My story of India started in London,” says Anna Tryc-Bromley, director of Polish Institute in the City. Working for Hewlett-Packard in Britain then, Anna found her Indian colleague optimistic and cheerful but never thought that one day she would be working with Indians in India!
Prior to entering cultural diplomacy, Anna was into corporate and crisis PR. “I like to talk and listen to the other person and then try to look for a solution,” she says as she goes back and forth narrating her course of career. Sitting inside her office stationed inside the pristine Polish Embassy, she allows one to browse through various brochures that are designed for various events which aim to promote Polish culture here.
“My grandfather’s library had a biography of Mahatma Gandhi and Pt Nehru, in Polish,” she remembers adding, “So India was known to me since I was a child but never thought that one day I would be promoting my culture in this country!”
Hailing from a family of historians and Polish filmmakers, she distinctly remembers how her Indian colleagues used to be “gentle and conveyed their thought with a flexibility of mind back in London.” Later when she started promoting Polish culture, she met a lot of Indian authors and artistes and “felt more prepared to come to this country.”
“The first week after coming here, I went to see the Taj Mahal and visit Bikaner. I also like Udaipur a lot and feel that it can be advertised among tourists,” she says pointing towards pictures of Maharani and Maharaja suites in Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur.
“These are done by Polish artists and of special significance is the coronation room.” Her face lits up as the connection between her home country and India gets evident.
In love with Ladakh and books (on women travellers) and music, she relishes Indian food at home and tries to understand the lyrics at ghazal concerts. “I want the people here to know about Polish culture and therefore keep developing collaborative ideas. At my farewell, people said the job won’t be easy since India is a big country.
They even advised me to ‘Go easy and with the flow. Look around and things will come’. This has actually worked,” she says from her past one-year experience. “My ex-boss said that cultural diplomacy is not like personal business that can be switched off at 5 pm!” Well said!
Heeding to the advice, she has been a successful part of the Jazz Festival that was recently organised by ICCR and now looks ahead to represent Poland as the Focus Country at Delhi Book Fair next year. “Only thing that I find hard is to remember the names, specially of Bollywood films but I enjoyed watching the one which narrate human interest stories and also listening to Honey Singh’s music,” she signs off on that candid note.