The Hindu Business Line : Bowled over by Indian hospitality

"I've met many dignitaries in my life. But nowhere, let me repeat nowhere, have we been driven straight from the airport to the Governor's house, as happened to us in Mumbai," says Abdul Aziz Memon, President of the Rotary Club of Karachi, who is leading a delegation of 10 Rotarians to India.

The Maharashtra Governor, Mohammed Fazal, was all warmth and hospitality. "We are used to getting such warmth and affection from Indian Rotarians when we meet them at international fora. But for a Governor as well as the Mumbai Sheriff to shower such affection on us was really great. Dignitaries here are so simple," he says with wonder.

Memon was really touched when Fazal brought out a lamp "made by his late wife and said you take it and use it in your house in Karachi."

What's more, when some of the Pakistani visitors wished they had more than the 10-day visa to stay on after the Rotary conferences in Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore, the Governor immediately set about the task of dictating a letter to make this possible.

Memon, who was last in Mumbai five years ago, was amazed at the "way in which the city has developed. The number of flyovers, the wider roads and the economic vibrancy... all these are indications that the economy is really opening up."

As a textile tycoon from Pakistan, Memon, the Chairman of the Kings Group of companies, is excited about the prospect of doing business with India. "We've been here for hardly a couple of days and there are so many Indians who want to sell me machinery and dyes. We've been importing dyes from India via Dubai, and if our relations improve, I can do that directly at much lower rates. Then I can compete with Indian businessmen who don't have to buy textile machinery from Germany and other European countries, like we have to do most of the time."

For Sikander Lalani, a chartered accountant from Karachi, who is accompanied by his wife, Shirin, it is a first time to India. Totally bowled over by Mumbai, particularly the food, both of them have "turned vegetarians for the trip. Your paneer, the way in which the dals are prepared ... the khatti-meethi (sour and sweet) kadhi, pani puri and your idli and dosa in Chennai are simply superb. I could not take my wife out for shopping in Mumbai as our programme was choc-a-bloc, but we grabbed some time in Chennai and she bought some silk sarees," says Lalani.

But Shirin shakes her head disapprovingly. "I got just 30 minutes in a store like Nalli's, that's not enough. I couldn't even really look for what I wanted." But as they stepped out, they sighted an idli-dosa place and made a beeline for it.

At the dinner hosted at the Madras President of Rotary Club Sudhakar Reddy's house on Monday night, mutton biryani, fried fish and chicken dishes vie for the Pakistani guests' attention. But two of the Pakistani ladies are seen savouring idlis, curd rice and paal payasam (kheer). They shake their heads regretfully as their Indian friends want to know if they made it to any jewellery stores at all.

Lalani makes it clear that this is only a dekko trip for him and Shirin, and they have already firmed up plans to return to India for a proper holiday. "We want to spend some time at Bangalore, where we are told they have excellent nature therapy clinics."

Memon has a much more exciting plan. "Governor Fazal told me that I could stay at the Raj Bhavan as his guest. When he repeated this offer a couple of times, I warned him that the place was so exotic that I would really take him at his word on my next visit o Mumbai."

The refrain from the entire group was simple: "Dismantle the visa regime, or make it much more easy to get visas. When people from both the countries travel across the border and experience for themselves the warmth and hospitality, as Indian cricket fans did in Pakistan and we enjoyed here, the task of the politicians in normalising relations will be that much simpler."