The 'poor' Neighbour

Zeemax, you are so full of shiite..I have been to India 8 times in the last year and a half. Stop making shit up.

Chalta, Indians have more complacent attitude towards things around them. Like you said,
Yaha per sub kuch chalta hai,
Yaha aisehi hota hai or hota aya ahi type mentality is prevalent even among the industrial circles. We had a manager once (IMM graduate no less) when we asked about R&D he openly made fun of the whole idea.
May be the things are changing now it was a common attitude in our parents time.

Absolutely nothing to do with caste. the lala would spit the paan juice on the walls on embassy row or on the walls of the shiva temple or jama masjid in old delhi. the lala could be brahmin, kshatriya, baniya, muslim, sikh, isai..whatever

what hits you in India upon arrival is the volume. the volume of everything. Sanitizing the volume requires infrastructure which takes decades to build. It has only been 15 years since unshackling Indian population. give it another 20 years. But in your lifetime it will happen. have faith

People were content with their surroundings. Mass awareness was a naive notion. I blame Govts socialistic attitude in first four decades of independence for that.

#79 Cob ra

Kambakhat, gareeboN ki garibi ka majaak nahiN uDaate!. Yaad rakho!

Varnaa...

Chalta, 20 years is too long a time. India will not be able to sustain growth with current infrastructure. Some thing needs to be done and pranto.
Revenue is increasing. They have billions in foreign reserves. Why not use them and unleash a grand infrastructure upgrade scheme?

Aur meri bibi ka mazak ura sakte ho!!

#87 Cobra

Sorry yaar, I did not know you were REALLY married! Who would have believed it?!

(I am still having a tough time believing it.)

And frankly I have no sympathies for "Gharib" who produce kids to pass time. If I were chef minister of Maharashtra I would have bulldozed the slums a long time ago.

I have not read the article yet but I am really pleased to see Mr. Dalrymple on Chowk. I am a big fan of his book, Delhi - City of Djinns and credit him, a foreigner, for encouraging me to go and explore Humayun's Tomb, Red Fort and other living (though withering) monuments to my city's history. I also just finished reading the Last Mighal - again, a fascinating book and quite liberating from the "official" history we were taught.

#81 Posted by chaltahai,

So section #145 of the Railways Act will be repealed soon?

#83 Posted by chaltahai,

Sanitizing the volume requires infrastructure which takes decades to build. It has only been 15 years since unshackling Indian population.

The entire infrastructure including airports and motorways and a remodeled Lahore in Pakistan was built in four years flat with a two year break in between due to change of government.

Re:zeemax#92
"The entire infrastructure including airports and motorways and a remodeled Lahore in Pakistan was built in four years flat with a two year break in between due to change of government."

Welcome to democracy 101. You guys might think that Indians think in lockstep. It is 180 degrees opposite of that. Every damn thing takes an eternity due to squabbling, vested interest, exteme corruption or sheer malicious intent not to let the government do anything positive.

My father was involved in the Golden Quadrilateral project of building superhighways connecting the four main cities. He tells us of his visits to Bihar, where not even 1km of road existed on the ground while millions had been "officially" spent. In other words, everything was stolen. When the central government came in with private contractors and international help, you wouldnt believe the resistance they faced from local authorities who just wouldnt let them build a road in peace since they were not getting their regular opportunity to steal. The ordinary people would cooperate, some of them were in tears to actually see something getting developed. However the local and state authorities in Bihar were seething in anger to see development happening. This is the same mindset in West Bengal as well, especially among the communists there.

What can you do? You guys have the military that can go and shove a bamboo up people's behind and get things done. We dont have that.

#93 Posted by Ranjit,

The four years I mentioned were those of the two Nawaz Sharif democratic tenures. You got it all wrong.

How they did it was (1) Bypassing red-tapism and beurocratic inertia at all levels; and (2) a knowledge of how to raise money from foreigners with nothing upfront except guarantees. In their case, S. Korea, Turkey, and China. Mainly S. Korea.

Remember i said a nuclear war is coming:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Russia-Bombers.html?hp

Indi a too is building nuclear submarines for second strike capacity and missile shield in cooperation with USA and Russia. That means in coming years they will pressure Pakistan because they cannot pressure China. If pakistan do not listen to pressure india will start nuclear violence so Kashmir must be decided now

Borivli, there's no need to rush. No matter how much you decide that aint gonna happen.