i was able to convince my boss at Continental Can to let me pay the difference between return airfare Heathrow-NYC and Heathrow-Bombay-Delhi-NYC and squeeze in a short trip to India. I was in London to attend an International Agribusiness Conference. The airfare difference was only $200, and my friend Nadir helped me set the trip up.
April 7, 1978
So far, no snakes – just a delightful cluster of experiences. Even getting off the plane was a new sensation, and although immigration took about half an hour and baggage another half hour, the real fun came at customs. THAT was like a giant jumble sale – with very thorough officials tossing swatches of fabric in the air from one man’s suitcase. The suitcase was about a 6-suiter, one of the plywood types. In it the man had stowed about 50 pieces of cloth, and all kinds of cosmetics. Blissfully ignorant of all this was the baby left by her mother on the other side of Customs; I guess I might have left too if I’d forgotten what a hot climate it was and my baby had chocolate cracker dripping all over its face! I just stood and laughed while I waited for my customs card and passport. No sense getting riled up.
Admittedly, my attitude was probably influenced by the fact that my good friend and B-school classmate Nadir Godrej was waiting for me. In the only air conditioned car I saw for days. I was very glad to see him and to have such a pleasant introduction to India. I stayed in his Uncle's guest room in the family multi-storied house on Malabar Hill.
I had no idea about the magnitude of his family’s holdings. Godrej Soaps Ltd is the 41t largest company in India in the private sector. In addition to soaps, detergents, shampoos, cold cream, shaving cream, talcum powder, deodorant, perfume, editable oils, steel office furniture, refrigerators, typewriters (in 30 languages), door lock, padlocks… they also made animal feed, which is the part of the business that Nadir runs (3% of total sales). I saw the housing they provide for some of their 9000 workers (at 56 rupees per month vs a salary of 800 rupees; 1 rupee=12 US cents). They also have a school for workers’ children; cost is one rupee per child per month.
We had lunch with his parents Mr. and Mrs. Godrej, Nadir’s brother, and Nadir's brother's brother-in-law, who is starting a small powdered soap facility in Delhi with high labor intensity (encouraged by government regulations).
Nadir told me a story about how his Uncle spoke to Indira Ghandi when one of her son’s cronie told the Godrej salesmen for Delhi to reduce prices or be arrested, and straightened the whole thing out.
We went to the topiary garden, and were followed along the sideway by an unfortunate human who could only walk on all fours. Hard to forget these sights. From the garden, Bombay at night is beautiful, like a fairy tale.
April 8, 1978
My first real day in India. I woke up several times during the night, startled by all the parrots and other birds kept near the house. After breakfast (a Parsi dish of eggs, tomatoes, onions and coriander), we went to get my tickets for my ongoing travel to Udaipur, Jaipur, Agra and Delhi. Indian Air had a nice waiting area in a big hotel, and now I understand why – it filled up as the wait went on and one. Could it be understaffed? Or just bureaucratic? I emerged with only my ticket to Udaipur… everything else is on request!
We went to the Taj Mahal Hotel to get my voucher for the Lake Palace Hotel in Udaipur, and got tickets for Indian dancing that night.
We took the cheap boat over to Elephanta. The luxury tour boat looked much more comfortable but could not have been half as much fun. The ride was hot in midday; the carved stone temples were impressive, but had been so badly defaced by the Portuguese that some of the more interesting tableaus were not understandable.
We had a soft drink at a small snack shop near where the boats departed; I noticed that the shop keeper had plastered a “Tumbs Up” symbol over the Coca in Coca-Cola.
Afterwards, we had a snack at the Taj Mahal Hotel – really a lovely hotel. The ice cream tasted granular to me, must have been made with condensed milk.
The Chor Bazar was incredible. Talk about another world than the one Nadir is used to! Nadir had never been to the Chor Bazar. We soon came to understand why people walk in the streets when he is driving by… the sidewalks are filthy, used like latrines. The bazaar is often called “thieves market”, and that may be true. Everything is secondhand, and business is bustling. Seems that this secondary market is very important to the Indian way of life – and it doesn’t really enter into the government’s commerce statistics. I was intrigued by a latern made from recycled soda/beer cans. Edible oil in 55 gallon cans, with dippers for selling small affordable amounts to shoppers. A whole street of Edison music boxes, in mint condition. Leather scrap dealers. Rag dealer, etc. etc. Very noisy. My shoes smelled for hours afterwards –the soles were nasty after our walk around the bazaar.
There are crows everywhere in this country. Big crows. They add to the noise considerably.
The dancing show at the Taj was very good. It must take years to learn to move your head and eyes sideways like that!
We walked on Chowpatty Beach – it was the first time Nadir had done that in over 10 years, he said. Massages offered for less than 1 rupee each, given right there on the sand. (We did not indulge.) A sand sculpture of a god was beautifully done. My favorite were the necklaces of Jasmin flowers.
This was a wonderful introduction to this country, and I am grateful for Nadir’s help on this trip, and for his help at B-school too. He is a good friend, and I think we will have a long and interesting friendship.
