Traffic is moving at a very slow pace on the Akshardham flyover. My colleague and I are getting late for a meeting. I seem tensed which is odd having spent many more years in the industry as opposed to him. He seems to be fine listening to some mantra on his CD player from Anuradha Paudwal which seem to say the same thing for, I think, the 1017th time. We see a person in a motor bike ahead of us riding very cautiously. Looking left. And then right to avoid the unwanted kiss or the completely undesirable smooch from the car behind him. My colleague comments, “Uncle does not seem to be from Delhi. Delhiites don’t look to their rear. They know that vehicles behind have breaks. They just march ahead. Squeeze wherever they do and don’t get space”. I sense some form of pride in delivery of that statement. A furlong ahead we see another biker. This guy seems to be marching ahead. My colleague comments, “This uncle is a proper Delhiite” A second later a car bumps him from the rear. Uncle complains to the driver while we observe the exchange amusedly. Traffic moves on. A few seconds later we see the same uncle marching ahead of us. “See, he has moved ahead without bothering so much. Such are Delhiites”, he says with pride.
People from other cities would perhaps do the same too but a Delhiite will not think so much about it. Not bother. Cars and bikes have dents and that is the way of life. People do get late for meetings and that is the way of life. Those that they are meeting obviously do not like it but don’t bother about it so much. As opposed to Mumbai where you are scorned upon if you are late. ‘If there was traffic, one should have planned’, is how a Mumbaiite would think. A Delhiite would accept that as a fact of life and move on. A Mumbaiite would make a mental note. The reason I was tensed on that morning, was because I am from Mumbai, whereas my colleague was OK. The fact that I am tensed and he is not does not make him less ‘professional’. I have learnt this over years of visiting Delhi. It’s just that the perspectives are different.
There are many ways both cities are different. But some of these amuse me. For example, my same colleague can give a call to another contact saying that his head of marketing is in town that day and would like a meeting and a Delhiite would more often than not oblige. A Mumbaiite, on the other hand, would most probably say that he is busy the whole day on something or the other thinking all the while as to how does it matter to him if the head of marketing is in town. He may also find this call very unprofessional in the same way he would consider late arrivals on meetings.
Conversely, a Delhiite will have little qualms of cancelling a meeting knowing very well that the guy has flown in from another city just to see him. It has happened to me more than once. One incident is worth mentioning. An executive from a leading consumer durable company agreed for a meeting in Delhi. On reaching his office I was told that he is not come to office that day. The security personnel further added that the gentleman in question had probably quit the organization a few days earlier and the meeting was fixed just a couple of days in advance. Though singular and very odd, it reflects more on the gentleman in question rather than a city behavior. However one cannot disagree that he came from Delhi. In another similar incident, where I was supposed to meet the head of marketing of a leading technology company, and had flown in one of our leading consultants for that meeting, we were surprised to hear that the gentleman in question in this particular occasion was ‘unaware’ of any such meeting which he had confirmed in an email. It is human to err and this could also be treated as yet another singular episode, but we cannot deny that he was from Delhi.
Even with all such idiosyncrasies, I like visiting Delhi. Where planned meetings get cancelled without notice and unplanned ones get scheduled as quickly. Food is almost always interesting. People are jovial and not so ‘serious’ as those from Mumbai and I get to catch up with some really good friends. I would have second thoughts of living there but visits are always welcome.
