Hyderabad and Chennai

My brilliant and entrepreneurial friend Angel, the CEO and founder of an executive search firm, was onto the outsourcing trend before it became a matter of course for North American businesses. He runs his business from his Toronto HQ office and his India office is in Baroda (Gujarat).

Some years back, Angel read an article written by Ravi* (or Sam, to his North American clients) who was working as a journalist at the time in an Indian newspaper and was so impressed, he contacted the paper and had it put him in touch with Ravi. After a lengthy conversation, Angel was impressed enough to offer Ravi – with no previous business marketing experience - the position of the head of the marketing department in India. For a few years, Ravi, from Hyderabad, worked for Angel’s firm, under the direction of my friend Krista, in Winnipeg. They communicated and ran a 20 plus employee marketing department through MSN messenger, Skype, and email.
A few years ago, Ravi left Angel’s firm, though he remained in touch with Krista (who kindly put me in touch with this lovely family) Ravi’s wife, Radha, now works part-time for Krista’s cousin who runs a business out of Newfoundland of “virtual assistants” – where Canadian businesses use employees in India, like Radha, to perform routine administrative functions at way-less-than-Canadian hourly rates.

When Ravi and Radha were first married, they moved into a small one-room apartment. They now live in a comfortable two-bedroom (plus office, kitchen, living room) apartment in a friendly and quiet neighborhood with their adorable 8-year old son, Babalu. Though they received pressure from friends and family to further expand their family, they made the decision to maintain their happy and small threesome and to, in Radha’s words, “give their son a good life.” And a good life he has – filled with lots of love and attention from his doting parents and family, video games and trips to the Imax (game station) and to Necklace Road, digital TV, and a top-notch education at a Christian private school (though the family is practicing Hindu).

Radha and Ravi are wonderful parents and have an unfathomably loving relationship. Theirs is a “love marriage” (as opposed to arranged) and they took time to show me photos of their wedding and tell me stories about their courtship 10 years ago (the two were classmates from third standard). Radha’s younger sister - a lovely and bubbly 30-year old businesswoman with a Master’s degree - on the other hand, has agreed to an arranged marriage. The engagement party is to take place in February. While the two have spoken on the phone, they have never interacted in person or discussed any serious topics. Last night Ravi and Radha were trying to convince her that it would be a good idea to meet her future husband in person before the engagement to discuss their mutual expectations and to make sure her fiancée has no deal breaker traits (like habitual drinking). She was quite resistant to the idea and moreover seemed to be resigned to whatever her future married life would hold for her. She told me she had never really wanted marriage for herself but that Radha convinced her that marriage and children are an inevitable part of life and so it was simply what she had to do.

Radha’s sister, brother, and mother live in the apartment just across they way and the families breeze in and out of one another’s apartments all morning and evening, as do a parade of cute kids who live in the same apartment block who come looking for Babalu to play.

Though Ravi and Radha feel that their lives have improved in step with the expanding Indian economy (currently growing at an astounding rate of 7% per year), their lives are by no means worry-free. Ravi is currently employed with the IT firm Satyam (which translates to “truth”). About a month ago, irregularities in the financial statements of this top Indian firm were noticed and from that time onward, a far-reaching and unprecedented fraud became unraveled. The head of Satyam had cooked the books for the last 7 or 8 years. Now seen as India’s own Enron, there is uncertainty about the future of the firm (the Government has stepped in, disbanded the old board and created a new Board to try to see what can be done to salvage the firm) and of the 50,000 employees at Satyam. Though Ravi and the very supportive Radha, are keeping a positive outlook – during my 4-day stay with the family, the television was set to the non-stop commentary, press conferences, and breaking news stories about this firm.

Also of concern to the family is the economic situation in the United States and some indications from Obama that the US may begin to take a more protectionist approach to its own economy- imposing tariffs on corporations that could obliterate the financial advantage of outsourcing to India (note: I have no idea whether or not this is likely or even possible).

Ravi also cautioned that the news about India’s massive growth is somewhat misleading. According to him, while the top 30% stratum of society has prospered with the gains in the economy, the lower 70%, which lives below the poverty line, has not seen any real substantial benefit from India’s growing prosperity. When I asked them what was the biggest challenge to improving the lives of the majority of Indian citizens – they both readily agreed that it was government corruption and the problem of illiteracy.

While poverty is on plain view everywhere in India, I have, by all accounts, been maintaining a comfortable budget/mid-range touristy distance from the gritty 70% reality. I did get a small glimpse into some of the work others are doing to aid the disadvantaged when I visited my friend Babu’s charity in Hyderabad. I met Babu and his wife, Padmini, during my work on the Air India Inquiry. Babu and Padmini lost both their sons when Air India Flight 182 was bombed in 1985. Babu started a trust fund in honour of his sons 1988 and has used that money since that time to further charitable causes in India. When he retired from his chartered accountancy practice in Toronto a few years back, he bought a home in Hyderabad and now spends 6 months of the year in India supervising the trust and helping at the charities that he supports. When I told Babu last year that I was planning to visit India, he told me about his charities and said that I should visit him if I came to Hyderabad. When he learned I was coming to Hyderabad he offered to arrange for me to visit one of the schools he supports for special needs children. He met me, along with his friend Rani, apparently a famous author in the area and fellow supporter of the charity, and we drove together to the school. They greeted me with embarrassing delight – presenting me with a garland and bouquet of flowers. A few of the students came up to me and said “Namaste Nadine” over and over again. They brought me into the tiny school house – the size of a tiny bachelor apartment that houses all 40 special needs students (and about 6 teachers). The couple that runs the school is a remarkably selfless couple that double (triple? Quadruple?) as physiotherapists, teachers, administrators, outreach coordinators, etc etc. The children come from nearby slums and but for the school, would be totally neglected by society. The teachers try to teach the children the skills to take the most basic care of themselves (hygiene etc) and then try to teach then skills so that they can eventually work selling items they make or helping out in stores, for example. The kids were very sweet – one sang me a song and another did a (very good) Michael Jackson dance impression for me. There is lots more to be said about this experience, but I’ll save it for another time.

I’ve not written much about what I actually did in Hyderabad. I really had a fantastic time and saw a few tourist sights – including Ramoji Film City which is the world’s largest film park (complete with fake Rajistan, fake Taj Mahal, fake airport, train station, bus station, church, London, Japanese garden and on and on…) It was 50% spectacular and 50% ultra lame. The amazing part was the gardens and structures and the lame part was the wannabe Universal Studios Theme Park part – which involved a ride that was like something out of a Simpson’s parody (picture a train ride past numerous rooms of creepy and unsophisticated dolls moving their arms up and down up and down to childish music) and a “Spectacular Show” with sad Malaysian girls with dead eyes and plastic smiles kicking not very high and not exactly with the beat in their acrobatic routines.

I also went to see Golconda Fort – a huge and impressive 500-year old fort and went with the family to a Hindu temple where I made the mistake of drinking some yellow water I was offered by a priest. The first time I was offered it (in the palm of my hand), I made a show of lapping it up while letting the water slide down my wrists (and thus not actually ingesting any of it). This trick had worked in the past. However, this time, a few onlookers saw what had “happened” and told me to take more. I cracked under pressure and lapped it up. The result was a worrying tummy ache that I treated with Pepto and all seemed to be okay after that. It seemed that I had managed to survive my first month in India almost stomach incident free….

Today, however, I am in Chennai (Madras) for the day (before I fly out at 11pm tonight for Vietnam (via Singapore)). So far, I’m not finding it very relaxing or friendly. In a few short hours I have been scammed, yelled at, harassed (in a non-threatening way) and condescended to. It seems fitting, therefore, that I dropped my first made-in-India watery stool in the local coffee shop WC here a few minutes ago.

* Note I have used fake names for my hosts