Riding the great Indian wave

Rob Lynes Director British CouncilA few minutes into a conversation with Rob Lynes director India British Council with one eye on the clock I mistakenly refer to the organisation as BritishCouncil Library Lynes is intriguedRob Lynes Director British Council loves walking through hidden alleys of Delhi and Kolkata and discovering the many Indias this country holds on foot PicBipin KokateAnd then mdash See that My biggest problem is right in front of me he exclaims startling me Everywhere I go in India I find an ambivalence about what we really stand for For many it is all about the British Council Library some even call it British Library I am very interested in how young people relate to us mdash it tells me that the British Council has to reimagine its legacy in 21st century India elaborates LynesThe British Council he feels needs to build on its history in the country but also remember that the country it first set foot upon in 1948 was a radically different one than what it is today Back then says Lynes the British Council worked with a small minority of the Indian elite who had access to foreign education why to the English language itself However post 1996 especially after the advent of the Internet India saw unprecedented growth in economy and ambition and had wider access to educational options mdash all of which meant that it began knocking on doors other than the British Councils alone Since then our biggest challenge has been to learn to engage with this rapidlychanging country he saysIn the 80s Lyness sister spent a few years in India and sent him vivid photographs As a young man fresh into his 20s I thought I knew the country well enough That notion was dispelled soon after I first came here in 2011 after taking up this job smiles Lynes He feels that the younger generations in the UK and India are less connected than ever the huge Indian diaspora in the UK notwithstanding Unlike their parents and grandparents youngsters here have no natural connection with the UK and vice versa There is a need to build a new relationship and what better way than to link the two cultures with arts and education he elaboratesLinking cultures is something that Lynes knows only too well having done that often in his lifetime It all began with the idea of escape Lynes grew up in a village in Yorkshire county in the UK and went to a local grammar school Since I was a little boy I knew that moving away to another country was the thing to do Both my parents had emigrated from Canada and I knew no other way of life More so life in Yorkshire was insular every kid who came to school with me lived within a threemile radius There was no question in my mind that I would go overseas when I grew up he remembersLife during the Cold WarLynes studied Russian and Polish in the UK and moved to Berlin for four years during the Cold War But I cannot tell you what I was there for he smiles After Berlin came a yearlong stint in Australia where Lynes retrained as a teacher and later migrated to Budapest for five years to teach Economics He later became Director of one of Hungarys largest language schools Budapest was a hedonistic city even at the height of the Cold War Living in Eastern Europe in the 80s could be quite an experience mdash especially living in countries on either side of the Cold War It was a historical time and change was always around the corner says LynesAs fate would have it Lynes was in Egypt during the 1991 Gulf War He also travelled to Moscow during the 1991 coup in which the Communist Party of the Soviet Union tried to wrestle control of the country out of Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachevs hands I cannot explain it I guess I am always drawn to places where something is happening he shrugsAfter Egypt Lynes briefly lived in Hungary where he met his wife He has two daughters aged 20 and 22In 1995 Lynes returned to the UK and joined the British Council and later moved to Saudi Arabia for three years with his family Lynes remembers those years as very surreal and fraught with changes and challenges to his perceptions I imbibed a different culture altogether mdash my wife was in an abaya restaurants were demarcated for men women and families you and I for instance could have never had a conversation like thisOn the other hand Ive never felt safer mdash there was no violence and I found people to be tolerant All of it made me think deeply about the Western gaze and how it looks at the world outside of itself as either right or wrong But there I was flitting between cultures bringing them together It taught me not to see the world in black and white I stand by it even today no matter where I go emphasises LynesLife in IndiaWhen in India Lynes says lines between his personal and professional life are often blurred I love art In Mumbai I spend my evenings going to gallery openings exhibitions and catching up on cultural events What Lynes loves the most however is discovering the country beyond the big cities His most intimate memories of India include a trip to Orchha in Madhya Pradesh and walking through lanes of Kolkata and Delhi My wife has fallen in love with Indian tribal art and she collects Gond and Warli art these days if I remember correctly he smiles The country is quite the muse for avid painter I paint abstracts and find being in India very inspiring mdash it doesnt feature in my works directly but the colours and freshness I owe to India admits LynesLynes may spend most of his time in big cities but his heart is in the country and the tranquility he left behind as a young boy We have a home in the country in the UK and in a quieter part of Budapest where I know Ill finally live postretirement My wife loves walking and when we are in London on weekends we take off to quiet nearby districts where the green and silence is endless says Lynes fondlyBreaking down hierarchyMeanwhile Lynes pet project in India involves throwing open the British Council to people mdash digitally I want to make British Councils resources accessible to people mdash with one password every journal document every old manuscript even research could be a click away I want to build an environment wherein people can be more involved with British Councils events and cocreate the social interactions they seek Lynes however does not undermine the fact that for a truly meaningful connection between India and the UK offline events are important too I also plan to introduce more platforms in the physical environment he addsLynes hopes to achieve that with a leadership he best defines as one having a strong value system As a leader I believe in constantly learning and am very value and purpose driven I am a passionate leader and prefer to empower people India however is very hierarchical It is quite contradictory because India has a strong entrepreneurial spirit too which goes against hierarchy So I am trying to break down barriers mdash I am trying to tell my team that you are what you do not where you are in the pecking order he concludes