Hotel India is a four part documentary currently running on BBC 2 that follows the lives of people working and living around one of the most famous hotels in India – The Taj Mahal Palace situated in Mumbai.
The most fascinating part of the first episode for me was the attitude of both the people working at the Taj and those that rely on its existence. The employees there felt privileged to work at such as prestigious hotel and it filled them with great pride. For them it was a way of earning respect from their friends and relatives. This was the case no matter what the position of the employee – Porter or General Manger. The motto for all employees was that the guest was ‘God’ and should be treated as such. This attitude I find in direct contrast to my experiences of working in the UK. In my role as an Operations Manager I manage over 40 employees and their general attitude is one of resentment towards their employer. I have never understood this view because my employer provides me with the means to provide for my family, socialize, attain luxuries and live a comfortable life.
The loyalty the Taj employees show their employee is a trait found in the older generation (no matter from what culture). An example of this is my dad who has recently retired after 45 years working for the same company. It sees to me that the current generation in the West has little loyalty and commitment.
My favorite quote from the episode was from a woman who lives in the street outside the Taj with her family said of the hotel – ‘It is both our Mother and Father’. What she means by this is that the hotel provides her and her family with the means to feed her family. She make strings of jasmine flowers that she sells to the tourists and the guests. The poor who rely on the hotel do not envy or despise the rich hotel guests but are thankful to them.
A regular guest to the hotel summed up the difference in attitude between the Indian people living around the Taj and to those from other countries. He said, ‘if you come out of the Hilton in Trinidad, they just say rich Bastard and they want to beat you up and kidnap you.’ but in Mumbai ‘they look at the Taj in awe not envy’.
So why the difference in mindset from the poor in India and from that of the West? Could it be because of the social welfare systems in the West. The poor in India are threatened with starvation, disease and even death on a daily basis. They must show respect towards the things that will help them keep these risks at bay. They have learnt that working alongside the rich will help them survive. In the West people are very rarely in danger of dying when they are out of work. They have the social welfare to fall back on and many are making more money from benefits than they would if they were working. No wonder they think they can treat their employees with disdain and little respect.
Harbinder Mathadu 