An In-Delhi-ble Impression

The weather was perfect, and we were sitting by the poolside soaking in the morning sun in the midst of the cool crisp air and lush greenery. Where could we be? Shangrila of course. Yes, we were in the Shangrila Hotel - New Delhi, near the epicenter of the world largest democracy.

Well, in New Delhi, the boulevards are grand, buildings majestic and the lawns manicured. We visited the National Museum, and came away having a better grasp of the history of India starting from the Indus Valley civilisation - Harrappan and Maruyan eras, leading to the Mughal empire and finally to its present state. We sampled the metro, and it is impressive.

We had lunch at the Delhi Golf Club under a pitched tent, as the club is all set for the All Indian Open. We had salted lime soda followed by a meal comprising naan, daal, fish tikka and sheesh kebab all fresh off the oven. We topped it off with coffee and kulfi. The kulfi was heavenly. With the right texture, it simply melted in our mouth. We could easily justify a return trip as there is no kulfi in town to match this!

The next day, we were at the Bukhara for lunch. We had gin tonic, tandoori chicken, leg of lamb, daal, promfret and kulfi. It was a scrumptious meal with excellent company. Bukhara is rated as one of the top restaurants in the world and Bill Clinton and Putin are fans to this place, as well as Salman Khan, a Bollywood star.

We visited Gurgaon. It is a massive township, intended to emulate the service hub that of Singapore. There are many office and residential highrises. It is said that India has about 1 million workers in the IT industry, generating billions of revenue from outsourcing. In typical Indian mindset, they believe in self-sufficiency and instead of seeking foreign direct investment ( FDI) aggressively where they have to forgo equity, they took the more challenging route of creating value through their skilled workforce. This is impressive as the revenue generated is enormous as well as recurrence in nature.

This is the impetus that is propelling India to the world scene as a leader in quality outsouring. It excels in areas of healthcare, education and technology.

Keywords: healthcare, education, technology