Miss Chief in India

Miss Chief in India

I think everyone has some preconceived notions of what it is to visit India.

For me, some were confirmed, others were unfounded, and yet there was still plenty of room for surprise. Just like I like it!

Despite spending the majority of my time in air conditioned cars, hotels, offices and on construction sites, the trip really whet my appetite for a full blown return and in depth exploration of what I think may well be the most colorful and most textured place on earth.

Mumbai

Mumbai is a tremendous city that tugs, no...positively yanks at your senses. Within 24 hours there I absolutely fell in love with India. I am admittedly ashamed that due to the stigma I
had against traveling there (it would be difficult, dangerous, I’ll get sick, etc) I hadn’t made it much of a priority to visit until now.

With that now rectified, I must say, as many others probably have, that Mumbai is like no other place I’ve ever seen.



Miss Chief's Top 3 Mumbai surprises:

1 VISUAL

*Colorful handpainted graphics on every motorcycle rickshaw, taxi, and truck in sight (horn OK please!!)

*Vivid and rich colors at every turn between the kaleidoscopic and beautiful saris, flowers hanging in every doorway, and bright and vibrant jewelry

*The fantastic elegance of written and typed hindi and urdu

2 TRAFFIC

*The astounding talent of drivers and the feeling of being part of a choreographed dance when riding in the back of a car...deftly and gracefully weaving in and out between rickshaws, trucks, animals and pedestrians and coming within centimeters of everything

*Major roads with no lane demarkations and nothing more than a pile of rocks dividing opposing directions of traffic

*The ceaseless honking - never really out of anger and not as much to warn of danger, it's more like car sonar to know exactly how close everyone is to you. I thought Turks honked a lot but the Indians now hold the world record for honking.

3 POVERTY

*Slums and makeshift home-cum-businesses lining 80% of the streets, many of them backed directly against high end business, retail and residential areas. While the large discrepancy between rich and poor did not come as a surprise, the scale of it is still incomprehensible

*People sleeping in the streets but still talking on cellular phones, makeshift homes adorned with advertisements and logos for technology companies



The visual most burned into my memory was on a drive north to a meeting near Lake Powai. We drove through a one way, one and a half car dirt road flanked on both sides with slums…everyone had opened for business and brought their wares to the street…makeshift coffee shops and barbers, people eating breakfast and getting a shave, all within an arm’s reach of the car. A unique morning commute, to say the least.


Business in India aka "Leapfrogging"

The business side was equally as astounding. I visited amazing construction sites and recently built projects and met with people with extremely exciting visions for the future of India.

I believe that the next ten years will see development quite like China…obviously quite different given that India has a tendency to ‘leapfrog’ in its development. Saying that the infrastructure leaves something to be desired or can’t sustain real development is the understatement of the century.

To get a taste for the emphasis on development there, take a look at this commercial from the insane campaign, nothing short of a full blown 24-hour inundation via TV, billboard and print advertising, for the Emaar MGR IPO this month. All focused on the 'new Indian' demographic.



We met many recent MBA's, educated abroad, who have returned to India and are pushing for rapid development and the of importation of concepts they enjoy abroad. This generation of movers and shakers recognizes that there is an audience ready for concepts from boutique hotels to spas and hi tech residences to luxury experiences though any execution thus far, while not lacking in aspiration, is truly missing content.

One positive I found is that there remains a strong sense of Indian and local pride, and the incorporation of Indian customs, visuals, rituals and experiences is a must in my mind for the success of new ideas, something one does not see as much of in places like Dubai or China.


The haves, the have nots and the have have HAVES

The craziest project I visited was the residence for Mukesh Ambani, indisputably the richest man/family in India. Currently under construction is his private residence of 20+ stories. We went to the construction site and in the construction lift with all the workers and visited the impeccable temporary offices where they have NINETY architects working on this project, not to mention airconditioning and plumbing in the middle of what is essentially only concrete slabs.

A rendering of the project:



























Delhi

Delhi was a completely different experience. The lack of Mumbai's density and grit, the big, leafy avenues, and a subway system made it feel a far cry from my first impressions of India.

After the shock of Mumbai, Delhi almost felt like Istanbul 15 years ago. Run down, but with European nuances. Traffic was still bad but a better highway system and marked and well paved roads created (at least the illusion of) a more organized infrastructure.

Leaving Delhi on a 325am flight was probably the most memorable experience there. There were at least 300 people in the immigration/security line, and with no real space for the line, so it snaked between check in desks, went outside, came back in again…babies, families, hippies, tourists and business people from around the world all lumped together in the most disorganized line in the history of lines at 1am. Quite a spectacle.



It seems that despite what the rest of us would consider third world conditions, India manages to sustain life, growth, and a vibrancy unmatched elsewhere. When I saw this tree growing on the second story of a long abandoned and hollowed out factory in the middle of Delhi, it made me think.

Perhaps, just as with this tree, it is India's strong roots that allow life to maintain its strength and to continue to defy conventions of how and when growth and progress occur.