Sorry!! Not interested!!

Being in Business Development one gets to attend big conferences, wine and dine lavishly in luxury hotels, meet who-is-who of the city and if lucky get some media coverage too. Sooner or later one gets so used to all this that it does not lure anymore. The meetings get so predictable. One can see through what is the rationale and outcome from those.

I am a big fan of NASSCOM organised meetings, because they are professional in nature (when compared to CII, FICCI and other trade associations). But in the last fifteen days I have ignored four of their invites. In hindsight when I contemplate about a reason for ignoring these sessions, a simple one liner flashed: This yet another cash dried developed nation seeking to invest in their country, what do I get out of attending that session. Thats not weird, is'nt it? Wait a minute did I say a developed nation? Did I say cash dried?

Twenty years ago on TV, I remember seeing the current prime minister in London and New York pledging all the gold assets and begging to get some money to run the country. I hear, ten years ago NASSCOM used to take trade missions to USA, UK, Japan to showcase the Indian talent and get those companies interested in India. So what happened now? What are the embassies and trade associations from USA (Fairfax county), UK (Scotland), Canada, Japan, South Korea, Finland, Denmark, Germany doing here? Why are they begging Indian companies to pump in money into their countries. Are they not supposed to be the big guys? Don't they still have the "Developed" nations tag? Is it that the developed nations no more signifies that they rank high up in the caste systems of countries?You know all about the recession and stagnation stories.
I will not repeat those. But I felt a boost of my Indian-ego when I had to smirk at a white Danish guy and say: "Your country is not worth investing. Sorry!! Not interested!!". It gave a sadistic pleasure.