Faces Of The New India

“Ring around the Rosie, pocket full of posies, asha, pusha, all fall down….”

Apparently, this is the Indian version of the nursery rhyme. The teenage daughter next door led her younger siblings in this chant repeatedly for two days.

When they weren’t into Ring Around the Rosie, the seven year-old blasted Old McDonald at the top of her tone-deaf little lungs. Old McDonald had lots of ducks and nothing else – much like the duck herders on the backwaters. Six of them stayed in the bungalow next to ours, although we don’t quite know how. Emily wanted to kill the Old McDonald girl.

Little Old McDonald was a member of the most unpleasant Indian family who passed through Keraleeyam in our almost three weeks here. There has been no shortage of Indian guests – largely from Delhi and Mumbai – all of whom have been better than the girl with the lungs of steel.

The wealth we saw in Mumbai has continued to manifest itself here. Houseboats – including the largest, double-decker, seven-bedroom ones – go by with large Indian families. Many of those families stay at Keraleeyam on their way to and from house boating – which makes them typically one-night guests, although a few have stuck around longer.

With a couple of exceptions, we have noticed that the Indian guests are usually the most demanding on the staff – asking for many special considerations and services. Some speak down to the very educated and intelligent Keraleeyam staff members, who seem to just expect that Northern Indians are like that. We haven’t seen an outright “snap, snap” like we did in Mumbai – it’s more of an inferred, verbal, virtual-snap.

Most of the time, they come with tons of bags which they have staff members carry for them. Because they don’t speak Malayalam and most people here don’t speak Hindi, conversations between Indian guests and the staff are always in English. Several of the families have also used English with each other.

One of these English speaking groups was also one of the most pompous of the upper-class families. I was sitting at a table in the dining room in the afternoon working when I saw the husband and wife who were having tea looking at my iPad. My iPad is the ultimate conversation starter – particularly when I’m using the keyboard docking station. Something about the keyboard changes how people see the iPad – often sparking them to think of it as a more viable option for them. So, they inquire.

This couple didn’t go as far as to say anything to me, they just stared and pointed blatantly. I took out my earphones, and said, “This?” They nodded so, I did the classic Price Is Right modeling of the iPad, turning it landscape and portrait, showing how the screen changed.

Then the woman did something I’ve never experienced before. She called loudly to her perhaps ten year-old daughter outside to come in and look at the iPad. When the girl came in, the woman told her daughter to go over to me and look at my iPad. Neither the girl nor I were asked if we wanted to engage in this activity and the girl looked a little frightened to be walking over to some big, white guy to look at a device about which she could really care less. We shared an awkward moment of me showing her the iPad briefly, and her timidly looking before she dashed, and I went back to work.

Then there have been Indian guests who have been interesting and enlightening. One Mumbai couple and their young daughter stayed a week. We didn’t really interact until the day before they left when of course, the husband came up to ask me about my iPad. They turned out to be fascinating people. Both had worked in Silicon Valley for eight years and became US citizens. Their daughter was born in California, and is also an American citizen. As a family, they only speak English.

Two years ago, the husband who worked for Sun Microsystems decided to use their savings and his expertise to launch an IT company in Mumbai while his wife does IT consulting for major companies around India and internationally. She still flies to the US and regionally to places like Singapore and Malaysia. They can be employees with nice incomes in California or pioneer their own businesses in their native country. They chose the latter.

The husband also likes to study leadership and is particularly fascinated with Israel and Singapore – two countries which created tremendous amounts out of nothing. He particularly loves Israel. We had lengthy and interesting discussions.

There was also a family from Delhi where both parents held high positions in a major Indian bank. They have been transferred around India and internationally. They recently moved to Mumbai, but have lived in several spots in Europe, Asia and nearly every major Indian city. I asked the wife if they had any idea how long they would be in Mumbai. “We leave whenever they say – it could be anytime.”

Despite moving – with their young children – at their employer’s whim, the woman feels her experiences have been fantastic. She has a job she enjoys and has experienced a rich and fulfilling life of diverse cultural experiences and understanding. She was overjoyed to walk around the resort introducing herself to foreigners and learning about them.

Currently, there’s a young couple from Delhi in their late 20’s here celebrating their fourth wedding anniversary. They met in college and seem to be a “love marriage” as opposed to the traditional arranged marriage – and they somehow got their parents’ consent. This seems to be a trend in the big cities.

This upper-class couple speaks educated, clear, beautiful English, has their own car, and is well-traveled. The husband – who sports long, wavy hair and clothes that make him look he lives in Malibu – founded his architecture firm of several people. When his wife graduated as an architect (he was a few classes ahead of her), he of course hired her and now she’s “the boss”.

They gave us advice for stay in Delhi at the end of the month as well as insight into Indians becoming concerned with dieting, weight and diabetes. Apparently, there’s a movement toward “healthy food” and “healthy eating” that involves salads and fresh vegetables. But I had to wonder to which portion of the population that applies. I’m guessing not the people we handed our nightly leftovers to in Mumbai or the people in villages here who sometimes eat cheap grains and taro so they can sell their rice as a cash crop.

The Indian clientele at Keraleeyam and the passing houseboats may represent only a particular class and segment of society – but it’s an important and valid one nonetheless. These are the faces of the “new India” the papers and TV here like to talk about and which we discuss increasingly in our business and economic discourse in America. Indians who are tourists in their own country, own professional businesses, travel the world, work abroad, and are educated and aware – they are growing in numbers.

The people here may occasionally be demanding, but always optimistic about India’s future and outlook. I have yet to hear one person who doesn’t praise Prime Minister Singh up and down. The people in the know feel India is on the rise and has the educational infrastructure, population, resources and creativity to make real progress. Many feel they can outpace China because India puts far more into their human resources – developing educated professionals who can think and have ideas. Many of the people we see are entrepreneurs and people who have earned their success.

Of course, all of that doesn’t make the life of our favorite resort manager George, any easier. We see his frustration. We see the absurd demands many of the Indian tourists make and we’ve seen George have to respond frequently with his most patient, “Sir….” and “Madame….” as he explains in the nicest way possible that the universe does not revolve around them.

With George

With Abby and Nancy from LA and NY (yesterday’s post)

Sent from my iPad