Ani's space

Recently, Mr. Thomas Friedman published an article titled "No, No, No, Don't Follow America", an article on how the Tata Nano is a bad idea. While I do agree with his views mostly, there is only thing I find wrong about the article. And that is his comparison of the Transport system with the Cellphone revolution in India.

 

If you observe the Cell-phone penetration in India and why it "leapfroged" over traditional land lines... laying traditional landlines involves a lot of work and needs a lot of land. This involves govt sanctions etc. basically a slow lengthy process filled with Govt bureaucracy and the resulting corruption. Cell-phones on the other hand don't need all of that. A few towers that can be raised over private buildings and small pieces of land do the job. Hence Indian Entrepreneurs found this to be the easy route to fill the "communication gap" in India.

 

Unfortunately, transportation does not have the luxury of this shortcut. You will have to deal with Govt. for any infrastructure. The only way out is that the Tatas and the Reliances take up the job of building end-to-end transportation infrastructure as a business. But that would mean privatization of the country's governance which will go against Democracy and result in Monopolization.

 

Hence, in my honest opinion, comparing mass-transit infrastructure to the Cell-phone revolution is not a good comparison.

Bangalore introduced me to the concept of "Multi-Cuisine"  restaurants. The city is dotted with these special restaurants that serve South Indian, North Indian, Chinese etc., all at one menu.

 

But this restaurant chose to be different... click the picture and you will see what I mean

We all know that India has a major advantage of a huge English Speaking population. This is the section of the society that is helping bring millions of dollars through the Services and IT industry.

 

While these group of folks are busy chiselling their English, attending Finishing Schools and accent neutralization classes, the rest of the country is trying to keep up by doing their best at communicating with these folks in English.

 

The result.... some hillarious signs, business names and just plain funny statements painted all over the town. Some are so hillarious that it made me start a new section on my blog.

 

Here is the first one one in the series (click the image).... all I can say about this one is.... Naughty Road!!!

 

More pictures are on their way :-)

Whenever a discussion on India comes up, you get to hear one of the following sentences: "India will never become like the US"... "India has a long way to go".. or "India is getting rich too fast and it is not getting time to organize itself like the US".

 

Now, here's my question... where is the written rule that for a country to become a successful economy that it must follow the west. That India must first transform itself into the US and then become a super-power.

 

If becoming a super-power needs a plan then chances for India are next to nothing because... well... there is no plan for anything. Does that mean India cannot? That is for time to tell. Several centuries ago when India was called the "Golden Bird" of the east, was it like the US? Well, was there anything known as the US?

 

Becoming a Super Power is circumstancial. US became a super power because of Nazi Germany. They created a threat, that forced the US to innovate in Military and other technologies which in turn got sold to rest of the world and US made money.

 

One thing that is going good for India right now is it's entrepreneurship. It's opportunistic mind. No country with the history, culture and demographics of India has done as well and that is what we need to compare with. And when I say this, some of my friends immediately bring up two countries... Singapore and Malaysia. Well, my argument still stands. Calling Singapore a country would be like calling Madagascar a continent. You cannot compare a 42 Kms diameter island to a 3.3 million square kilometers spread of India (and lets not even dare to compare the population).

 

Malaysia... yeah, agreed that they have done well for themselves as a tourism destination but they still rank 34th in Purchase Power Parity (GDP $290 Billion) as opposed to India that ranks 10th (GDP of $1 Trillion). So once again, just tourism is not going to get them too far. You need entrepreneurship like India. You need The Tata's, The Ambanis and Malayas.

 

If India must become a super power, it must do so with all it's baggage (poverty, illitracy et al). It's not a step process.

For the past week, I have been debating between two topics that I wanted to write about. And just then, a memorable incidence just blew me away.

 

Yesterday I was coming back from work. If you read my other blogs, you might have learnt that I use a bike for commuting. When I started, it was cloudy but not raining. And then came a dark heavy cloud and it began to pour cats and dogs. First few minutes you enjoy the rain. Then you realize that yo have a laptop on your back . So you immediately find a shelter and of course several other bikers will huddle with you under a thin shop roof as you watch the rain pour. People running around with a book on their head. Crowd of folks running to catch a bus. Ladies hailing for rickshaws. It's like that hypothetical experience of watching the world running around while you stand still and enjoy the show.  I got to experience another great thing about biking.

 

Anyways, then I remembered, my father was supposed to take my mom for a doctor's appointment and the clinic was not too far from where I was taking protection from the rain. So I decided, might as well get a bit more wet and meet my parents at the clinic. So, I rode my bike for another kilometer or so and reached the Clinic. My parents had just got done with their appointment and were walking out. Delighted to see me, they were now trying to figure out the best way for me to reach home dry. They had arrived in our car, so the obvious choice was for me to leave my bike at the clinic and go in the car. Once the rain stops, we come back and pick up the bike. And then my dear Mom got a brilliant idea (I love my Mom for this). She suggested that my father go in the car. We will send my backpack and other stuff with him. And the two of us (me and my mom) will enjoy the rain on the bike.

 

I jumped two feet off the ground when I heard that. Here I am, 36 year old young-gun, trying to escape the rain. And here is a 65 year old lady suggesting otherwise.

 

But I loved the idea so we did exactly that. My father took the car and me and my mom, well, enjoyed the rain. My mom was so thrilled. She had not gotten wet in the rain for so many years. And when we arrived home, soaking wet, we were welcomed with hot bhajjis... yum.

 

Now these are the moments to live for. These are times I thank my wisdom for making the choice of coming back to India and stealing these memorable family moments.

 

Well, I had to document this. The other two topics that I was thinking about writing on, can wait.