London resident and annual India visitor, Radha Seth Sarwal proudly watches her home country develop into a global powerhouse

David Beckham has his wife’s name tattooed on his forearm – in Hindi!

Everything Bollywood is chic.

India is the holiday destination.

Indian fashions bedeck high street shop windows and Indian writers vie for shelf space in bookstores.

A headline from a press release issued in the summer of 2003: ‘Learn how to dance, Bollywood style; the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum present the hottest dance craze around.’

I could go on and on and on…. Welcome to the New India. I have been out of India for the last ten years. In that time, I have lived in Singapore, Paris, Amsterdam and presently in London. The tables have turned – I look forward to my annual trip ‘back home’ with excitement, but tinged with some trepidation. With every visit I have found myself a little further removed from the familiarity of the country I knew. It has grown, blossomed and matured into a global powerhouse and to me the metamorphosis has been rapid. Going back just once a year has made the changes more apparent to me and more so on my last trip, a few months ago. The obvious ones are the economy and the opening up of domestic markets. Shops are full with anything the heart might desire and I do not recognise the myriad brand of cars on the roads anymore.

But, it goes much deeper than that. Most fundamentally, there has been a change in attitude, one of assertive confidence, probably best described by the manner in which the Indian cricket team goes about its game abroad. There is a ‘we can match the best if we put our mind to it’ kind of attitude, putting firmly into the past the awe with which we viewed the rest of the world. We no longer look to the west – we have come of age. This is us and we love it.

The people I met in Delhi and Mumbai were amazingly upbeat and optimistic regarding the years to come – especially entrepreneurs. My friends talk of a future in India with excitement and enthusiasm. A conversation I had with an acquaintance that runs a web information service illustrates the point. I was chatting with him on the terrace of his office in Mumbai and I commented on the number of buildings under construction that I could see dotting the skyline. He replied by giving me an animated lecture on how vast the urban middle class is and with their new wealth, they want to live better, play better and work better. “India is the place to live in as it affords the best of the east and west. It is very exciting to be part of such growth and resurgence.” I was greatly moved by his fervour and faith – he genuinely believed every word he was saying. This is the change I felt wherever I went.

Another trivial incident but one that speaks of a great confidence – a friend’s driver was giving me a ride when I realised I had left my mobile phone behind and needed to make a rather urgent call. I requested the driver to stop at a roadside shop or phone booth so that I could make that call. He immediately delved into his pocket and offered me his mobile. I have to confess I was taken aback. The mobile was his own and he explained that it was important to him that his wife and aged parents keep in touch with him. I thought about that for many days and realised that life for many has gone beyond merely surviving. There is quality to life and the pursuit of pleasure and peace of mind.

Here, in London, there has been a huge change in the perception of India in general and Indians in particular. Hardly a week goes by in the financial press without a report regarding outsourcing, call centres and IT off-shoring, or without the fashion and media journals waxing lyrical about a fashion designer, artist or film director. Indian haute couture was virtually unknown until a decade ago. This has changed progressively with international celebrities and socialites starting to experiment with wearing outfits designed by Indian designers. Prominent among these have been Cherie Blair, wife of the current British Prime Minister; Madonna, the ever-inventive pop star and the Oscar-winning actress, Dame Judi Dench. French actress, Sophie Marceau donned gowns by designers, Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla in a Bond film, The World Is Not Enough.

The country’s fashion is also making a global impact – designer, Ritu Beri is being hailed as the new Stella McCartney and other Indian fashion designers such as Rohit Bal and Hemant Trevedi are creating ripples on the international fashion scene. The ethnic platform which appealed to a mainly Indian audience and on which they built their reputation, has given way to a repertoire that has universal appeal. When Hermes starts to sell saris one knows Indian fashion has arrived in more ways than one.

When I was growing up in the ’70s, the popularity of Indian films outside India was usually accompanied by the legendary story of how well known Raj Kapoor was in the USSR and that when Russians met Indians they would break the ice by singing, Mera joota hai Japani, from Shree 420. Well, the USSR has been consigned to history and Bollywood has captivated the imagination of the world. The vibrant colours, the dazzling costumes and the energetically choreographed dance sequences – love them or hate them – there is nothing quite like it on celluloid anywhere in the world. Andrew Lloyd-Webber caught the pulse and created the musical Bombay Dreams which opened in the heart of London’s West End five years ago running to packed houses.

In the final analysis, if I had to encapsulate the change in a single word then it would be – CHOICE. The freedom to choose what we want and I don’t mean just materially. It is the choices we have in career, entertainment, travel, business, medicine, banking, education and to know that whatever we choose, there are no boundaries. We have left the baggage of our colonial past behind and we are now comfortable in our own skins – and very proud of it too.

We have come a long way from the greasy Indian curry takeaway that was India’s claim to fame and the kitschy fashion trinkets sold in flea markets across the world. Indeed, today, we are the new India!

[Having written, produced and acted in numerous ad films and television serials for over 12 years, Radha Seth Sarwal left India in 1994. She and her husband are self-confessed travel addicts, hopping around the English countryside and northern Europe in their single-engine aircraft.]