India 2022 Trip – Sadke tuti hui hai, par Rishte Pakke hai (Roads might be broken but Relationships are Strong!)

The trip in May of 2022 was a blitz! Seven days, in, lots of work, mission accomplished and back out to Canada.

With all that I had to accomplish there was a single theme, work gets done through light-hearted conversations, that advance the human connection and relationship for that transaction.

Be it the public sector bank where one’s got to go from the first person, to the person at the largest desk on the floor, to the branch manager (who offered to share his home made dessert!) who approved the infamous KYC (Know Your Customer) documentation. It was another thing that on my return after 3 days, found out that KYC got stuck – for the most amusing reason – the fellow with the IT System could not locate the city we lived in Canada! Hence, the human connection was furthered, to the extent that I got on his desktop and filled up all the forms myself!

The American Bank was the most efficient with the account closed, paperwork ready and handed over within 10 mins of arrival – attributed to my boss-best-buddy…

Or say, my optician since 2004, who magically made my progressives in 2 days and somehow managed to get the payment done from my preferred card.

And finally, the network of associations that there created and strengthened with the jolly conversations I had with the driver, the broker, the brokers cousin, his lawyers, the CPA, the seller and few others from the support cast ensured that my apartment was sold on schedule, albeit with some starting troubles. My favourite bank then stepped in to get the money transferred to Canada which resulted in another connection being created and then used by two other friends later in the year.

Roads might be broken, but it is creation of strong, fluid and frictionless relationships in the moments of those connections make India work and make work possible in India!

I hope as the roads get better, the expressways get operational – the speed would strengthen these wonderful relationships that keeps India ticking!

PS: to know why I mention roads – read some of my previous work on the blog 😉 and bhakts, don’t blast me for highlighting India in a certain way!