Three years and still like that only

In the following guest blog, Collette Weston, Deputy Head – UK Trade and Investment (Western India), bids a fond farewell to her Mumbai team, Mumbai and India.

I got caught in a traffic jam on my way home from work the other day. I am sure most of the other bloggers on the FCO platform could say the same. But not many would have been caught behind a human pyramid six people high (about seven metres) trying to reach a clay pot hanging above a busy crossroads! That may be a uniquely Indian traffic jam.

I arrived in India three years ago. On my first trip into Mumbai transferring from the airport I was stuck in similar traffic jams – following open trucks filled with men and boys of all ages in matching t-shirts as they returned triumphant from smashing pots of their own. Some were victoriously holding their spoils aloft, others merrily drowning their sorrows.

There is a reason for the pyramids – it is to celebrate the festival of Janmashtami, the birthday of the Hindu god Lord Krishna. The celebrations here take the form of Dahi-handi, these human pyramids climbing high to smash clay pots filled with yogurt, one of Lord Krishna’s favourite foods. The pyramid at the end of my road was just a small one – some go nearly twice as high with much larger teams.

I am coming to the end of my posting here in Mumbai – I have spent three years working as the Deputy Head of the UK Trade and Investment team here in Mumbai, and Peter has kindly agreed to let me hijack his blog.

I had been wondering how to encapsulate my three years in India and as I watched from the autorickshaw I was trying to get home in, it occurred to me that this told me everything about my time in Mumbai. The pyramid was precarious to say the least, but somehow remained solid. It obviously required immense organisation, but to an outsider it looked like utter chaos. Concerns about health & safety appeared absent (the small 5 year old child who topped the pyramid looked equal parts terrified and exhilarated) but amazingly no-one was hurt and the mission was accomplished.

This is how I have found India.

I too have been working with a fantastic team across the UKTI India network – I can say with my hand on my heart that I have never worked with such a knowledgeable and committed team, especially in Mumbai. We work with UK companies to try and help them enter the Indian market – more than 6500 over the last three years.

A huge part of this is explaining the complex and unique nature of the Indian market – like trying to explain the festivities yesterday. Getting across the scale of India, with more voters than the whole of the EU and North America combined at the last election, is part of the challenge. The UK companies we assist are themselves from a hugely diverse and vibrant base from a business training sniffer dogs to a wig and hairpiece manufacturer to an advanced medical and pharmaceutical equipment manufacturer. We still make things in the UK, contrary to what some may think, and we are selling more and more of them overseas, including India.

We also work with Indian companies looking to set up or expand in the UK. For them we need to explain an entirely different set of issues – where are the main clusters for their business, how much will office space cost, how far is it from city to city, does the UK have the skilled workers they need.  Our team has helped more than 150 companies establish or expand and create more than 3500 new jobs in the UK in the last three years. No mean feat given that this was in the midst of the economic slowdown. The UK remains a prime destination for Indian companies looking to go global – of the 1200 Indian companies with presences in the EU, more than 700 are in the UK alone.

I cannot look back over my time in Mumbai without mention of the terrorist attacks of 26th November 2008 which took place only months after I had arrived here. It was in many ways a baptism of fire but the whole BDHC – like all of Mumbai – pulled together. The spirit of this amazing city did not falter, and the terrorists did not win.  Mumbai bounced back with a blitz-like spirit that I was proud to be part of.

So as I come to the end of my three years – what have I learned? 

I don’t claim to understand what urges people onto the pyramids – you would never catch me at the top or even the bottom of one of them. They terrify me to watch and my British side screams that it is too dangerous and scary for those perilously perched at the top.

Maybe I will never totally “get it”.  I attended a talk with the British Business Group in Mumbai by a leading marketing expert, Rama Bijapurkar. Her book is called “We Are Like That Only” and posits that India is unique and trying to shoehorn in Western ideas, in this instance marketing strategies, will not work. I couldn’t agree more.  India – she is like that only.

I have learned that I have only scratched the surface of India. India is in my blood now – I will surely be back and maybe she will let me understand her a little more.