I am currently sitting in the airport at Bangalore waiting to take Lufthansa flight LH755 to Frankfurt before a connecting flight back to Toulouse tomorrow lunchtime. The wedding of a friend in Kochin yesterday was beautiful, definitely unique, and successful, (i.e. they are now happily married if nothing else, although apparently there is some bizarre Indian tradition called Bride Burning or Dowry Death which requires him to kill her within 24 hours http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bride_burning), and I’m really looking forward to seeing the family and eating some European chocolate now that it’s Easter.
A few things struck me during this particular India trip… (1) I’ve been speaking with an Indian colleague for a few weeks now but on Thursday we made more progress in a 10 minute face to face conversation with a whiteboard than in about 4 hours of intercontinental phone calls; (2) that whilst the young team in India might have less client experience, their passion, enthusiasm and desire to work is most uplifting and in sharp contrast with some people back in the old world; (3) that as much as I am increasingly comfortable in India, and even enjoy some of the sweeter smells, it’s not a place where I could ever live permanently; (4) that the day I am the father of the bride, I must remember not to stand on my daughter’s veil whilst leaving her at the altar; (5) that in multi cultural weddings a few words in the local language go a long way. As a result of (very) briefly addressing half of the wedding congregation in the Malayalam dialect, I now have two new Facebook friends including the local wedding singer (who made me laugh when I caught him using his Android phone to read the lyrics of Bryan Adams’ “everything I do I do it for you” whilst singing at the end of the ceremony); and that (6), there are some people in life who are have a greater attention to detail than me, that these people are typically German, and that even in India, the antithesis of organization, it is very useful to have a German maid of honour and second groomsman – respect to Rebecca and Frank for their ruthless efficiency on Saturday in the face of a relentless wave of Indian approximation.
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