Day 3

The morning caught the entire delegation in the face starting from breakfast. Networking is the name of the game and from Jehan Ara to her troupe, every one is busy balancing their own contact cards in one hand and the same of their newly discovered friends in the other.

My day started with a very satisfying interview of Kiran Karnik, President NASSCOM in the lobby [we hijacked the sofas since there is no place anywhere]. Not only does Kiran know what he is talking about, he knows what I want to hear. Which has its pros and cons. Watch out for the interview in the March issue.

Several sessions are taking place simultaneously. I caught the tail end of the Open Source session where Sun CTO was publicizing his newest desktop OS for linux fans. His interview is up tomorrow afternoon.

Diana Farrell, Director Mckinsey Global was one of many pro-outsourcing Americans to hold a session too. She offered several interesting figures advocating the benefits of outsourcing for both the US and India. Unfortunately, she wasnt eager to meet me for an interivew [we'll see how it goes]. Your loss, Di.

I've officially distributed my first 10 copies of Spider and very proud of it. Now 30 more to go before I'm several kilos lighter [and I'm being choosy about them]. The reaction is, for instance from Matt Thoman CTO Sun, "An Internet Mag from Pakistan??? well, well, well, very interesting...". As if. Obviously, surfing the WWW is a hobby for Americans and Indians alone ;~) The PR companies are just as wide-eyed I assure you.

The highlight of the day was my sitting with Prasanto Roy and not because he is a very respectable journo+technophile in India, but he gave me the lowdown on the Indian success like no one else has been able to [Thank you Prasanto!]. Not only was I completely caught up in absorbing the amount of facts coming out of him, I was also very impressed with the way CYBERMEDIA, the company he is a part of, is active on technology issues in India. This is what SPIDER should aim for. I am very excited about connecting him with Jehan Ara and Shahida Saleem who are looking for people like him to talk about India's tremendous growth in creating a partnership between the public-private sector which is working, very well.

I spotted only one delegate lounging in the lobby which is not too bad for a delegation of 15. Jehan is busy with a series of interviews today while sessions on BPO and offshoring have been a hit with the Pakistani delegation so far.

Will any of this bring any business to Pakistan? Too big a question to put forth to a delegation that is making its first trip to India and letting companies know here that we exist.

So from a Wi-Fi basement to a standard cybercafe on V.N.Road, Nariman, I'm still feeling very connected to life.

Took a long, hot stroll from Nariman Point halfway round the necklace and came across a booth that said "Free Access: to email, egov, ebanking...etc" sponsored compliments of the state. A bored looking policewalla gave us the directions to this cybercafe as he watched young sweethearts share a moment on the pavement. Me and Said from AutoSoft couldnt help feel great about life [cats, dogs, animals...on the streets] and people equally get respect for whatever they want to do.

The cybercafe where I'm at has capacity for 8-9 people, its windows shaded [somethings are the same] and a fair mix of young people [definitely I'm the oldest] clad in jeans and cotton shirt logged on to MSN or trying to sign-in. No one is sneaking past my shoulder to see what I;m up to or darting dirty looks in my direction, clearly they are occupied with matters of their own.

Ah...Mumbai. This could have been Karachi.

The internet cafe in the basement of Oberoi is Wi-Fi thanks to Cisco. Had NASSCOM tipped us about the number of facilities on offer, I would have been able to keep up with this blog starting Feb 2, and not Feb 4, day one of NASSCOM.

Quickly:
On the flight, we finally landed with 15 delegates as opposed to 23. Some excused for Eid prayers [how can we miss it?], some wanted to come via an 8 hour flight via Dubai [okay, so shopping is great there, now get over it], and some just plain didnt turn up at the airport. To the president of PASHA, Jehan Ara, who has worked on this trip with immense grit, this was unfair.

Landed safely in Mumbai. Oberoi is exactly as it was in Colombo, classy, luxurious and buzzing with activity because of the on-going conference. Lovely water lilies all over the place. The two-hour ride from the airport to the 'necklace' where Oberoi is - far from it.

The city is as I heard, a mass of shanty towns, high rises, smart indians walking, driving or catching the bus to work. There is a sense of megapolis here that I've experienced in london and Rome. And that does not include Karachi because we are so small comparitively. Not sure though if i should add Rome there.

So Day 1: Dec 2 was light.
Trying to think back at it is like thinking back 2 years and not 2 days. There were no garlands of marigold as I expected. But the overall hospitality and reception every where we mention the word 'pakistan' and 'tech delegation from karachi/lahore' is spontaneous and more than welcoming. we only went out for dinner and a walk to a khappa [vegertarian] followed by masala tea at the Taj opposite the gateway to india. Mmm..mmm!

Day 2: Dec 3
2 hours to SEEPZ and 2 hours back. We lost considerable amount of time on the inaugural day of NASSCOM 2004. The inauguaration wasnt until the evening but the visit to 3 local tech software houses and one hurriedly\[badly] put together visit left us out of breath and exhausted. At the inauguration, the mood was celebratory = INdia has arrived, we are a brand and we have a billion dollar club to celebrate it. I heard most of the speeches and laurels, well deserved all of them.

And I wish one day a delegation of media ppl can visit a PASHA annual forum to appreciate all this from Pakistan.

Day 3:
In progress. Rushing to set up interviews, connect with and to people and spread around copies of Spider. More later. It is unbelievably great to be in Mumbai right now.