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)

CAN CRICKET CAUSE A COMPUTER CRISIS? - INSIGHT INDIA

Many of today's well-known Indian cricket players came up the hard way. By breaking neighborhood windows. Parents defended their right to do so against all comers, including the ill and elderly. Those parents' only concern was the physical well-being of their children.

With the new Indian Premier League's auction buying up cricket players for up to 1.5 million dollars, the situation has changed dramatically. Parents - who hope to float in the moolah - are encouraging every little twerp (who needs his mother to pull up his white cricket trousers) to go out and crack the ball. And windows.

What does this trend mean for India's future? Will it be Cricket! Cricket! all the way? Will we in the years ahead have to outsource software jobs to America? Very sad. A sure way to economic suicide - as Americans are slowly learning today.
(For more INDIA INSIGHT stories check out www.myspace.com/india_realities & www.ibibo.com/wahpmji)