It's been about a week since I landed in India. I spent sometime in London and Istanbul, on my way here. I've been looking forward to India more than the other two destinations, perhaps, because I havent been back to India in 7 years, while have had the chance to be in the other two more often and more recently.
The roads have improved a little, foreign cars ply the roads, people flaunt designer clothing (or shabby counterfiets) with bourgeoisie arrogance. There are still poor people, very many of them, hidden behind the new multiplexes, malls and restaurants that have cropped up everywhere. I'm happy that I can down a Maharaja Mac after a movie at PVR. But at the same time, all the hoo-hah about India's growth is hard for me to digest. Mostly because the benefactors of this growth are the elite and the upper middle class. The poor sections of society still get a raw deal. Newspapers carry stories of suicides due to crop failures, farmers inability to pay agricultural loans, land grab by politicians and corporates, bribery, corruption and scandal. But not in the frontpages. The media too has learnt that no one wants to hear about this, and so on page 8 or 12 you'll find a 200 word blurb that talks about the inequity that still exists in this country. And our growth rate this year is slated to be 11-12%, compared to the 2% that the United States will see.
My friends from high school, all uber-rich kids or those with powerful parents, talk about how exciting a time this is for India. How their businesses are making money at volumes their parents would have thought impossible at their time. For them, I am a "chootiah," who picked the wrong time to work abroad. One of my friends was kind enough to include me in this project his dad has him working on. It's probably going to be the second largest retail chain in India after the Bharti-Walmart combine. "We'll have a great time, yaar. You'll be one of the youngest executives in the retail sector. Think of all the fun you could have with the cute gals we'll hire at our outlets. Big time masti dude!" I spent 2 days with him to explore what was on offer. I think that I'm better off where I am. The wheeling-and-dealing, the subtle incentivisation of government officials to give priority to your paper work, the paying off of unions to not protest foreign retail chains, the recommendations from politicians and bureaucrats to appoint their kin within the company. Two days of shadowing, and I knew this couldnt be my career. To someone who knew India intimately well in the 1980s, the India of today is just the same, only much more sophisticated and where the brashness of the past has been replaced with a touch of finesse. It has the same underbelly.
The economics and inequality aside, I'm having a great time here. This place is so much fun. You can party every night and there are so many different kinds. Bhangra parties, themed parties, college parties, yuppie parties, embassy parties, art-folk parties. Parties here and parties there. I was at a party recently, and was put on Page 3, with a friend and his cute companion. I am not one for partying, but somehow I connect with the party scene here. And every party I have been to lately, has been fun. I've met very interesting (and cute) people. Made some new friends. And I have realised one thing. And I say this at the cost of being called a MCP; the Indian gals who come to parties here are just so f**king hot, that they leave our Ameriki desi gals behind by leagues. They may be a bit poor, but way more cute, way easier to talk to and much much more down to earth. "This is reason enough for you to come back to the matri-bhoomi," an old girlfriend remarked when we went out to an art display at the habitat center.
This place I knew so intimately well has changed so much. But not so much at all. I feel a part of this place more than the India that I knew when I was young. But I dont want to be a part of it at all. I'm having such a great time here; the food, the faces and the fame. But it doesnt seem real. It's a funny feeling, being in India after 7 years.
