Beijing:
It is always considered difficult to do business in an alien country, where language and culture are different than our parent country. One such example can be China.
But there are a few intrepid Indians who have made China their home and are flourishing in Beijing.
Nearly two decades ago, he left Mumbai to overcome a business failure and came to China. Now in distant Beijing, Mehrnosh Pastakia has a growing business empire and a Chinese wife.
The couple met a month after Pastakia landed in Beijing and got married six years later; now, he is the owner of three Indian restaurants. The mixed marriage has clearly not proved to be a handicap for Pastakia, a Parsi from good old Mumbai.
"We are often asked if tensions between India and China affect us. We normally ignore such developments. Personally, we never face any problems," says Wen, Pastakia's wife, to which Pastakis adds, "One-on-one there is never any tension."
For Manish and Monica Chopra too, Beijing has proved to be a lucky place. Originally from Nagpur, the Chopras have integrated with the locals very well; they were the only Indian among 26 foreigners to join the Chinese National Day parade on October 1.
"All those who were on the float were Friendship Award winners. Those were foreigners bringing up some programmes in China. That was the reason we were rewarded back by being invited in the National Day parade," says Monica Chopra.
The recent bumps in Sino-Indian relationship has not deterred the small Indian community in Beijing from being a part of the China success story.