Philosopher envoy working hard for closer ties

India`s current ambassador has only been in the job for just 2-1/2 months, but he`s been extra busy showing visiting delegations around and meeting local companies and government officials so he can push relations to an even higher level.

"Korea is very important in the region and getting more important, and so is India. What is fantastic in our relations is the way they are growing. It is like being in the right place at the right time," N. Parthasarathi said in an interview with The Korea Herald.

Exuding excitement and energy, the 51 year-old envoy openly discussed how he changed careers, his philosophy about Indian society and religion, and his plans and hopes on bringing together two opposite sides of Asia.

Looking to improve relations between India and South Korea, Parthasarathi is looking into every angle.

"We just had a cultural dance performance. Our president will be coming in the next few months... ministers are coming. We are going to develop tourism. We are increasing the capacity to issue more visas. Right now we issue 50,000 visas to Koreans every year," he said.

Both countries share good political relations. In terms of commerce, there are huge investments underway, such as a 12.4 trillion won mining and production plant in the northeastern state of Orissa which will output an estimated 12 million tons of steel annually.

"It`s a mind boggling amount. It`s an old state with an old steel mill. It`s an area with lots of iron and nearby there`s a port," he said.

He meets regularly with so many industry leaders and chambers of commerce and others dealing with economy and trade that he`s fast becoming an expert in Korean commerce and the political system.

On the cultural side, Parthasarathi is arranging a Buddhist exhibition with special artifacts from India. "We also want to host an India week with lots of events," he said.

"There is one guy who is interested in doing something to improve relations" is the message he repeats over and over, saying he feels the key to promoting relations is by creating friendships among both peoples.

Married for 26 years with two daughters, Parthasarathi started off as an engineer 30 years ago before being advised by friends to join the Foreign Service.

"In engineering the field is narrow but the Foreign Service gives you a broad canvas. It also gives you the freedom to identify the areas which are in your country`s interest so you can do a lot. For example, we deal with small projects to a giant steel mill; it`s (POSCO deal) a massive project. I`m trying to facilitate that. So it gives a fantastic opportunity to do a lot and I`ve never regretted it (switching careers)."

So, is it all work and no play? Not by a long shot - Parthasarathi enjoys golf, playing bridge and writing novels.

He wrote a thriller, in the style of Sydney Sheldon and Dan Brown, which is available at www.amazon.com.

"It`s a real thriller. I mixed everything in it," he said. "It`s set in India and Pakistan. It`s a fast-reading book. When reading it, you get to learn as well as read a good story."

Titled "The Reluctant Assassin," it is a story about a boy from a simple background born in India whose mother lives in India while his father is in Pakistan. The boy grows up in India and flees to neighboring Pakistan to avoid the police. Once there he is trained as a terrorist and eventually gets into politics.

"It`s got everything, assassinations, terrorism plots, religions, feudalism," Parthasarathi said.

But today`s India is anything but fictional. That country is exploding in its development of biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and knowledge-based technologies.

"The requirement for such professionals will mean a shortage in the coming years, even in India," he said. "Not only because people are leaving, it`s because the growth is progressing so fast that we are not able to meet the requirements."

Parthasarathi explained that India is showing fantastic growth, moving along swiftly from a developing country toward an industrialized country with a momentum that will make it one of the world`s leading economies within the next 15 years.

"The only problem we are facing is that our population is large. We have more than a billion people," he said.

He said India was virtually a continent, with every state different in terms of culture, language and script. He noted there are 16 officially recognized languages in India and every religion is present within its borders.

"Yet it`s not a melting pot. It`s not like a soup where all the ingredients have merged to form one identity. It`s like a salad bowl which is also a beautiful dish but each ingredient usually maintains its own characteristic. Put them together and they work together and that is India," he said.

A Hindi by birth, Parthasarathi explained that in India there are thousands of gods and more being created all the time. For example a few years ago there was no deity named Santoshi Ma but someone made a film and said this is a goddess and now there are millions of followers.

"We try to understand our surroundings and adapt ourselves and gather material wealth and try to do everything but the question is how much time have we spent to understand ourselves.

"If we don`t understand what is the point of making so much money, where does it take us. We used to be comfortable in the suburb areas then moved to the cities to work for five days just to run away to our weekend home. But the funny thing is that you had it already!" he said jokingly.

(yoav@heraldm.com)

By Yoav Cerralbo