vijaykm@jason.berkeley.edu.BERKELEY.EDU (Vijay K Madisetti) (02/02/86)
Keywords:Indian Scene; Forwarded From the IINET.
< FORWARDED MESSAGE ANTICIPATING WIDER INTEREST >
_____________________________________________________
Date: 1 Feb 86 10:57:47 EST
From: BHATNAGAR@red.rutgers.edu
Subject: Desh Kee Baaten III ( and last )
To: iitnet@ernie.berkeley.edu
Cc: BHATNAGAR@red.rutgers.edu
Picking up from 'Desh Kee Baaten II', typing mistakes become embarrassing when
they convert 'a shot in the arm' to 'an arm in the shot'. Well to those who did
not notice it please do not do so now and to those who did, I assure that I try
my best to maintain accuracy.
Then there is this gentleman called Mr. Saran who has sent a '?' to me and to
every one else in the net as a reponse to each of my two previous dispatches.
All my efforts, so far, to decifer ancient Harappan scripts have failed, I can
not understand this '?' either. Please help.
Desh Ki Baaten III
Credit Cards:
The plastic card culture is making its entry to India too. As before, in big
towns there are many places where AMEX, VISA, MASTER cards are accepted but
more important than this there are a few 'pure made in India' cards as well. I
was surprised to see notices like 'we accept Andhra/Central Bank cards' in many
shops in Pune. Then there is this 'READYMONEY' card from Madras. Its use is
currently restricted in MAdras only but very soon they are going to expand it
in other big cities too.
Fast Food:
It was indeed not so fast. In the 'Open House' pizza chain of Bombay my green
pepper topping pizza came in 25 minutes and, similarly, McDowell's (All India)
chain of Pizza King took around half an hour in serving my pie. With posters
of Karim Abdul Jabbar and those of American Football games adorning its walls,
the inside of Pizza King looked almost nothing like India. The price of this
stuff was pretty high by Indian standards- an 8" pie for around Rs. 25.00. What
impressed me, however, was that the clientele at these joints comprised of
ordinary looking people- office goers and college students. It seems every one
is enjoying the boom in the middle class economy.
Army Advertisement:
Magazine boom that I earlier discussed must be a direct function of the boom in
advertisement. India Army gives a very colorful and glamorous ad in various
magazines including India Today for recruiting engineers for its technical
corps. This ad almost reminds you of 'Be all you can be' tune of US army ad.
Incidentally, with recently announced incentives Armed forces are not all that
a bad proposition any more.
Increased Prices:
A pizza for Rs. 25 and no English magazine (DKB II) for less than Rs. 5 must
have given you some idea. Do not be shocked to see Sunday news Papers selling
for Rs. 1.25 (daily for Re 1, or may be 0.90). One Kg. of Dehraduni Basmati
Rice sells for a whopping Rs 16 in Bombay while it sells for around Rs 10 per
kg in my little UP town. During our two visits to Bombay, the left side of our
suitcase carried some 'good quality' rice. One half liter tin of brake oil was
for over Rs 20, one liter of gasoline was for Rs 7.10.
2
Salaries are increasing, prices are increasing, even purchasing power of the
people is increasing. What is, really, going down is the poor Rupee.
Rajiv Gandhi and over all optimism:
Every one whom I met had a word of praise for this Ex-Pilot. I do not know if
the current optimism in the minds in India is real or illusionary, I do not
know if it is real then whether the credit for this goes to RG or to just good
luck. But people are by and large very optimistic and happy.
Rajiv Gandhi recently scored another First for an Indian Prime Minister. On his
return from a foreign tour, he like all of us brought some 'Phoren' goods
including a video camera. He paid Rs 25000 as custom duty on his stuff. First
India Prime Minister to pay such a duty.
I am sounding like a government spokesman, not many times in our history of
last 39 years we have got opportunities to praise a politician.
Mrs Gandhi is still not forgotten. Again due to our habit of sycophancy, many
shops had big framed pictures of the mother and the son hanging on their walls.
I could not resist asking one such shop keeper to give a second thought to this
issue and if possible remove those photographs.
Custom duty and Corruption:
Some say that it is reducing. However little I encountered, I say that it is
not. My only major encounter with government machinary was at the custom
counter. And I was one of those fools who do not want to transact under hand.
Yes, the less than cordial gentleman behind that brown table was interested in
the bottle of champaign that I presumably bought from duty free shop in London
(in fact I had not). And I ended up paying duty even on non electronic toys
and chocolates [to quote him- 'Sahab lagta to sab kuch hee hai. (Every thing is
counted)]. I came out as a proud but foolish man from the custom counter but
three days later I read in The Hindustan Times- there was yet another fool like
me; He was our Prime Minster.
I noticed that trains were not as full as they used to be a few years back. If
you plan your trip in advance, you can complete it without bribing the TTE. In
Kutub Express (Delhi to Jabalpur) I even found reasonably good sitting place in
an unreserved compartments. Government is indeed trying to increase the number
of trains but the educated couple in my neighborhood does not agree. They were
recently blessed with their fourth redundant son who will require yet another
seat in the train three years from now.
Security and Punjab Situation:
You know as much as I do. Sikhs in all over the country are very much a part of
the main stream. They are pals and are loved. But punjab is not calm. Unrest
wise it is as restless as it used to be around 1983. Power transfer to Akalis
in punjab was good for the moment but if that becomes a necessary condition for
peace in punjab (just like a NC govt. in J&K) then it will turn out to be
expensive in the long run. Many national dailies noted with regret that Punjab
3
cabinet had yet to get its first non Sikh minister.
The Last World:
A period of 16 months (period of my absence from India) is too short a period
in the life of a nation of 700 millions and of 15 languages for any real
changes to occur. In such a short period, it might not even move. The changes
that I saw can be due to my own emotions, can be due to the spectacle of
optimism on my eyes. Nevertheless, this series of three articles, I hope, will
give you some idea of what you should expect on your next visit to India.
I thank you all for sharing my experiences, for sending occasional notes
related to this and for sending ununderstandable questionmarks ('?'s).
Neeraj Bhatnagar
BHATNAGAR@rutgers.edu
-------
-------
_______________________________________________________________________
END OF FORWARDED MESSAGE.
_ vijay madisetti.
vijaykm@medea.berkeley.edudas@orstcs.UUCP (das) (02/08/86)
In relation to travelling on trains in India, I don't know how much of an entertainment it is to others but I sure did enjoy it, most when you don't have a reservation, and the TTE asks you to pay for a second ( possibly third ) ticket, and you end up locked in the corridor, that too after bribing the CRP, and when you know that it is futile to have a reservation because you can't help being stared at by the standees ( including woman and children ), and to top it all it is an overnight journey. Don't think of this as a sarcastic remark about trains in India. One should travel on one to experience it. I used to look forward to them as a break from my college routine. BTW anybody travelled on Ganga-Cauvery Express from Varanasi to Madras, actually it goes on furthur till Kanyakumari, but Madras was more than enough for me. -------- das@orstcs