Glimpse of India

Nirva picking at the wonderful world outside....

Wonderful Chariot Temple at Hampi. Capital of 13th century King Krishna Devrai.
Sculputures at the temples of Hampi.
An ancient bridge across the Tungbhadra river 

Part 4 ..........Random Thoughts.....


* Interestingly, the urban India is buying the word “Lifestyle”. Otherwise, how can you pay Rs. 30 for a coffee and still have to get up from your table to self serve? The Café Coffee Day is to India what is Starbucks to US. It is expensive but still cool to be in and to be seen there… So you find young generation “hanging out” at CCDs and venting to each other about the day’s work. I think, middle class India has always been value-based purchaser but now it is changing. From modern art to weird shaped glass work to branded children clothing, the upper middle class is paying more for an item than it is worth. Like Rs. 110 for a mocktail called “Sidecar” at a three-star restaurant.

* If you ask your maid in Banglore to clean bathroom, she will. If you ask the same to the rama in Ahmedabad, he won’t. You ask your cook in Banglore to not put too much oil in the food, she follows. If you comment on half pound ghee that your Amdavadi chef puts in Pulav, he snaps back “that is how it is cooked”!

*If you are ready to pay money, you can have all the comforts available at touch of a phone. Customer service also rapidly spreading in urban services vendors. Banks, Beauty Salons, Mall Shops, Restaurants, Rental Cars, Airports, Hotels, you will be able to do your business smoothly most of the time. Again if you go to city area, small vendors, Railway stations, way of doing business has not changed much. Even in shining Gujarat, you have a brand new shiny domestic airport in Ahmedabad where about few thousand people are served but the railway stations serving tens of thousands of people everyday has the same stinking stench that was there ten years ago.

* I personally think that over centuries while emphasizing a lot on social values, we forgot the need for personal value system. What I mean by that is, in day to day life, there is so much lack of honesty, respect for time or hard work, maturity to deal with differences, and courage to speak the truth. From a maid not telling you about her intentions of not coming the next day to government employee extorting petty amount which is not posted on the official board to hotel managers who do not show anything but executive suite even if they have other empty rooms, these experiences have power to eventually tire you out and make you give in to the system.

* You would not believe your eyes when you see frontal nudity ,in an English pop song, around 10pm (India’s prime family time slot) on one of the Indian channel – AXN and wait to hear the news that some broadcast employee got fired for negligence, it does not happen. What did happens was, when actress Khushbu made a statement about young girls’ ‘state of open mind’, it fired a huge political debate and protests too. It did not remain about the young girls versus old values, it became English Speaking vs. Tamil Speaking, Tamil vs. non-Tamil, Khushbu vs. politicians. Someone went on to say that “Tamil values are different than Hindu values and so other Hindus do not understand us.” So even today, for better or worse, the barometer of culture is women and what she eats, drinks, wears, does, and says.
*In my opinion, even though India has far more women CEOs and entrepreneurs than Western countries, the social life is simpler for them if they take back-seat, be quite, and do what is expected of them. And I think most women, including the ones surfing on the outsourcing waves, are still very grounded.

*And so may be these centuries of efforts to manage day to day household duties, that upper middle class Indian women have come out and now adopted their own “outsourcing”. It is not just zadu-pauchha-kapada-bartan duties that is outsourced, now it is also cooking, cutting vegetables, party hosting, tending to children, drying of machine washed wet clothes, serving guests and so on…….. for a working couple, it is a blessing to get such services at very low cost but can’t you even make a trip to mall without ayah? In our apartments, I saw women gossiping about neighbors while their child care takers supervise children in play area. In malls, I saw toddlers being fed by ayah in the corner while parents were simply enjoying the experience. At a friend’s place, I saw a nine year old poor girl accompanying a five year old girl to entertain the younger one all day. Of course, one can argue that if not employed here the nine year old could have been doing dishes at some place! Still, I feel that earlier it was only in workplace where we complained about lack of respect for hard work, now it has gone into our households. And it it is not jealousy that makes me say this, it is a sad feeling. And these stay at home women with parade of maids, cooks, and ayahs still complain about lack of time ‘to do’ anything creative. I too had hired a cook for 3-4 days to get the experience but frankly speaking as a non-working person I just could not bear not doing anything while she cooked, thanks to 9 years of American Experience (hard work). May be if we move back, I hope, one day I will be free of the guilt :-)

Part 3 ..............Infrastructure, Growth, Politics, and all that…

Much has been said, heard, and debated about Banglore infrastructure. I have only this to say that back in 1990 somebody forgot to send the memo to BDA (Banglore Development Authority), Banglore Mahangar Palike, and Karnataka Government that Banglore isn’t a village anymore! Forget words like Metro city, Mega city, Hi-Tech city, IT hub of Asia Pacific, the road, traffic, and airport conditions are not even par to any other large Indian cities. When you see infrastructure progress in cities like Delhi, Hyderabad, and Ahmedabad, you wonder what were the Karnataka decision makers doing throughout 90s? Ahmedabad has done tremendous job in terms of creating new roads, connecting city’s remote areas through outer ring roads, and controlling pollution(still much more than compared to Banglore). Gujarat has very fast and safe highways on most busy routes and work is still in progress. I hear the same about Hyderabad and Delhi.

If you attempt to travel outside the Banglore, it will easily take you anywhere from 2-3 hours to just get out of the city and once you are out, the non-national highways are in mess. And the mess is very dangerous due to sudden diversions, pot holes, and lack of entry/exit control for people and vehicles on the highway. i.e you will find cows, people etc crossing roads in middle of 60-70 kph traffic, the opposite traffic flow between to entry point will be against you as they don’t want to waste time and petrol by merging and taking U turn after few kilometers. And it is not just funny or embarrassing but very dangerous as you spot many accidents along the roadside. On positive side the newly constructed Banglore-Mysore road is in excellent condition and provides you with very eye pleasing landscape of coconut trees, paddy fields, and banana plantations. And one can learn a lot about “how to live life” just by reading writings on the trucks i.e. famous TATA and Ashok Leyland loris. Few examples:
“buri najarwale tera bhi bhala ho.” a new twist on old classic
“vaqt se pahele or kismat se jyada kisiko kucch nahin milta.”
“ham do hamara ek.”
“soch ke socho kya leke jaoge?” who needs Covey’s 7H?

So of course, it is all politics that hinders the growth of any kind. Mr. Narayan Murthy of Infosys was wrongfully accused by ex-PM Dev Gowda for doing nothing for Banglore and so Mr. Murthy righteously resigned from Banglore Airport Committee. Mr. Dev Gowda ,whose party was supporting Congress govt in Karnataka, was stumped by his own son who wanted to form his own govt by BJP support!!!! Oh what was that? “jaisi karni waisi bharni” Even though the Karnataka government was toppled by the classic loyalty shifting politics, good thing is that the coalition concept is now matured in India and have seen few stable parliaments also. Also, Bihar said “bye bye” to his own favorite son Laloo Prasad Yadav after 15 years of ‘andheri raaj’ in favor of better future. While Gujarat praja still worships it’s own Narendra Modi ,who has been instrumental for the state’s progress, but still fails to bring any new business or MNCs to the state due to haunting memories of Gujarat riots. So he is a unique example of not only how a good leader can do good for his people but also how a lapse in critical judgment from a leader can cause so much damage!

Part 2 ......Television, Media, Entertainment ………..

As we all know, the Television reflects a society’s true identity JJJJ In India, it is at least true when it comes to the Cricket. There are about 5-6 sports channel and most of the time (at least when I happen to browse 7-8 times in a day) the Cricket is on ,with either live match or “old classics”, which definitely reflects the country’s love for the game. Just like any other kind of program the increase in quantity (coverage time) has decreased the quality so you find “experts” or commentators making useless conversation/statements to fill the time. The over-analysis definitely gives chance to former cricketers to be on TV and make some extra money. The cool graphic technology showing Shoaib Akhtar’s pitches to Sachin Tendulkar in Red vs. Shoaib’s pitches to Dhoni in Blue sure gives some graphic designer chance to make earning. And 2 second ball throwing shown into crisp and clear slow motion for 10 seconds does give some beginner chance to learn the top notch baller’s technique microsecond at a time…. but is it fair when the Lok Sabha decides to talk about the “Saurav Ganguly” issue? The idea was dropped eventually but should not there be any limit to this fever or don’t other sports deserve at least some of the attention? I mean it is fun to watch Dhoni slamming a sixer on Shoaib’s balling but come on…..

One can’t talk about Indian TV or media without talking about the omnipresent Big B. Yes, Mr. Amitabh Bachchan ,a true living legend, is everywhere, movies, commercial, game show, media interviews and still people don’t get enough of him. He has a stomach ache and the country has a heart ache. He is probably worthy of all the attention but country’s appetite for celebrity has grown a lot. Even reputed news channels have to report on Aamir Khan’s reception dinner menu. Just like in US, the paparazzi is following anyone is on TV for more than five minutes and reporting on it. There is a dedicated channel named Zoom which talks about nothing but celebrities. There are two channels dedicated to fashion that show Western and European fashion shows round the clock. There about 3-4 cartoon/kids’ channel where most of the programs shown are foreign but some home grown programs are also of good quality. Few channels like ZCafe and StarWorld are dedicated to American TV and targeted to young urban population. If one happens to stop browsing at a fine Kathak or a ghazal presentation it will invariably be good old Doordarshan. Doordarshan is becoming more like PBS with it’s good quality programming that pretty much nobody watches! That is when you realize that Indian TV too has become more like American TV, far from reality and all about the fame and fab. There is “Indian Idol” with not so talented singers unlike “Sa Re Ga Ma”, “Natch Baliye” with celebrity dance competition, “Coffee with Karan Johar” where celebrities mingle like childhood friends.

One comes to appreciate the rating system of American TV when one sees the unbelievable garbage on Indian TV specifically the movies songs and promos. Most of the movies have an item song to which apparently the censor board rules or regulations don’t apply. These songs/scenes are literally vulgar in nature and so are many of the music videos. Every Raju and Mala are coming up with their own version of old classics with added beats and obscene videos but absolute lack of added creativity or value. It is sad to see singer of Sonu Nigam’s caliber singing “kajara mohbbatwala …..” remix but well, it sells.

The best thing about Indian television is still commercials. Commercial is story telling in very very very short period of time like 15-20 seconds and the creative Indian commercial makers are still sticking to the idea. Some of the best commercials these days are:
- Tata Salt, where a boy wants to have ready made pizza and his traditional mom refuses but of course, being mom she makes it herself in her traditional kitchen using coconut grater to grate cheese and tawa to bake the pizza
- State Bank of India, where two very very old sisters are traveling some 48 hours in train (playing cards and reading magazines) and all that to wish their younger brother ,an old man himself, “Happy Birthday Chhotu.”

Anyway, it is hard to explain the wonderful art of advertisement in words but it sure justifies why one used to stick to TV for 45 minutes before the Sunday Feature Film presentation! You also see country’s obsession with fairness by seeing every other commercial about “fairness” including fairness crème for men (why should they be abandoned in the race for fairness). There are probably 100 products (yes, there is a bit of exaggeration) who promise face color changing from unpolished wheat to polished ones! So there is also a counter ad where a wise woman says “na shwet, na shyam, mujhe banana hai mujh jaisa…..” Well said.


Part 1 ... Living.........

We have not seen the Palm Meadows – the California style upscale single family home community – that was featured in the San Jose Mercury but are lucky enough to find temporary housing in similar community.

Of course, the story begins with the first visit. Even though we hunted for short term accommodation for a week and not being successful, we made up our mind to not rent the place while going to Purva Fairmont by car in literally muddy, dirty and bumpy roads. But met the realtor just for the sake of courtesy as we had decided to meet. The security at the main gate and the front of the community looked nice and impressive. And once inside it immediately gave the feeling of oasis in dessert. The nice main pathway between the flat buildings was marked by nicely designed and maintained landscape and lights. First we came across a full scale tennis court, then a small swimming pool with accompanying Jacuzzi, then a gymnasium with at least 4-5 cardio machines, 2-3 bench presses, weights, and a “Total Gym” accompanied by a steam room, a sauna room and separate bathrooms, then there was billiard table in the game room, a big hall for community event, a reading room for kids and a super market a.k.a. convenient grocery store was under construction and was supposed to be ready within a month. Then (yes, there is more) came children’s play area with slides and swings and little ducky to ride and little marry-go-round and of course, the clean coarse sand! The flat itself was three baths – each with water heater, three bedroom, a hall and a kitchen and fully furnished.

So we contemplated a lot. It was very far from work but reasonably priced (Rs. 28k) and available for three months unlike other apartments. Only if D goes to work in a car, S were to agree. Looking at Banglore’s road condition (to be discussed in a separate section later on J) everywhere, commute to and from this place was not abnormally bad. It was normally bad….. And the realtor promised that one will get all the services very soon. We decided to rent the place and a car with driver. With still a bit of compromising feeling, we packed up our FOUR BAGS and moved to this place. The owners’ representative had booked the Gas cylinder a day ago in our name and surprisingly as promised the cylinder arrived the next day while we were signing the lease. The Cable Guys came 2 hours later and viola … the TV (with Cricket on every other channel) is on. Remember those “we will be there between 8-12 or 1-4?” Not here! Couldn’t sleep in new place with plastic covers of the mattresses still on but the next morning, there is the newspaper, and the milk, and then the girl’s best friend (in India) - the maid! That was enough to make us feel comfortable with our moving decision. With purchase of few utensils and friends’ gift of basic groceries, out little household was up and running within 12 hours of moving in!

The community has it’s own backup generators that kick in automatically at the power outage (which are normal in Banglore). All electric appliances except water heaters would work with the backup power. There is also an intercom facility between all the units and security and maintenance. Most interesting feature is that every room in every flat has an alarm button that you can press in case of emergency and the alarm would go off to grab attention. Every flat has one covered car parking and the periphery of the community serves as a walking lane too. Every morning you have garbage collector coming to your door to get the garbage. Daily you also find, gardeners tending the landscape, outside maids cleaning the buildings interiors and security guards standing by at the pool 24x7. The community being new it is in impeccable condition right now but with steep 2k Rs per month maintenance fee (in our case paid by the owners), it is very likely that the community will maintain it’s beauty and charm for long time. Of course, there is a yahoo group for the residents to subscribe and discuss the rates for maids and cooks. (more details later). Come evening, you can’t miss the shouting and yelling of kids from the children’s play area. There you will find somewhere between 20-40 kids of all ages accompanied by either their mothers, grandparents, ayahs or care-takers. Reminds you of your childhood days!

So if one wants to live in a community where residents are (probably) outnumbered by maids + cleaners + security guards + ayahs + cooks + dhobiwalas, it comes at a price of Rs. 50 lac for 1200 sqft flat. Oh plus the Rs. 2,000 HOA dues per month…….