The New Order

David Newman, 34, English VP, Program Management WNS Global Services, Pune, In India since June 2003 • Haircut: Lucky Star Saloon, Bund Garden Road • Shirts: Park Avenues and Van Heusens. Shops for casuals on Laxmi Road • Writing Instrument: Huh? • Watch: Doesn’t wear one • Fav View: The Western Ghats • Fav restaurants: Indiyaki, Great Punjab • Car: Mahindra Scorpio • Resides at: Magarapatta City • Chills out at: Home with friends, almost all Indian • Shoes: Vegetan				Douglas T Neilson, 58, Scottish Head, Corporate Credit Deutsche Bank, Mumbai In India from 1980-84, and from 1997 till date • Haircut: Taj Mahal Hotel • Tie: Zodiac • Writing Instrument: Cross • Suit: Canali • Watch: Seiko • Fav View: Marine Drive • Fav restaurants: India Jones, Golden Dragon • Car: Mercedes E-class • Resides at: Breach Candy • Chills out at: The Breach Candy Club. Is also a member of the Caledonian Society • Shoes: Church

DOUGLAS Neilson, director, head of corporate credit for India and a clutch of neighbours, isn’t very sure whether he still gets his hardship allowance.

“Maybe, it is there in the overall package,” says the soft-spoken 58-year-old Scot, in an accent that seems to swallow a vowel here and a consonant there.

Put the same question to David Newman, 34, vice-president, program management, WNS Global Services (a BPO firm), and the reply is an amused “It’s not in our policy at all.”

As they say, there are numerous ways of looking at the same thing. In reference to this context, you could probably quote utterly boring GDP figures, fancy investment opportunities and set up a sedative Powerpoint presentation on your snazzy laptop about India’s advances.

Or you could take a look at Neilson and Newman. One, an old-world banking pro, and the other from a young, literally, industry. Who, in their outlook, lifestyle and sundry other bits, make us realise the difference, at least in certain areas, between the still-hungover-from-socialism ’80s and global Y2K4.

Mumbai-based Neilson, who hails from an “old mill town called Paisley” has been in banking all along and first came here for a four-year stint in the early ’80s. Mumbai for him was yet another in a long line of postings across the world, and he was back in 1997.

Newman, who’s worked as a postman for the Royal Mail, an industrial engineer and even stood for elections to the local legislature in Surrey, landed in India in June 2003. “Outsourcing gave me an opportunity to come over to India, a place where I’d backpacked and loved about 12 years ago,” he says. “Back in 1990, I faxed a letter to my parents which also said that “Hey mom, can you imagine there are fax machines out here! And here I am working in an environment that is as good as any other city in Europe,” adds Newman who works out of Pune.

Surely, these two gents are in no way definitive representations of the changing profile of the expat community or, for that matter, our country’s increased prominence in certain sectors globally.

What we are doing is tilting our heads and looking at change, and nobody can deny it hasn’t happened, in a different manner. There are two reason for this.
1. It makes for nice Sunday reading. And
2. How do you calculate GDP?