New Delhi: High-profile chance encounters at airports, a gym mishap at the Maurya Sheraton hotel, a throwback to a Kabul once called the Paris of the East. A new book featuring the experiences of 21 business leaders— from fintech innovators to investment gurus—gives readers a peek into the elite world of executive travel. And it’s nothing like the journeys of budget travellers and typical holidaymakers.
Edited by Italian business executive Stefano Pelle and California Lutheran University professor Gerhard Apfelthaler, Going Places was launched on 1 June at the India International Centre in New Delhi.
“If we sum together the years of experience of these executives, we have about 500 years in over 50 industries,” said Pelle, adding that the contributors have collectively travelled about 200,000 kilometres across the globe.
But the sheen of first-class cabins and premium hotels fades quickly for seasoned executive travellers.
“There are difficulties that come with business travel—the less glamorous realities of living out of a suitcase indefinitely, managing jet lag, and balancing professional commitments with personal interests and family back home,” said Congress MP Shashi Tharoor.
He was one of the guests along with former IPS officer Yashovardhan Azad, whose career included serving as special director of the Intelligence Bureau.
Also present on the panel was contributor Anshuman Magazine, head of India, Southeast Asia, Middle East, and Africa at the real estate services and investment firm CBRE. He shared an anecdote about his close encounter with the Cuban immigration authorities, as well as general observations on business travel.
Magazine said that although business travel often seems glamorous and fun, it can be lonely too.
“You’re out of your comfort zone. You need patience to deal with different people, cultures, and food,” he said.
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Glimpses of a different Kabul
The idea for the book was conceived during a virtual MBA class involving the editors. In a lightning pace of 15 months, the two friends enlisted 21 authors from 12 nationalities to submit their stories.
Former IPS officer Yashovardhan Azad read out elaborate chunks from the book and also shared his personal tales of international trips in preparation for Presidential visits. Some experiences were exhilarating, while others were frustrating.
“You go in with an advanced team for Presidents’ travel and you meet the delegation on the other side. Sometimes there are these growling men who don’t yield an inch, who won’t give you any facilities, and sometimes it would be so smooth,” he said.
Azad then read out a hilarious incident from the book, where a business executive at the gym in the Maurya Sheraton Hotel received glares and frowns from a woman before realising it was a women’s gym.
But the book isn’t a shallow read. One account is about Afghanistan in the early 2010s, a time when US soldiers still roamed the streets. One contribution, read out by Azad, describes how amid chaos, misery, and battle, there was a “sense of normalcy” in Kabul.
“Traffic was chaotic as one would expect but we also saw bakeries with windows full of fragrant loaves of bread, butchers who despite the heat had lamb carcasses stacked on the sidewalk, internet cafes, shoppers heading to the local market,” Azad narrated.
It was the occasional checkpoints, sightings of soldiers in uniform, and civilians armed with rifles that reminded the writer that these were “turbulent times” for the country. At one point, there is a mention of stepping into a “very different Afghanistan” upon entering a military base.
“There were tree-lined streets with mansions earlier which must have been the reason Kabul was called the Paris of the East,” read the passage.
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A shipping port deal at the airport
When it was Tharoor’s turn at the podium, he jokingly remarked that he had “probably beaten” the combined travel distance of all the book’s contributors.
Indeed, the evening’s most remarkable travel story was about how Tharoor managed to get a seaport built at Thiruvananthapuram through a chance encounter with a businessman at an airport.
As a skilled storyteller, Tharoor began the tale by nonchalantly discussing one of his “biggest challenges” as an MP—getting a port constructed in his constituency. The main hurdle was finding a bidder for the tender.
“As luck would have it, I was standing in the queue to catch a flight when I saw—a couple of places ahead of me—Mr Gautam Adani, whom I’d not met before,” he said.
Tharoor recounted that he approached Adani and spent most of the flight trying to convince the businessman to bid for the port. His effort paid off. The Kerala- government-owned port is now being built by Adani Vizhinjam Ports Pvt. Ltd, a subsidiary of Adani Ports and SEZ Ltd (APSEZ), India’s largest private-sector port operator. It is expected to be fully operational by December 2024.
The MP presented a holistic picture of travel, describing it as a blend of pleasure, expanding one’s horizons, gathering experiences, and meeting people, while also acknowledging the grim side where meetings and deals didn’t work out or the travel went wrong.
“It’s important to realise that travel is not just a physical experience,” Tharoor said. “It is also ultimately in the mind.”
(Edited by Asavari Singh)