Jacqui Allan, of the British Council, knows that her home is where her heart is — India. By Purabi Shridhar.

Light cream kurti and straight pants with just that small touch of turquoise blue sequins, a deftly managed dupatta, flowing hair and so-much-at-home mien, it is difficult to believe that she has been here for a year-and-half only and is not to the country born. Jacqui Allan, the Education Promotion Manager-India, British Council is an unabashed Indophile and proud of it!

Proud owner of six ‘salwar-kameezes’, Jacqui is all excited about wearing her first sari for an evening do. “I’ve been told to keep safety pins handy to tuck it in properly. I’m going to do just that!” she says, all enthused.

Before her posting here, Jacqui had visited India four times. So when the vacancy cropped up she naturally jumped at it. “Something about India gets to you. It did to me from my very first visit. My first trip was to South India and I felt this strong affinity with the people.

The people, the colours, the food, the clothes and more than the exotic orient bit, it was the feeling of being at home. India is so regionalised; you can’t say one part of the country is like another. It’s just endlessly fascinating.”

On The Go
Luckily for Jacqui, her job keeps her on the go. Armed with a degree in psychology from Aberdeen University followed by another in marketing, she finds education an exciting field to be in. “My job is to promote the United Kingdom as a study destination,” she says adding with pride that it ranks second after USA for Indian students.

Every year, says Jacqui, more Indian students are heading to the UK for higher studies: “This year, more than 12,000 students are headed for the UK. Since 1992 there has been a yearly increase of 25 per cent.” The girl-boy ratio among students leaving for the UK for specialised studies appears to be 50-50.

Even as Jacqui is busy promoting UK as a study destination, she also looks forward to the day when there is a reversed trend with India attracting British students. She sees no reason why “in the next coming years, maybe in 15 years or so, the trend will reverse. There are fascinating institutions here. Besides, we’ve had close historic links and anyway, students are becoming mobile.”

Going Local
Her job keeps Jacqui busy involving as it does frequent hip-hopping between the four metros and other states as well. For someone who took to India from the word go, Jacqui is ‘horrendously embarrassed’ at her inability to pick up Hindi. That however, didn’t stop her from watching ‘Devdas’, which she found quite spectacular as also ‘Monsoon Wedding.’ Before her tenure is up, she is determined to improve her Hindi.

If there is however, anything that falls short it is that she cannot walk to work. “In my earlier posting at Edinburgh I walked to office and back. I was so used to walking and now I find that I’m unable to do so here. I’ve forced to find ways to exercise.”