David's AW News: Hotel room meetings in India...

Greetings from Greater Noida, India

It's more noisy than ever in India. I'm visiting our suppliers in the trade show in Greater Noida which is an extension of Delhi. Last week I was telling you about being a Festival VIP and not really liking that. If you missed it, you can catch up here.

Since then Mr Chatterjee and I caught an Indigo flight from Kolkata to Delhi, and the same day Tomas flew from Denpaser to Kuala Lumpur and on Batik Air (highly recommended) to Delhi. Mr Chatterjee's son, Drishanta met Tomas at the airport and brought him to our hotel. Arriving late at night, so on Wednesday morning we met, had breakfast and hit the trade show here. Our hotel (you need to book it six months in advance) is inside the grounds of the exhibitions and we can walk directly into the sprawling halls of creativity.

Lost money saga.

As soon as Mr Chatterjee and I landed in Delhi and exited the airport (quick and efficient these days) we were of course checking messages. A long time ago we sent €29,000 to Mr Chatterjee's trading company, I was telling you before that because our accounts department used the word "Zest" in the reference text the money was blocked because there is a Russian company under sanctions with that name. The bank in Paris, an intermediary branch had blocked it.. but obviously fashion shows and long lunches meant the compliance team took their time and many emails and calls and the help from our awesome local manager and eventually they accept that Mr Chatteree makes harmless Tote bags (not WMD) and ticks the box that releases the fund.. Only to have the next bank in the antiquated Swift system block the fund. This bank in New York, too busy and probably preoccupied with some local election, is not getting on with it either.. A few hundred emails later from our bank, the Indian receiving bank, Mr Chatterjee and me.. they finally released the fund. In the taxi at the airport Mr Chatterjee shows me the email detailing the transfer release.

But.. the value date on the release form shows 26th Feb 2026 - In 2 Years time!.. Somebody in NY has mistyped the date and we are back to square one. All the way from the airport to our hotel Mr Chatterjee is on the phone, persuading, arguing, shouting.. in the honking jarring traffic for over an hour. We roll up at the hotel and he says.. they have accepted it's a mistake and just released the funds.

Thanks to all one million Indian gods.. finally. Only six weeks to send a so-called "Swift" payment. 

Still noisy in India - My theory.

Every few minutes in the trade show, an announcement is made by some lady with a loud screeching voice. Music pounds, people shout. Out on the street cars honk constantly and the traffic is crazy.. I have been coming to India for more than 20 years.. is it getting better?. actually no it's not. The rest of Asia has rapidly got cleaner, quieter and more organised. India despite much more efficient airports and new roads.. is getting more noisy than ever. I have a theory. It's in the DNA - they love the chaos, noise and the hecticness. 1.4 billion people of lots of different cultures, classes and religions rub up against each other. In the main everyone gets on with each other, but they need to fight their corner or get crushed..  and they embrace the process, heck it's fun! Cars and trucks have signs saying "Please Honk" traffic rules are not enforced all of life is a vibrant noisy game.

The Durga Puja I was telling you about last week is basically a non-stop 24/7 riot.. Interestingly it used to last four days, a regional holiday in Kolkata. Now it's a full 10 days. Why, because extending the holiday is a vote catcher so every election one party or another promises another day extra.. and local businesses have to pay. In October there are two more festivals to go.. India is a wall to wall party.

Trade show deals, new tactics.

This year we have been invited to people's hotel rooms a lot. Quite a few of our regular suppliers have opted to do the tradeshow from a nearby hotel. The bed becomes a display, the wardrobe a hanging display every surface showing the company wares.. It saves the cost of a fair, the buyers are here and if you get them to the room.. there's no distractions to take away focus. So now we work the tradeshow and then in the evening get a taxi to another hotel room.

AW India

For some reason, I don't fully understand... Chatterjee has renamed his trading company..  AW India, some kind of ruse to get an extra stand.

 So if you are in the trade show and see this.. it's not really AW..

It's just that Mr Chatterjee feels so part of the AW team (and he certainly is) that he named his trading company after us.

Lot's of creativity here in India.. as usually we are doing deals.. but soon we will be in Delhi and meeting with more regular suppliers to find more products you need.

Full update next week.

Meanwhile back in our warehouse..

As it happens lots of new Indian products are coming online..

And it's getting busy, busy, busy..  not long until Halloween and then Christmas.

Namaste from India.. we have to go.. we are meeting a gemstone guy in a hotel room..

Take care.

David