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Colin is the author of Chasing Rainbows in Chennai

JK Rowling I Hate You! (India)

ColinT
2005-04-24 10:15:13

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Prominent Italian born Indian politician Sonia Gandhi is reported to have once said something along the lines of: there is the right way of doing things, there is the wrong way of doing things, and then there is the Indian way of doing things...

Outsourcing or off-shoring is the buzzword of the age. It is part of that amorphous thing known as globalisation. Everywhere I look, I read about global markets, global consumers and now global call centres. It is estimated that US and UK businesses will outsource up to three million call centre and service sector jobs to India over the coming decade. On more than one occasion I have been sitting at home in Liverpool, having picked up the telephone to hear on the other end of the line a Delhi-based or Hyderabad-based Indian called "Ed" trying to convince me that I need some whiter than white, newer than new life-changing product that I have no use for. He also tries to convince me that he is calling from London, but his accent gives the game away, and after some probing I find he is talking to me from some call centre on the outskirts of an Indian city. So I decided to get in on the act by doing a bit of off-shoring myself. I dipped my feet into the murky waters of the global marketplace by getting some books published in India.

Anyone who has ever been to India will readily identify with what is about to unfold and the type of logic that seems to be unique to India. You know the type of logic I mean: the type that leaves many foreigners frustrated, baffled and tearing their hair out, leaving them with that "I'm in India" feeling.

Can anyone help me? I'm a bit confused. When people tell me that something has definitely been done, and then I find out that it hasn't, then why did they tell me it had been done in the first place? To be told one thing, only to find out that the opposite is true is an all too common experience in India. The Truth is all too ...