Yesterday and Tomorrow in India Today

great travelogue dost mitter jee -- great description of contrast between Jaisalmir and Bangalore -- glad to know that at least in the Infosys complex the shitty lights did not go out --

you r exactly right --``hereditary politicians and goons who are monopolising the political space in India at the present time`` --

heard that the Maha Goon -- the DPM (the Disgraced Prime Miscreant) -- Shriman Advani ji is building his new palace in Tihar....of course at public expense.....hopefully

Greatly enjoyed ur column -- hope u travel to India more often and write more often.

sameerJB #1

``Did chowk contributed towards your extended trip to motherland? Just kidding. Good narration of north-south divide within India. Would Ramakrishna Hegde be the man deserving most credit for attracting so many high-tech companies to Banglore?``

I always thought Hedge was an excellent administrator. He had none of the PR associated with Naidu who is excellent in his own way. He seemed a good enough politcian. I never understood why he never advanced further in politics. Maybe someone familar with Karnataka politics could shed light on him.

There is an editorial in yesterday`s TOI (lead editorial actually, dtd 07jun`03) which talks about how the South has already moved way ahead of the North. Worth reading as an addendum to this excellent article.

So while we haggle about Kashmir and LOC and Siachen and religion and dowry and gender issues, the Southern States - with ample sea-ports remember - move ahead.

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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=9866

The South has Long Bypassed the North

[ SUNDAY, JUNE 08, 2003 12:00:27 AM ]

Forget the growing north-south divide, the south has already seceded from the Indian state — if not physically, then certainly in terms of social attitudes and identification. The south is far and away the better performer in the social indices — it is streets ahead in literacy, infant survival, gender sensitivity and all other health indicators.



Indeed, if the south were assessed as an independent country, its nearest comparison would be, not the BIMARU states, but the countries in south-east Asia. In the last decade, the south has also stolen a decisive march over the north in purchasing power capacity.



Which explains why the retail power balance has shifted in favour of the south: Delhiites might swoon over the shopping malls and cineplexes that are suddenly dazzling them, but people in the south have long been matter-of-fact about these facilities. The self-service foodstore chains that dot the nooks and crannies of the southern cities are still to show up even in the Capital. No doubt because in the feudal-influenced north, self-service remains a demeaning chore.



Pubs, discos and bowling alleys that are a way a life in Bangalore, and increasingly in Chennai, continue to be a rarity in the north, again largely because of the stigma attached to such places. One of the commonest sights in Bangalore and Chennai is of women dispensing alcohol at liquor outlets — something unimaginable even in the north’s most happening place, Gurgaon.



The higher visibility of southern women — be it in running computer schools or driving autorickshaws — is another sign of social progress where the north has much catching up to do. The socio-cultural identification in the south is more and more with south-east Asia. And for obvious reasons: One, the complete growing away of the south in terms of interests: Such hot Delhi subjects as Kashmir and mandir are irrelevant in the Deccan. And two, the north is no longer the magnet that attracted the southern job-seekers: Today the lot heads directly for Singapore and the US, bypassing Delhi.

Amazing article Mittar-jee. Particularly admired the subtlety with which you sneak in a disarming humanism.

- Twenty rupees?? Unbelievable! Here we pay 50 at the airport desk and then another 40 or 50 inside when all the luggage has been checked in and still the cavalier attitude fails to change.

- ``Here was, then, the India of yesterday: poor, hungry, mired in poverty, highly dependent upon the vagaries of weather and yet full of life with colour, dance and music.``
But don`t you agree that all the color is contrived, fabricated out of the vestiges of the past to enable the poor to feed themselves. Perhaps if you were to shed your tourist apparatus and go live with them, you would find the true colors of their lives very different from the romantic spectacle visitors see, as you mention with the incident of your camel-driver.

- ``More than anything else, it will depend upon whether or not the bright young men and women of India shun their disdain for politics and displace the tired old men, hereditary politicians and goons``
Aik aisi hi ek dua hamare liye bhi kar lain. The single-minded devotion that you speak of is as urgently needed in Pakistan as it is in India.

Did chowk contributed towards your extended trip to motherland? Just kidding. Good narration of north-south divide within India. Would Ramakrishna Hegde be the man deserving most credit for attracting so many high-tech companies to Banglore?

Dost Mittar ji,

That was a wonderful article.

Benefits of the technology revolution seem to be reaching at all levels of society. Wall Street Journal (June 5) had an article on MNCs marketing their products to Indian villagers with a unique approach. ITC (Commodity trading company) is installing PCs (with full gear of solar panels, satellite connection etc. @ cost of $3400 each) in 10,000 villages that do not even have electricity. The idea is to have villagers sell their commodities at better rate than what they will get in local market. The villagers will earn more and be the consumers of seeds and fertilizers from ITC and many other products.

This is not a pipe dream. 2100 computer kiosks are already installed in various states and 14 years old Pooja Sharma of the article (in a poor village where no one had even touched a computer two years back) downloads agricultural research for the villagers.

Beautiful!