Business Dress for Delhi Event

Manda.Elle

Hello,

This is my first post in this wonderful forum but since I have spent countless hours reading past posts and benefitting from the wisdom herein, I owe you all a huge thank-you before I even begin!

I am a 23 year old English entrepreneur travelling to India with some important UK MPs and business people for a televised business debate with similar individuals in Delhi. I have never been to India before but thoroughly enjoyed travelling through Thailand and Cambodia and as such plan to stay on and do some travelling after the event, backpacking mainly.

My concern is having to take business suits / shoes for this event in Delhi and then carry them around for another 3 weeks unused taking up space in my pack. I considered just buying a cheap suit I can 'dump' out there but it is a really important delegation and I don't want to be wearing a cheap suit!

Would it be suitable for a white girl in delhi to meet Indian government officials wearing Indian dress? What, in your opinion, would be most suitable and comfortable?

I know that the subjects of what-to-wear in such and such situiation are somewhat done to death and I sincerely apologise for that but business dress seems not to feature in the forum archives.

Thank you in (hopeful) advance of any advice!

Manda

machadinha

Hi, and welcome to IndiaMike.

Seeing how you plan to be backpacking afterwards, certainly many of the budget hotels, and certainly in Delhi, will offer luggage storage. You don't normally have to be a guest to use the services even. Prices are a couple of Rupees per item of luggage per day, it works out quite cheap. Your bag or whatever you're leaving behind needs to be lockable, and locked (including any external compartments, or they must be empty), presumably to stop you from claiming anything was taken from the afterwards.

If you use some place that has a clear steady flow of clients, it should be perfectly safe.

If a business suit or Indian dress would be more advisable, I can't tell you. I reckon you'd probably feel more naturally comfortable in the former, which to me would seem a plus.

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PeakXV

When our company met with government officials, one investor/manager(lady) decided to dress in Indian attire and so angered our Indian JV partners that WWIII almost started. I don't think the government officials minded so much but our JV partners felt that their hand-picked 'western techological expertise' could/would/did lose respect for this in the presentation/selling process.

I think your situation is different but my point is that perhaps 'the dress code' should be discussed beforehand with all pertinent peers/parties.

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We shall not cease from exploration and at the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started ...and know the place for the first time.
T.S. Eliot

Don't go to India ~ Pre-trip Warnings & Misconceptions?

Manda.Elle

Thank you for your reply and your welcome, this certainly does seem like a good option! Sadly I am flying into Delhi and out of Mumbai so would not be able to do this.


Well I certainly wouldn't want to be known as the person responsible for WWIII !

SteamBuff

Why don't you change out of your suit after the meetings and give your suits/shoes to one of your business collegues to bring back to the UK?

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Huffing & Puffing along ... The Steamy One!

machadinha

Indeed. Alternatively, you could ship it home for not a lot of money.