As President Nikos Christodoulides bounded down the stairs affixed to the side of the Cyprus Airways jet which had flown him to Mumbai on Wednesday, there was little surprise among the waiting press over his outfit choice.
Nehru jackets – sleeveless vests made famous by late Indian prime minister Jawarhalal Nehru – are as common in India as what Europeans would consider to be a regular suit, if not more common, and as such no eyebrows were raised among the local photographers.
The Cypriot journalists who had followed him across Asia had been briefed on Christodoulides’ planned attire, given that, as one may expect, he was not wearing a Nehru jacket when he boarded the flight at Larnaca airport in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Both Nehru jackets, the grey worn on Wednesday and the navy blue worn on Thursday and Friday, were offered to him by the Indians in advance of his trip, with a choice of colours given to the government.
Orange, the colour of the jacket worn by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during her own visit to India, was also offered to Christodoulides, and while he decided against, his aversion to the colour was compensated for by European Affairs Deputy Minister Marilena Raouna, who wore top-to-toe orange on Thursday.
After being greeted by the waiting dignitaries at the airport and then whisked across Mumbai in an armed convoy on closed roads, Christodoulides was, in the most literal sense, welcomed to the Taj Mahal Palace hotel with a song and dance.
Dance troupes both inside and outside the hotel’s main entrance exhibited their talents for Christodoulides and members of his government to see, while he and everyone walking through the door was given a scarf.
Following the conclusion of the festivities, the first serious engagement got underway, with Christodoulides laying a wreath at the monument to those who died inside the hotel during a terrorist attack in 2008, followed by a more light hearted event – the announcement of a Bollywood film to be shot in Cyprus.
Readers of the Cyprus Mail who are also Bollywood fans – and there is a crossover – swiftly pointed out that the planned film will not constitute the first shooting of a Bollywood film in Cyprus, given that a three-minute scene of the 2013 hit Race 2 was filmed on the island.
However, the new film will be the first to be shot and produced in its entirety in Cyprus.
Thursday’s business meetings offered a glimpse into the theatre of corporate life, with the men on the stage at the Cyprus-India business forum heaping praise upon one another in among the serious efforts made by all to secure photo opportunities and firm handshakes.
With business chatter in full swing, the political and journalistic wings of the delegation headed back to the airport, though only after gifts could be bestowed unto Christodoulides, including a painting of his parents.
From Mumbai, the delegation flew to New Delhi, where Christodoulides, wearing his second Nehru jacket, was given his most extravagant welcome yet, with scores of soldiers standing to attention to be inspected and a military band playing along to his walk up a red carpet.
The hotel in New Delhi offered a similar reception to that of Mumbai, with dancers, live music and each arriving Cypriot being given mala beads by people decked out in traditional clothing.
On the Thursday night, most of the New Delhi delegation ate in the same restaurant, offering a glimpse into the dietary preferences and thus the personalities of those who lead the country.
Transport Minister Alexis Vafeades, measured and cultured as he is, is a dhal man, though disappointingly, a number of members of the delegation, who shall remain unnamed so as to protect their identity, were seen eating chips in the expensive Indian restaurant.
On Friday, Christodoulides met both Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Droupadi Murmu, with Modi first up to bat.
When Modi had met Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni earlier in the week, he had presented her with a packet of Melody, an Indian toffee sweet, though no such small gift was forthcoming when Christodoulides arrived at Hyderabad House.
This may be in part because the Melody gift drew backlash from Indian opposition politicians, who were said by Thursday’s edition of the Times of India to have been “in a flap”, decrying the move as insensitive amid sharp rises in the cost of living leaving many Indians struggling to make ends meet.
Indian Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, for example, said that Modi “wants the public to enjoy the ‘melody’ of speeches’ while surviving the ‘misery’ of his government’s loot”.
Equally, it is possible that there is no Indian sweet of which the name sounds a bit like ‘Christodoulides’.
Hyderabad House was large and mostly lavish, with white walls adorned with expensive paintings and soft, patterned carpets only broken up by the odd courtyard or fountain. Long, heavy, sweeping curtains separated the rooms to keep the heat out.
It also opened eyes to the extent of the security measures being taken throughout the trip, as it was the first time that the journalists’ contingent found itself on the opposite side of the metaphorical fence to the politicians.
There was no brass band playing for the journalists’ arrival. Instead, the contingent ambled through a side gate and was met by a group of stern security guards, who relieved us of most of the things in our bags, including all liquids, medication, and packs of tissues.
Once inside, we were led into a dark room to wait to be allowed into the press conference hall, and after the press conference, the televisual journalists’ mood was not lifted at all by the fact that other security guards forbade them from filming anywhere on the residence’s grounds.
A similar fate befell the journalistic delegation when Christodoulides met Murmu at the even lavisher Rashtrapati Bhavan. The building was a rusty colour and vast, with a dome in its dead centre and various statues and sculptures in its expansive garden.
It sits at one end of a wide boulevard, with the India Gate at the other, with both imposing figures giving the centre of Delhi a sense of occasion. Guards in brilliant white manned the front door and stood on duty in the hallways, while the ballroom featured hand-painted murals on its walls and its ceiling.
However, a miscommunication somewhere along the trail meant that despite the Indian presidential palace requesting for no press to be present, the press was present.
Having joined the convoy across New Delhi and entered through the front gate of the frankly enormous and red presidential palace, the journalists followed the rest of the delegation into the ballroom and began taking pictures, before being accosted by an impeccably dressed and slightly furious man.
He hoofed us out of the ballroom and told his subordinates to guide us to the building’s visitor reception, which became our holding cell for a while.
Initially, we were told that we would have to remain in place until the entirety of the Cypriot delegation left at once, but after one television correspondent threw a veritable wobbly, the process was expedited and a van took us back to the hotel.
Of those who were allowed to be there, Raouna and Vafeades in particular both praised the quality of the banquet meal to high heaven thereafter, with Vafeades especially impressed by the dessert – a stuffed vine leaf with coconut and mint on the inside.
After the end of the banquet and a couple of hours’ worth of sleep at the hotel, all that was left was for Christodoulides, again donning a Nehru jacket, to be waved off at the airbase in New Delhi, and be presented with a photo album of the highlights of his trip, before the chocks were taken away and the group headed back to Cyprus.
Click here to change your cookie preferences