About a year ago there was a television commercial for mens underwear which showed how people in crowded circumstances managed to "adjust" or squeeze their backsides in to find a spot . I feel that way quite often having to adjust to life in India or compromise on things on a daily basis.
Over the last five years we have had numerous experiences , some funny, some sad, some good, some bad. Here are a few. Some of them are generalized, since it is repeated whereas some are one off.
Indian sales men are among the best and the worst in the world.
Have you ever been sari shopping with your wife ? The sales men have no hesitation about taking out as many as you want. When she is not sure about a particular sari , he orders a junior sales man or some time get up himself and tucks the sari into his trousers and hold out his arm with the pala draped on it.He models it for you in different colors or fabrics - great job opportunity for cross dressers.After seeing fifteen or twenty you might walk out and there would be no acrimony unlike Hong Kong, where the sales man would make a rude comment.
Similarly if you go to a shoe shop, you will find that all the salesmen are men and you will find that they will happily show you shoe after shoe in different styles and shapes.Invariably as it happens with my wife, after seeing eight or ten we walk out and the salesman goes on to the next customer without a word of protest .
I have been to the best book stores in London and New York such as Foyles , Hatchards, Borders and you ask the sales staff for a particular book. They will quickly tap into the computer and say "its in the basement in the history section"and you are on your own. You go to a book store in Delhi or Mumbai and ask the sales staff ( who are probably not as well educated as their London and New York counterparts) or the book owners and immediately get a response and will be taken to the specific location or have the book handed to you.This is even for a difficult to get book.Incredible service.
Similarly if you visit a pharmacy . It might be a tiny hole in the wall or there will be a person on a specially built mezzanine floor. The medicines will be stored in little Tupperware boxes. Ask the salesman for a particular medicine. He does not need to check the computer. He will automatically reach for the right cubicle where the medicine is stored or ask his colleague on the mezzanine floor and it will be dropped down. I am willing to bet that most, if not all of them have not had any training in pharmacy , but they will know the generic version which have similar salts and will be much cheaper.
However, having said that, if you wish to buy anything electrical or a computer or the new gadgets which are now available, you will find smooth talking salesmen who will assure you that what you are looking is the latest model and at a price you will not able to find anywhere. If you do not know what you are buying and mistakenly make a payment, then you are on you own. Prior to receiving your money, he will call you, he will smile, he will be pleasant, but once he has your money, even if it is not the full amount, then the roles get reversed. This is not just for local brands. This holds true even if you are buying products or services sold by multinationals.Instead of trying to raise the standards of the local market, the multinationals lower their standards.
When we first came back we rented a flat on the second floor of a small block of flats in Central Delhi. It was newly constructed , had a nice terrace and faced a lovely park. No sooner had we moved in then problems started. It was owned by a lady who traveled frequently. Our contact was her father. He was probably in his late seventies. Every time we had a problem such as our living room getting flooded because the balcony sloped inwards, or our roof leaking or seepage through the walls because the waterproofing had not been done properly, we would contact him. He would appear diligently and be polite and try and fix it.However his attempt at fixing was a patch work to minimize the expenditure rather than fixing the problem once and for all.After the first few times, however when I started loosing my temper, he would tell my wife "Please tell Mr.Bindra that he has to adjust to India"or "This is India". However the rent was at the top end and on par with some of the international cities ( ok, not Hong Kong or London) but that point was ignored.
When I started my software firm, a friend of a friend introduced me to an individual running a small head hunting firm for my modest hiring needs. He kept sending me resumes of young technical professional who kept changing jobs every six months. After about a dozen such rejections, he came to see me. His advice to me was that you have to lower your standards as "This is India ". I said I was paying at market or above. I had to spend six months or more training them and then only to leave. I was not paying people to attend my training school.I wanted to build a firm with professional international standards. I never heard back from him.
After buying a flat, we decided to gut it and redo it. We hired an architect and she brought in a group of sub-contractors . They were a mixed bunch. The air conditioning supplier was very professional and even now we would highly recommend him. I was initially very impressed with the contractor who was going to redo part of the wiring. He talked the talk. In a introductory meeting at our place over a cup of tea quoted a line from Nancy Sinatra's "Summer Wine" . I thought to myself, fantastic. We should be in good shape.However that mood did not last too long. He assigned two individual's who had almost no experience , who could not read drawings and I could go on. Once the initial payment was made, it was very difficult to get hold of him especially when he knew I was calling with a complaint. After a few months he walked out without completing the work. He then had the nerve to send me a legal notice for unpaid dues.
Now that we have been back over five years now, we have " adjusted" and we squeeze ourselves in , expressing our frustration mentally and sometimes verbally. Based on referrals and our own experiences we are gradually building up a list of of reliable tradesmen /shops where we have developed a relationship ( at least we like to think we have ) and hopefully sound less like the returned NRI's we see in the shopping plazas loudly expressing their unhappiness.Gradually we are accepting people have similar stories of their experiences of life in Hong Kong, London and New York. Delhi is not that much different.
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