INDIA DISCOVERS IDEAL PASS-TIME

In a country where youngsters consider SMSing jokes to each other as a happy 'time-pass' and an elderly man meeting another often asks, 'How do you pass your time?' IPL cricket games are a sparkling innovation. Revelling crowds pack the stadia. And they get the works - music, fireworks, imported cheerleaders - to accompany games that have none of the state, country or club relevance that could raise passions. At least a quarter of the crowd comes from slums, eager for 'time-pass' even if they have to forego a day's meals for the family to buy a ticket.

Of course, the happiest of all are those raking in the big moolah - the organizers, the advertisers, the team franchisees and the TV stations which broadcast the Ideal Pass-time League games.

Incredible India? You said it!!!
For more India Realities stories see other blogs here and at www.myspace.com/india_realities (i.e. india underscore realities).

What Indians don't seem to be learning? Can they?

What Indians don't seem to be learning is that cars, mobiles, IT companies and malls don't make a successful, civilized country. More important is whether they can smile at each other, keep the streets clear of garbage and...YES!...honour queues. Will they ever learn?
(For more INDIA INSIGHT stories see other blogs here and at www.myspace.com/india_realities i.e. india underscore realities) My latest blog at Myspace is: Many GREAT WALLS divide today's India.

A LOT OF MICE HIDING IN RISING INDIA

A Top Priority Business in India is Showing-off. Yes! That's the honest truth. And it has always been so. Those who have flaunt before those who don't have, without a heart or conscience. Even religious celebrations are proof of that compulsive desire. Now, of course, in globalizing India there are far more opportunities to flaunt - foreign brands, flashy clothes, bikes, cars and more. More people have more money.

But there are a lot more people who have nothing to flaunt. They are the mice - trying to manage, trying to survive. They may get a mobile and walk around talking into it. They're trying to compete. But often they the end up trying to hide their miceness, trying to go as unnoticed as possible.

In India's commercial capital, in the last two weeks alone, there were about 16 suicides of school or college kids. The media are coming up with all kinds of explanations. Surely, there would be multiple reasons. But none of the media - many of them are also busy flaunting - have mentioned the miceness in rising India, the growing numbers of mice who can't compete in the intense business of showing off.
(For more INSIGHT stories, see other blogs here and at www.myspace.com/india_realities i.e. india underscore realities.) My latest blog on Myspace is: THE FASTEST GROWING BUSINESS IN INDIA IS SHOWING-OFF.

MEMORIES OF OLD BOMBAY AND BOLLYWOOD - 2

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, the three studios located on Dadar Main Road made the street Bombay's Bollywood in the old days. There was often a crowd at the gates, waiting to watch a glowing painted-up Meena Kumari arriving in the back seat of a car or a hopeful Dharmendra walking in.

In those days it was easy to travel in the city. From the time I was eight my parents had no hesitation allowing me to go to town (the Fort area), riding in a G.I.P. (Great Indian Peninsular Railway; now, the Central Railway) or by tram, which was just a one-anna ride anywhere up to Museum. Or, perhaps, Colaba - I'm not too sure. There was always place to sit in a tram or train.

There were more Irani restaurants (like Cafe Paris in front of the University and and Leoplold's in Colaba) those days than south Indian or Udipi. All the restaurants had radios blaring. You heard film songs all day - a Noor Jehan, a Punjabi full-voiced Shamshad Begum, a Saigal, or a softly sentimental young Lata Mangeshkar.
Later the Irani restaurants had beautiful juke-boxes and at the drop of a four-anna coin you could watch the records roll around to play Sail Along Silvery Moon or Tony Brent's Cindy, Oh Cindy - one of his earliest recordings after he left Bombay for America.
(For more INSIGHT STORIES see more blogs here or at www.myspace.com/india_realities ) My latest blog at Myspace is: BACK TO BANGALORE - TO SHOCK AND AWE.

Oh yeah! Bombay was then a cosmopolitan world city.

WHERE ANCIENT ALIENATIONS EXPLODE TODAY

India. Globalizing India.
- Where millennia-old caste is a daily cruelty in many parts of the country, sparking intermittently into violence.
- Where religious extremism continues to trigger futile provocation and retaliation.
- Where divisiveness based on language and ethnicity sputters on, turning people into 'insiders' and 'outsiders' in their own country...and leading to bursts of violence, either to break away from India or to create smaller states with narrower and narrower identities.
- Where age-old oppressions lead the no-hopers to call themselves Maoists or Naxalites and perpetrate indiscriminate violence that doesn't in any way bring them hope.
India needs -
Economic progress.
Population control.
Universal education.
Universal health care.
Decisive action against corruption.
And innumerable other basics, like pavements which people can climb and walk on without risk of requiring orthopaedic attention.
BUT AS A BASIS FOR ALL THIS INDIA'S PEOPLE NEED AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE REAL SPIRIT OF NATIONHOOD.
(For more INSIGHT stories see other blogs here and www.myspace.com/india_realities) My latest blog at Myspace is: THE BEAUTIFYING EFFECT OF GLOBALIZATION.

TRAVELLER'S THOUGHTS

As I travel through developed democracies, a constant question in my mind is: What does India need to do to join these countries?

And observing routine life in those countries reinforces the idea that success in IT and BPO businesses alone cannot take us there. Nor can a flood of fashion shows and beauty contests. Nor can a sickening excess of song-and-dance in TV shows and Bollywood movies.

Indians need to be able to look at themselves self-critically. India needs a change in mindsets, a really progressive world view, to become a developed democracy.

(For more INDIA REALITIES stories see other blogs here and at www.myspace.com/india_realities) My latest latest blog at Myspace is: MY BOOK SAYS: FAILURES OF THE HEART UNRAVEL GLOBALIZATION - KEY EXAMPLE, INDIA.

HOW TO PROTECT THE PATIENT'S RIGHTS IN INDIA

In Doctor at Home, a Fitness-Health book written by my wife Jagjit and me, a whole chapter describes the patient's rights. And the doctor's. I haven't seen even a mention of rights in other Health books written for the public in India. We have many illiterate patients with no clue about their rights. And, often, educated patients assume that once they go to a doctor or hospital they themselves have no part to play in treatment decisions. The result? Doctors are increasingly conditioned by the situation to take the patient for granted..

Recently, I went to my dentist. I needed a root canal and minor surgery for a cyst. On the second day my dentist finished the root canal. Then an unknown came over, said 'I'm Dr. X,' and pulled on his gloves to do the surgery. I could have got up and made a scene. Instead, I said, 'Can you tell me a bit more about yourself?' Later I took up the issue with my dentist.

A patient's rights are essentially basic individual rights. But the crux is his right to know who is going to do what on him in advance - except in an emergency. A patient has the right to talk to the doctor and, if he's genuinely uncomfortable with the doctor's credentials or a procedure, to seek a second opinion or even go to another doctor.

I have given a small example of how patients' rights are often overlooked or violated in our country. The situation will change only if patients and their families are aware of their rights and stand up for those rights. And that can at times save them a lot of sorrow.It's no use blaming everything on fate. I am compiling examples of the pain caused to families by ignoring patients' rights - to make my point clearer in the book I'm working on.
(For more INDIA REALITIES stories, see other blogs here and at www.myspace.com/india_realities) My latest blog at Myspace is: SHOULD COUNTRIES BE INSURED AGAINST BIG CEO GAMES? :

CAN INDIA MATCH HER SLUMDOG'S LUCK?

Yes! Yes! Yes! She already has! For IT (which suits her youth's talents) to become a major world industry was indeed huge luck. The failure of her right wing bigots' efforts from Independence to exile the English language from India - because it was not a part of "our culture" - was added luck.

Now India requires concerted endeavour to lose that luck! But that effort is going on .With great vigour. A blind eye to the millions living in slumdog conditions. Growing numbers of unlawabiding politicians. Growing numbers of unlawabiding policemen. Growing numbers of bigots (those who targeted English earlier) now assaulting even a girl and boy or a wife and husband for showing a simple sign of affection in public, like holding hands - because it is against "our culture."

People with poor civilisational values are doing their best undo India's slumdog-like luck.
(For more INDIA REALITIES stories, see other blogs here and at www.myspace.com/india_realities) My latest blog on Myspace is: SLUMPUPPIES CRASH OUT OF WONDERLAND!

THE GREAT INDIAN DEMOCKERY!

When Friedman said that India's advantage over China was democracy, it pleased those
Indians who love flattery - among them the celebrating well-off, the ecstatic juvenile section of the media, and most of the political class. But Indians who see the reality they live in took it as an example of Western opinion based on surface impressions and deep ignorance.
In every day fact the poor have no rights other than to vote; for that they may get bribed, threatened and/or beaten up. They are also used as fodder by the vicious, to make up mobs that commit violence. Law enforcing authorities tend to refuse to take their complaints of injustice against anyone with influence. The poor cannot afford to go to court. If they do somehow, the case is likely to linger on for twenty years or more; in the process justice is more likely to be subverted by the influential than served.
For long Indian political parties - as indicated by the candidates they put up - have fought elections by dividing the people by caste, religion, language spoken and region of origin. Repeatedly, parties have won by inciting divisive violence before an election. In general the Indian political class has a long way to go to realize no country can rise too far by creating alienations among her people. To rise to the top, in addition to talent and vigout, a country needs a united people.
Perhaps, Friedman felt nominal democracy is better than no democracy. But making a hash of democracy is no democracy either! It's plain demockery! (For more INDIA REALITIIES stories, see other blogs here and at www.myspace.com/india_realities) My latest blog at Myspace is - WHEN HOLLYWOOD MATES BOLLYWOOD YOU GET A RICH SLUMDOG!

IS A NEW INDIA EMERGING AT LAST?

Surely, we see hopeful signs. At the candlelight vigils and the human chain in Mumbai after the terror attack, a common placard people held up said: JOIN HANDS AGAINST TERROR. The right spirit! And most certainly one forward step for an emerging new India.

But there's still a long, long way to go. First of all, there must come the realization that IT, BPO and other business successes are a great driving force, but not enough to take India to the level of the world's leading democracies. For that the placards should start saying: JOIN HANDS FOR THE GOOD OF THE COUNTRY. And those placards should appear wherever divisive violence erupts - for any of innumerable reasons like caste , language and religion; too often incited by politicians consolidating their power bases at the cost of the country.

Economic successes - where some people get rich - is not enough. A people need to be UNITED and ENLIGHTENED to reach the top bracket. Is that a tall order? (For more INDIA REALITIES stories see other blogs here and at Myspace - www.myspace.com/india_realities - where my latest blog is A NEW YEAR MESSAGE OF CHANGE THE WORLD IGNORES - EVERY YEAR)

IS INDIA THE SOFTEST TERRORIST TARGET?

As I type this blog the latest terrorist attack on Mumbai (Bombay) is not over.
Divisive politics practised by politicians - whose sole concern is to win votes and come to power by turning Indians against each other on the basis of language, caste, religion and flimsier reasons - is the source of every possible kind of violence in the country. They are all acts of terrorism. Obviously, that makes India a soft target.
Further, politicians criticize and try to hamper the work of the ATS (anti-terrorist squad) if the squad invvestigates any group favoured by those politicians.
And, finally, there's something that seems ridiculous in a country that has seen so much terrorist violence. We saw on TV the head of the Mumbai ATS at one of the attacked locations, possibly the Taj hotel. He was not wearing a bullet-proof vest. Were they short of jackets? Did he have to wait for one? I don't know. And he kept fiddling with his helmet and taking it off, because it did not fit him. And the sad fact is that the man died yesterday, felled by terrorist bullets. The question is: Are India's brave anti-terrorist forces equipped well enough to face the challenge?
There are few countries in the world so fissured, whose people are so divided by self-seeking politicians, as India. And that fact makes the country one of the softest terrorist targets.
(For more INDIA REALITIES stories, please check out www.myspace.com/india_realities)
My new blog on Myspace is - CAN A TERROR CALAMITY SAVE INDIANS FROM THEMSELVES?

HOW TO VISIT AND UNLEARN AMERICA

Three easy steps.
1. Visit America and admire the airports, malls and highways. And come back with great plans for progress.
2. Visit America and don't see the basic consideratenes and courtesy of the people towards each other on the streets, in queues etc. And keep minds closed to the basic freedoms practised there, like freedom of speech and worship.
3. And, of course, visit America and forget that Obama won.
See? It's so easy to unlearn America!
(For more INDIA REALITIES stories, please check out www.myspace.com/india_realities)

IS INDIA RISING OR DISINTEGRATING?

Looking at India's international business scorecards or Test cricket scores there's no doubt the country is rising.
But looking at all the self-destructive activity going on across the country, spurred by narrow chauvinism over religion, caste, language-affinity and pettier reasons, it seems the country is disintegrating.
Yesterday, for instance, a young north Indian worker fleeing the city of Mumbai (Bombay) in fear of ethnic violence, was brutally beaten to death in a train by a mob. Today, bomb blasts across the state of Assam have killed at least sixty. The last two months have seen brutal cycles of provocation and retaliation in states across India, including the cities of Mumbai and Bangalore.
In India today mobs who beat up one individual call themselves tigers. And those who destroy the country's unity call themselves patriots.
If ever there was a country rising and disintegrating at the same time, that's today's India.
(For more INDIA REALITIES stories see www.myspace.com/india_realities)

AN INSIGHT CELEBRATING INDIANS WILL NOT LIKE TO HEAR

For many Indians enjoying themselves, to really enjoy themselves it's important that half the world - or at least the neighbourhood - knows they are enjoying themselves. From my childhood in Bombay I remember the high ostentation and high decibels of weddings, birthday parties and festivals. In fact on Divali mornings the more firecracker debris he had in front of his house was one more way for anyone who had more money to show off to neighbours.

There has been no change of attitude in globalizing India. Rather, the 10% of Indians who are now celebrating have even greater opportunities to show off. (Note: WHO recently reported that 75% Indians earn no more tha $2 a day.) During last month's Independence Day celebrations the club near me - managed by top police and other officials - played music that shook the neighbourhood's walls and rattled windows - just as they do on every happy occasion. And recently two of my young friends (who had not met me for two years) surprised me with a visit. Both wanted me to go out to the gate and admire the new big cars they had bought - one an SUV. With no desire to encourage the 'attitude' I refused to oblige. I told them I had no interest in their cars; I was only interested in them personally as friends. Then I told them about this 'insight' and we laughed over it.

Yeah. They laughed; but only because they were friends.

A CHINA vs INDIA INSIGHT THAT WILL ONLY PLEASE THE CHINESE

The Beijing Olympics was a seamless spectacle. Detractors say it's the result of regimentation. The discerning see in the flawless show China's determination to put in every possible effort to succeed as a nation. Nicholas D. Kristof, in his NYT article on the Games, comments that success has carried some young Chinese beyond self-confidence to cockiness.

Self-confidence? Yes. Cockiness? Maybe, among some youth. But as nations, that is the significant difference between China and India. Some years ago, as India's clout in IT and BPO grew, the then national government proclaimed INDIA SHINING to the world. China's advance began circa 1978. Silently. They let their work do the talking. When their products flooded markets everywhere, the world realized China was shining. The Olympics has reinforced that idea.

India meanwhile has gone on to celebrations. Endless singing, dancing, fashion and movie award shows! And other forms of celebrations! For those who have the money. The Nero-like unreality and insouciance of this celebratory mood is obvious when it is placed in perspective against the World Bank's recent estimate of India's ignored reality. India has a third of the world's poorest, about 40 % of the population living under the $1.25 income per day poverty line, and about 75% living below the $2-a-day level.

Who has the recipe for sustained growth? India or China? (For more INDIA REALITIES stories, please check out www.myspace.com/india_realities)

BANGALORE'S 'UNWALKABLE' PAVEMENTS

I have blogged earlier about Bangalore's amazing pavements. Now a study has confirmed that Bangalore has some of the most walker unfriendly pavements even among Indian cities. The experts considered walkable space and obstructions on footpaths.
The average non-expert observer will notice in addition:
1. Potholes and bad maintenance of footpaths. Obviously, due to money swindled away.
2. New pavements at varying heights, even up to a foot and a half high. Obviously, the more the concrete dumped, the more the money that can be swindled.
3. Wherever possible, beauty-loving homeowners convert the public footpath in front of them into enclosed private gardens.
4. If there is some walkable space that is where someone must park his car/scooter/bicycle as obstructively as possible.
All this, in a country notoriously lacking in courtesy to pedestrians! And who cares for the handicapped? (For more INDIA REALITIES stories, please check out www.myspace.com/india_realities)

SHARING IRRESPONSIBILITY

Poverty of individual responsibility for the common good is a feature of countries where people subvert their own future.

In India, for example, hardly anyone - including all political parties - feels guilt about going on a rampage, stoning-burning public property and taking innocent lives over the pettiest issues.

Does that set a global benchmark for irresponsibility?
(For more INDIA REALITIES stories, please check out www.myspace.com/india_realities)

INDIA'S GREAT GROWTH STORY

Globalizing India is in a phase of hectic growth. Starting with malls and luxuries. Faberge and Vuitton first. Toyota and Jaguar first. Later, if wisdom permits, the superpower hopeful will come down to the less important. Like clean drinking water for millions. Or power supply that doesn't fail every day in cities. Or pavements people can walk on safely. Or minimal health care for all.

Meanwhile, as India grows, the poor and hungry are advised to take care of themselves. And, for God's sake, stay out of sight!
(For more INDIA REALITIES stories, do check out www.myspace.com/india_realities)

FAIRER THAN THE FAIREST? - INSIGHT INDIA

India 2008 has discovered an instant coffee version of cricket. With international players. And cheerleaders imported from the U.S. Like everything globalizing India touches, the IPL has turned cricket to gold, raking in millions of dollars.
Half way through the play-offs newschannels reported that at one venue two black cheerleaders were asked to sit out.
And I thought of all the Indian matrimonial ads where almost everyone wants a fair spouse.
And I thought of the huge sales of fairness lotions in this country.
Then I remembered the time an Indian (whom I thought I knew well) took me to a Starbucks in California. No empty tables outside. I sat with a young African. We chatted. He was from Senegal. An IT executive. And smart. The Indian brought our coffee, handed me mine, and, without saying a word, walked off to find another table for himself. Crude. Rude. What's his problem? I wondered. Deep-seated pretensions? Delusions of fairness? Folly?
Neither globalization nor all the fairness lotions in the world can make India a European country.
(For more INDIA REALITIES stories, check out www.myspace.com/india_realities)

BUNGLE BEES OVER BANGALORE

Election day, today, has put a stop to the buzzing of the bungle bees. For weeks the buzzing had grown louder and louder - to noise pollution levels. All bee parties claimed they were responsible for making Bangalore an IT hub.

None of them admitted that if they and officialdom had any clue in the 90's of where computers were headed, the chances were that IT would have been hit by taxes and corruption. Or if those bees (from more than one party) had succeeded in their long years of struggle to end the teaching of English, IT had no chance in India. And no bunglers gave credit to the talent and patience of young Indians that helped the great leap in software.

So the big election issue before voters in Bangalore and the state is to decide which of the bungler bee parties is slightly less unbelievable. But that seems a question impossible to answer!
(For more INDIA REALITIES stories, do check out www.myspace.co/india_realities & www.ibibo.com/wahpmji)