H&M India's country manager Janne Einola is in love with all things desi

It’s been a year since Janne Einola, country manager at H&M India, shifted base to New Delhi from Finland, and he’s finally beginning to feel at home. His first few days here came as a culture shock though, he said, with all the noise and traffic. Now he’s fallen in love with the country, Einola said, when ETPanache caught up with him recently.

Einola calls himself a foodie with a weakness for dosas, butter chicken, chapatis and other Indian delicacies. So he often tries to recreate them in his kitchen. "I try but I can’t say I’m half as authentic. I have a long way to go. I love the variety of spices used in Indian cooking, but it gets too heavy, so I can’t have it every day," he says, smiling.


Janne Einola with actress Parineeti Chopra. (Image: BCCL)

Einola’s pet peeve, however, is getting to the supermarket, which takes him about an hour with all the traffic. "In Finland, picking all the groceries and getting back home was done in an hour’s time. Here, it’s a different story," he groused. Looks like grocery shopping in India could take some getting used to for Einola.