Barry O’Farrell: When Australia beats India at cricket, it’s a bad week for us

Unlike most of his counterparts Barry OrsquoFarrell Australian High Commissioner to India prefers the sleeveless bandhgala jacket and no tie Ask him if this is the Indian influence on his fashion choices and he agrees adding that he doesnrsquot like full jackets and wants to throw off colonial shackles by not wearing a tieAn established politician and vocal IndoAustralian relationship advocate for 13 years OrsquoFarrell is on his way back home after a successful threeyear term and will be succeeded by Philip Green In a freewheeling chat with midday OrsquoFarrell talks about how he has seen the IndiandashAustralia scenario change and why his love for butter chicken wonrsquot waneEdited excerpts from the interviewYou have worked for a significant period of time in the field of IndoAustralian relations What has been your experience with India so farIrsquove been coming here since 2010 India is far more confident about its place in the world than when I first arrived If I had to say something about it Irsquod talk about confidence and innovation As I experienced firsthand during the COVID pandemic your innovation knows no boundsOrsquoFarrellrsquos with commentator Harsha Bhogle and Indian President Draupadi Murmu Pic CourtesyTwitterWhat is the major change you have observed since 2010In the year 2010 I was still getting questions about whether Australia was a safe place for students to study in because a small number of assaults had been reported a few years earlier Today I can tell every Indian yes we are safe and donrsquot take my word for it When Indian students were stranded in Australia during the pandemic 80 per cent decided to stay back in Australia They clearly felt safe to stay put and study online They were being supported by the community at large by the universities and the various stakeholdersAnd yoursquove been vocal about your support like when temples in Australia were vandalised in MarchWe regard ourselves as a successful multicultural country with more than 250 ancestries including a growing Indian diaspora We have laws that are antihate speech antivandalism and antigraffiti on temples It is as insulting to an Australian to witness such occurrences in what we think is a peaceful and successful country as it is to for Hindus in IndiaOrsquoFarrellrsquos Twitter feed shows he is passionate about all things India Seen here interacting with school students in West Bengal on West Bengal Day earlier this month Pic CourtesyTwitterWhat has been your most memorable experience of living and working in IndiaThree years after I arrived we finally had Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visit COVID had prevented previous attempts It was great to be with him in Ahmedabad for Diwali but even more when he visited INS Vikrant in Mumbai One is a festival which is part of a great civilization and the other is Indiarsquos first indigenous aircraft carrier which pays respect to the innovation and the entrepreneurial spirit ofthis countryHave you found favourite Indian foodsLook at me I am a foodie I need to be less of a food lover I think laughs Just about every suburb in Australia has an Indian restaurant And I am convinced that from a young age Australians fall in love with what we call butter chicken and what you call murg makhani Although it is not very sophisticated not the fanciest not the most subtle Indian dish I have since discovered that here you do great things with cauliflower which I never thought were possible I hated broccoli as a child but yoursquove managed to in a variety of ways make it edible I love the southern fish curries I was introduced to Mumbairsquos street food by my predecessor and his staff where I arrived in 2010 And I have enjoyed chaat all over IndiaWithout being unkind to my UK colleague British High Commissioner Alex Ellis Irsquoll say that Twitter users both here and in the US call you out if you are seen eating local food with a fork and knife There have been political candidates in the US who have eaten a hamburger with a knife and fork and my good friend Alex Ellis now makes fun of himself for once attacking a south Indian meal with cutlery The last time I saw a picture of him with a south Indian meal the caption said lsquomemo to self donrsquot touch the cutleryrsquoBollywood films are renowned worldwide for their storytelling and music Have you had the opportunity to watch anyIrsquove seen most of the newly released Bollywood films a lot of them on OTT during the COVID pandemic My wife and I did once go to the screening of a movie I canrsquot remember which one We went to one of the great musicals in a cinema in Delhi where some chaps start singing and dancing in the audience There is a lot of colourhellipThatrsquos true for most Indian filmsYes yes And of course my German colleague did a great job of the hook step from Natu Natu and we didnrsquot compete with him because you have to know your limits It is great to see Tollywood and other movies getting acknowledged worldwide I see it as another demonstration of why India should be confident because it is world class in cinema technology and cricketWe were going to come to cricket because we take it so seriously here in IndiaWhen Australia beats India at cricket itrsquos a bad week for the High Commissioner in Delhi I just notice that my Indian counterparts are a bit harder to get on my side I donrsquot know about any other country or any other High Commissioner but Irsquove noticed that we do suffer when we winSufferWell decisions seem to take a bit longer and phone calls arenrsquot answered as quickly But itrsquos only natural because Australians and Indians both are serious about their love for cricket As a former trustee of the Sydney Cricket Ground I know that Australians find the AustraliaIndia test series of more importance than the AustraliaEngland seriesDuring your interactions in India is there a personality who stayed with youWell there are two One is Mr Ratan Tata I have had the privilege of meeting him on a number of occasions To see an enterprise as large as Tata to see the values it reflects because of the family that created it carried on by the magnificent chairman is incredible Too often people like to criticise those who oversee great enterprises Itrsquos a tribute to India to Ratan Tata and to the Tata group that its values are appreciated not just in India but everywhereThe other is Kiran Majumdar Shaw who is an Australian alumnus studied science came back here and created a huge enterprise that again demonstrates the innovation and confidence of India Irsquom sure there are many others When you are a diplomat itrsquos a privilege because you get invited into peoplersquos homes their workplaces into spaces that sometimes ordinary citizens donrsquot get to see in a lifetimeWhat message do you have for your successorGet out of Delhi Delhi is not India anymore than Canberra is Australia This is a very magnificently diverse innovative and energetic country Spending all your time in Delhi is not going to explain to you what Incredible India really is and why democracy is so strong hereWhere do you go from hereYou do your job till your job ends and then you look for your next job So the only thing I have planned is to go back to being a grandparent My youngest son delivered our grandchild last week I will continue to be an advocate for the AustraliaIndia relationship and may go back to what I was doing before I came here which is charitable work