.
And my Top 10 “Don’ts” are:
1. Don’t neglect to prepare for your India trip with more attention that you might give if traveling elsewhere. For example, Americans need a visa (and a documented business purpose to obtain a business visa valid for 6 months), and you’ll probably also need shots for hepatitis, typhoid fever, and perhaps tetanus, and pills for malaria, diarrhea and other potential illnesses. Bring along special foods you can’t live without (none of my 5-star hotels had a convenience store) and special toiletry items, plus loads of hand sanitizer. Don’t forget your camera and computer and all the cords, cables, converters, chargers and adapters you’ll need for plugging it in. Figure out how to get all your hand-carried items into a single (1) carry-on.
2. Don’t be late for meetings – although I was told that Indians are routinely about 30 minutes late for everything, I found all my Indian hosts to be not only punctual but often quite early.
3. Don’t over-schedule yourself. It takes 30-90 minutes to reach some offices from downtown city hotels because traffic is heavy and unpredictable. I would aim for one meeting a day rather than two if it’s possible, unless the second meeting is a dinner meeting or something late in the evening. By US standards, Indians eat dinner on the late side (8-9pm or later).
4. Don’t engage in public displays of affection (PDA) with members of the opposite sex. You often see men and boys holding hands or with their arms draped around each others’ shoulders, and you sometimes see women walking arm-in-arm, but rarely do men and women touch in public and I never saw any overt displays of affection between men and women, which I assume means PDA isn’t appropriate.
5. Don’t give money to begging women and children – they will approach you on the street or knock on the windows of cars you’re riding in. Distributing even a coin or two makes many more children materialize instantly. On the other hand, I often carried apples or candy bars with me and passed them out when asked (but once or twice, this led to fights between the recipient and other kids).
6. Don’t assume everyone eats meat and drinks alcohol. Many Indians are “veg” (eat only vegetarian foods) and others don’t drink. I never saw a restaurant with beef on the menu as Hindus revere the cow. Be careful what you order when eating with Indian people and be prepared to give up beefsteak and the burgers. Follow your host’s lead in this department.
7. Don’t make flashy displays of wealth or property – this is a poor country and foreigners stand out enough without flaunting themselves and their property.
8. Don’t insist on “self-help.” We Americans carry our own bags, make our own beds, drive our own cars, and are generally quite self-sufficient, but in India, you’ll be waited on, so relax and enjoy it. In the high-end hotels, waiters, concierges, travel desk attendants, butlers, housekeepers, and other service-providers are eager to do things for you – and that’s how they make a living. With more than a billion people, India needs ways to keep its people working. Business travelers contribute to much-needed employment.
9. Don’t dive in to business conversation immediately upon meeting your contacts. They’ll want to know something about you first, and you should ask about them. Many conversations with Indian professionals began with two simple words – “tell me” – which was an invitation for me to tell them something about myself and my intentions. Eventually you’ll get to the business part of your conversation, but take a little time upfront to get acquainted. It will make for a smoother business relationship if you do.
10. Don’t go off on your own or wander into unknown parts of the city by yourself; let someone know where you are all the time, and always carry a photocopy of your passport (not the original) on your person. There is a high price paid in the black market for foreigners’ passports and it would be easy for a novice traveler in India to be taken advantage of or end up in a dangerous situation because he/she misreads what appears to be a friendly overture.
Monday, March 5, 2007
Sunday, March 4, 2007
Delhi Lifestyle & Departure (Feb. 25-26, 2007)
My last evening in Delhi was spent having dinner at the beautifully & luxurious home of an American executive for a multinational company. He and his family have been in India almost two years, and shared their wildly varied impressions. They’ve experienced the same warm Indian hospitality that makes India so special, but are bedeviled by power outages, massive traffic jams, and the general dirtiness of the city. Based on this man’s descriptions of restaurants he’s visited in connection with his work, I would hesitate to eat anything at all in India, whether in a 5-star hotel or elsewhere. Luckily, I was blissfully unaware of his perspective when I ate my way through Bangalore, Mumbai and Jaipur! (As mentioned earlier, it all caught up with me in Delhi.)
The middle and upper economic classes live well in Delhi – I was invited to two extremely luxurious homes, and spent a day with a mid-career (non-partner) lawyer about her lifestyle, including her reliance on household staff. With one child, this 35-year old married lawyer employs a household staff of three – including maid, cook and driver, and is presently thinking about adding a personal security guard to protect her young son. The home of the American executive mentioned above is protected by armed guards 24/7. Wages for a household employee such as a cook or nanny are as low as US $60 a month, and treatment of staff varies from one household to the next. For example, in a restaurant, my new lawyer-friend called my attention to a table where a young couple was sitting with their toddler and the toddler’s nanny. The couple and their child ordered and ate a meal, but the nanny was not given any food until the others had finished eating, at which point the mother took some uneaten cake from her own plate and handed it to the nanny.
My trip to India was everything I hoped it would be and more – exotic, eye-opening, and educational from both business and personal perspectives. The only black mark was the scene at the Delhi airport and the long trip back to Paris (via London) where I rested for a couple days before flying home. The throngs of people outside the Delhi airport were absolutely astonishing, probably because only ticketed passengers are allowed inside the terminal. This restriction doesn’t prevent family and friends from showing up at the airport -- it just means that all the non-travelers pack the sidewalks and walkways leading to the terminal entrance doors. Baggage trolleys, if used offensively, are mildly effective to clear a path. It took about 20 minutes to navigate the 20 yards from the taxi door to the terminal door. It’s a stressful 20 minutes, because you have to constantly protect yourself and your luggage trolley from being commandeered by the endless number of “porters” who are trying to make a few rupees by helping you navigate the sea of humanity.
Inside the terminal, the real mayhem begins. You line up for baggage scanning, although the term “line” doesn’t accurately describe the assembly of people, which is completely disorganized. I latched onto a Punjabi family returning home to the UK, and with multiple baggage trolleys as body armor, we pushed our way (about 10 yards) to the entrance to the baggage screeners in about 20 minutes. Baggage screening applies only to checked baggage – for hand carried baggage, you enter yet another screening area where men and women are segregated and their bags and bodies searched. Another 15 minutes of chaos. You can’t board the plane without the right “stamp” on your hand baggage, though.
The next step is to queue up at the ticket counter for a boarding pass. This is an exercise in insanity. After 30 minutes of total non-movement, an exasperated passenger raised a fuss that led to the removal from the line of four elderly women who were busy asking questions of the agent rather than obtaining boarding passes. Eventually I got a boarding pass and faced the last obstacle to departure, the immigration control area. On the way out of Delhi, this took only a few minutes, but my new Punjabi friends reported that it took 3 hours on the way in! Once in the boarding area, you’re adrift in a sea of people, with no shops or other amenities and toilet facilities that are unusable. My advice to anyone considering a business trip to India is to avoid the Delhi airport – even if you have to fly in and out of another city and commute to Delhi by car. (A first-class ticket – which I didn’t have -- helps avoid some of the lines in London and Heathrow, but doesn’t appear to make much difference in Delhi.) The Delhi airport authority should be ashamed to have this be the visitor's first, or last, impression of India. I recommend they go to Mumbai and see how an airport should be run.
London Heathrow is no picnic either. The new one-bag limit for this airport was very stressful for people carrying a laptop and handbag, as it had to be “one or the other” with no exceptions allowed. People with more than one bag were sent from the front of the screening line all the way back to the check-in counters to check the excess, and then they had to return to the screening lines. Luckily, I traveled with a backpack that held both laptop and my personal effects. Having gone through security hell in Delhi, I assumed I could just pass from one British Airways flight to another, but I was wrong. You have to begin the security checks all over again in London, and for the connection to Paris, I joined the back of a line of about 1,000 in-transit passengers. With no one to answer questions and a number of passengers anxious about their connections, the stress level was very high. The principal difference between the London and the Delhi airports was that the folks in Heathrow know how to form a line (and they do) and the bathrooms are functional. Eighteen hours after arriving at the airport in Delhi, I gratefully landed in Paris Charles de Gaulle.
The middle and upper economic classes live well in Delhi – I was invited to two extremely luxurious homes, and spent a day with a mid-career (non-partner) lawyer about her lifestyle, including her reliance on household staff. With one child, this 35-year old married lawyer employs a household staff of three – including maid, cook and driver, and is presently thinking about adding a personal security guard to protect her young son. The home of the American executive mentioned above is protected by armed guards 24/7. Wages for a household employee such as a cook or nanny are as low as US $60 a month, and treatment of staff varies from one household to the next. For example, in a restaurant, my new lawyer-friend called my attention to a table where a young couple was sitting with their toddler and the toddler’s nanny. The couple and their child ordered and ate a meal, but the nanny was not given any food until the others had finished eating, at which point the mother took some uneaten cake from her own plate and handed it to the nanny.
My trip to India was everything I hoped it would be and more – exotic, eye-opening, and educational from both business and personal perspectives. The only black mark was the scene at the Delhi airport and the long trip back to Paris (via London) where I rested for a couple days before flying home. The throngs of people outside the Delhi airport were absolutely astonishing, probably because only ticketed passengers are allowed inside the terminal. This restriction doesn’t prevent family and friends from showing up at the airport -- it just means that all the non-travelers pack the sidewalks and walkways leading to the terminal entrance doors. Baggage trolleys, if used offensively, are mildly effective to clear a path. It took about 20 minutes to navigate the 20 yards from the taxi door to the terminal door. It’s a stressful 20 minutes, because you have to constantly protect yourself and your luggage trolley from being commandeered by the endless number of “porters” who are trying to make a few rupees by helping you navigate the sea of humanity.
Inside the terminal, the real mayhem begins. You line up for baggage scanning, although the term “line” doesn’t accurately describe the assembly of people, which is completely disorganized. I latched onto a Punjabi family returning home to the UK, and with multiple baggage trolleys as body armor, we pushed our way (about 10 yards) to the entrance to the baggage screeners in about 20 minutes. Baggage screening applies only to checked baggage – for hand carried baggage, you enter yet another screening area where men and women are segregated and their bags and bodies searched. Another 15 minutes of chaos. You can’t board the plane without the right “stamp” on your hand baggage, though.
The next step is to queue up at the ticket counter for a boarding pass. This is an exercise in insanity. After 30 minutes of total non-movement, an exasperated passenger raised a fuss that led to the removal from the line of four elderly women who were busy asking questions of the agent rather than obtaining boarding passes. Eventually I got a boarding pass and faced the last obstacle to departure, the immigration control area. On the way out of Delhi, this took only a few minutes, but my new Punjabi friends reported that it took 3 hours on the way in! Once in the boarding area, you’re adrift in a sea of people, with no shops or other amenities and toilet facilities that are unusable. My advice to anyone considering a business trip to India is to avoid the Delhi airport – even if you have to fly in and out of another city and commute to Delhi by car. (A first-class ticket – which I didn’t have -- helps avoid some of the lines in London and Heathrow, but doesn’t appear to make much difference in Delhi.) The Delhi airport authority should be ashamed to have this be the visitor's first, or last, impression of India. I recommend they go to Mumbai and see how an airport should be run.
London Heathrow is no picnic either. The new one-bag limit for this airport was very stressful for people carrying a laptop and handbag, as it had to be “one or the other” with no exceptions allowed. People with more than one bag were sent from the front of the screening line all the way back to the check-in counters to check the excess, and then they had to return to the screening lines. Luckily, I traveled with a backpack that held both laptop and my personal effects. Having gone through security hell in Delhi, I assumed I could just pass from one British Airways flight to another, but I was wrong. You have to begin the security checks all over again in London, and for the connection to Paris, I joined the back of a line of about 1,000 in-transit passengers. With no one to answer questions and a number of passengers anxious about their connections, the stress level was very high. The principal difference between the London and the Delhi airports was that the folks in Heathrow know how to form a line (and they do) and the bathrooms are functional. Eighteen hours after arriving at the airport in Delhi, I gratefully landed in Paris Charles de Gaulle.
Saturday, March 3, 2007
Capital Traffic Woes and Delhi Shopping
In previous postings, I described the vehicles (and other things) on Indian roads, and Delhi surpasses my earlier destinations in terms of the variety on the roadways. On a highway from Gurgaon (a suburb of Delhi) to Delhi, a bicyclist traveled by holding onto the shoulder of a motorcyclist and was being towed in this manner at about 40 mph in the middle traffic lane. Even considering the camels, elephants and heavily-laden rickshaws on the roads, this topped my list for hazardous and shocking transportation methods. Incredibly, the bike/motorcycle duo was traveling at night, when lights were low…
The new part of the city (New Delhi) is a leafy area of luxury hotels, wide avenues, embassies, diplomats’ homes, parks, and government buildings. I ate lunch in the Bukhara Restaurant at the Sheraton Hotel, called the “best Indian restaurant in the world” by the British Airways in-flight magazine. (Apparently, Bill Clinton raved about it on a recent trip to India.) Apparently not everyone had read the review, because my guests, two Burmese residents of Delhi, and a young Indian from Tamil Nadu, pronounced the food “like any other Indian food.” At $150 for lunch for four (without drinks except one Coke and bottled water), it was by far my most expensive meal in India, but for nearly two weeks I have been treated by Indian businesspeople and lawyers for my meals, so I can’t complain. Inexplicably, the BA in-flight magazine article captioned “48 Hours in Delhi” recommended (in addition to Bukhara) that visitors sample the food cooked on the street – something every single Indian and non-Indian alike insisted one should not do! I guess this particular bit of advice did not pass by the BA magazine’s lawyers…
Old Delhi is an exotic visual treat – there is a red fort from the Mughal era, plus an enormous mosque open to the public and endless street markets chock-a-block with secondhand booksellers and clothes sellers. I love to shop, but I’m no match for Indian vendors (who range from children selling trinkets at tourist sites to stall-sellers and retail shopkeepers) in either persistence or patience. Eventually I gave in to the lure of the exotic handcrafts, and bought purses, silver jewelry, and necklaces of natural stones like agate and quartz, all reasonably priced, even at the “starting” prices quoted. If I asked for the prices of three items, the first price was always lower than the second, the second lower than the third. It occurred to me later that the escalating price quote method was a way of making sure you bought at least the first item, because it was the cheapest. Bargaining can go on all day and begins in earnest once you accept a cup of tea or a soda. My negotiating method was to deduct 20-30 % of the starting price and tell the seller firmly that my first price was also my last. It wasn’t usually my last, but most often, it was my second-to-last. This technique probably didn’t get me the best prices, but it did limit the time I spent negotiating. For serious shoppers, the “real” jewelry is astonishing – think huge south sea pearls, multicolored gems such as rubies, emeralds and sapphires, uncut diamonds and 22K gold! Handcrafted into traditional designs, it’s very glamorous indeed. I looked and I even tried on, but didn’t seriously consider buying the pieces that appeared designed for a maharani or an empress.
Incidentally, once you buy something, the real sales pitch starts. The vendors apparently work on the theory that it’s easier to make multiples sales to an existing customer than to convert a mere browser into a customer. American financial services providers could take a useful page from this particular playbook.
The new part of the city (New Delhi) is a leafy area of luxury hotels, wide avenues, embassies, diplomats’ homes, parks, and government buildings. I ate lunch in the Bukhara Restaurant at the Sheraton Hotel, called the “best Indian restaurant in the world” by the British Airways in-flight magazine. (Apparently, Bill Clinton raved about it on a recent trip to India.) Apparently not everyone had read the review, because my guests, two Burmese residents of Delhi, and a young Indian from Tamil Nadu, pronounced the food “like any other Indian food.” At $150 for lunch for four (without drinks except one Coke and bottled water), it was by far my most expensive meal in India, but for nearly two weeks I have been treated by Indian businesspeople and lawyers for my meals, so I can’t complain. Inexplicably, the BA in-flight magazine article captioned “48 Hours in Delhi” recommended (in addition to Bukhara) that visitors sample the food cooked on the street – something every single Indian and non-Indian alike insisted one should not do! I guess this particular bit of advice did not pass by the BA magazine’s lawyers…
Old Delhi is an exotic visual treat – there is a red fort from the Mughal era, plus an enormous mosque open to the public and endless street markets chock-a-block with secondhand booksellers and clothes sellers. I love to shop, but I’m no match for Indian vendors (who range from children selling trinkets at tourist sites to stall-sellers and retail shopkeepers) in either persistence or patience. Eventually I gave in to the lure of the exotic handcrafts, and bought purses, silver jewelry, and necklaces of natural stones like agate and quartz, all reasonably priced, even at the “starting” prices quoted. If I asked for the prices of three items, the first price was always lower than the second, the second lower than the third. It occurred to me later that the escalating price quote method was a way of making sure you bought at least the first item, because it was the cheapest. Bargaining can go on all day and begins in earnest once you accept a cup of tea or a soda. My negotiating method was to deduct 20-30 % of the starting price and tell the seller firmly that my first price was also my last. It wasn’t usually my last, but most often, it was my second-to-last. This technique probably didn’t get me the best prices, but it did limit the time I spent negotiating. For serious shoppers, the “real” jewelry is astonishing – think huge south sea pearls, multicolored gems such as rubies, emeralds and sapphires, uncut diamonds and 22K gold! Handcrafted into traditional designs, it’s very glamorous indeed. I looked and I even tried on, but didn’t seriously consider buying the pieces that appeared designed for a maharani or an empress.
Incidentally, once you buy something, the real sales pitch starts. The vendors apparently work on the theory that it’s easier to make multiples sales to an existing customer than to convert a mere browser into a customer. American financial services providers could take a useful page from this particular playbook.
Friday, March 2, 2007
Delhi Belly
I succumbed to “Delhi belly” within 24 hours of arrival in this city. Fortunately, I’d brought a prescription for this anticipated condition from home, although it didn’t take effect as fast as I’d hoped. No more need be said on the subject, but visitors to India should prepare in advance for the possibility of gastric distress.
Fellow lawyers welcomed me warmly to Delhi, with one prominent name partner of an Indian multi-office firm hosting me at dinner in his (palatial) home and another offering a lovely lunch with good conversation at a fine restaurant. The clientele of these successful lawyers is principally American and multinational corporations, rather than Indian businesses. Unlike American law firms, Indian firms also operate affiliated businesses in areas ranging from legal process outsourcing (LPO) to consulting/risk management, and security, audits and investigations. As long as the two entities are legally distinct, Indian law allows this multi-line approach to professional services.
American lawyers should note the responsiveness of our Indian counterparts. Client calls are returned almost instantly, if not answered on the spot, and every lawyer I met carried both a mobile phone and blackberry. Indian lawyers in Delhi firms work Saturdays or alternate Saturdays, and text messages are acknowledged on receipt. The Indian press reports that there are 600 million cell phones in use in India, and it seems that about 500 million of them are in use at one time!
Prompt responsiveness is not confined to lawyers, either. In the 5-star hotels, requests are dispatched immediately. For example, reading a newspaper in the breakfast room in Delhi’s Taj Mahal Hotel, I asked a waiter the meaning of the word “recce” in a business news headline. He confessed not knowing, but five minutes later returned with an opened dictionary, where I learned it means “reconnaissance” (as in a reconnaissance mission). The headline concerned an executive from WalMart on recce with an executive from the Indian company Bharti, as the two companies plan a retail joint venture in India. I loved reading Indian newspapers and picked up new words daily – my favorite was “millihelens,” which represents a unit of beauty for a female. (A woman with a high millihelen level has a face pretty enough to launch ships, like Helen of Troy.) I’ve never experienced faster response times from room service or housekeeping in any other country – a request for additional clothes hangars was answered in less than a minute, and in each hotel, the in-house technology staff provided internet connectivity assistance in 5 minutes or less.
A Delhi BPO firm was less impressive than its Mumbai and Bangalore counterparts. The company office was a microcosm of the crowded city streets, with job applicants jamming the reception area, workers wandering around the hallways, overcrowded elevators, and a chaotic scene in the break/snack room. Senior managers referred to the company’s employees in unflattering terms, suggesting they are unmotivated and disloyal, meaning they will job-hop for a few thousand rupees in monthly salary. A Q&A session with the supervisors of the operations staff impressed me, however –they were well-versed on various aspects of US financial services programs, and we had a lively and wide-ranging discussion of the effects of interest deductibility on Americans’ willingness to assume mortgages, and about the characteristics of different types of mortgage securities. The BPO firm collects delinquent mortgage payments and the supervisors asked about the legal distinction between personal service of foreclosure notices and service by publication. I fielded questions about penalties for failure to give mortgage disclosure notices timely, and if the 3-hour visit hadn’t ended, I would have been asked for a briefing on privacy requirements under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. Without doubt, the BPO firms are eager to pick up as much information as they can, as quickly as they can.
Fellow lawyers welcomed me warmly to Delhi, with one prominent name partner of an Indian multi-office firm hosting me at dinner in his (palatial) home and another offering a lovely lunch with good conversation at a fine restaurant. The clientele of these successful lawyers is principally American and multinational corporations, rather than Indian businesses. Unlike American law firms, Indian firms also operate affiliated businesses in areas ranging from legal process outsourcing (LPO) to consulting/risk management, and security, audits and investigations. As long as the two entities are legally distinct, Indian law allows this multi-line approach to professional services.
American lawyers should note the responsiveness of our Indian counterparts. Client calls are returned almost instantly, if not answered on the spot, and every lawyer I met carried both a mobile phone and blackberry. Indian lawyers in Delhi firms work Saturdays or alternate Saturdays, and text messages are acknowledged on receipt. The Indian press reports that there are 600 million cell phones in use in India, and it seems that about 500 million of them are in use at one time!
Prompt responsiveness is not confined to lawyers, either. In the 5-star hotels, requests are dispatched immediately. For example, reading a newspaper in the breakfast room in Delhi’s Taj Mahal Hotel, I asked a waiter the meaning of the word “recce” in a business news headline. He confessed not knowing, but five minutes later returned with an opened dictionary, where I learned it means “reconnaissance” (as in a reconnaissance mission). The headline concerned an executive from WalMart on recce with an executive from the Indian company Bharti, as the two companies plan a retail joint venture in India. I loved reading Indian newspapers and picked up new words daily – my favorite was “millihelens,” which represents a unit of beauty for a female. (A woman with a high millihelen level has a face pretty enough to launch ships, like Helen of Troy.) I’ve never experienced faster response times from room service or housekeeping in any other country – a request for additional clothes hangars was answered in less than a minute, and in each hotel, the in-house technology staff provided internet connectivity assistance in 5 minutes or less.
A Delhi BPO firm was less impressive than its Mumbai and Bangalore counterparts. The company office was a microcosm of the crowded city streets, with job applicants jamming the reception area, workers wandering around the hallways, overcrowded elevators, and a chaotic scene in the break/snack room. Senior managers referred to the company’s employees in unflattering terms, suggesting they are unmotivated and disloyal, meaning they will job-hop for a few thousand rupees in monthly salary. A Q&A session with the supervisors of the operations staff impressed me, however –they were well-versed on various aspects of US financial services programs, and we had a lively and wide-ranging discussion of the effects of interest deductibility on Americans’ willingness to assume mortgages, and about the characteristics of different types of mortgage securities. The BPO firm collects delinquent mortgage payments and the supervisors asked about the legal distinction between personal service of foreclosure notices and service by publication. I fielded questions about penalties for failure to give mortgage disclosure notices timely, and if the 3-hour visit hadn’t ended, I would have been asked for a briefing on privacy requirements under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. Without doubt, the BPO firms are eager to pick up as much information as they can, as quickly as they can.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)