It can be said with absolute surety that Bangalore is in the pits , right now .
Twelve years ago , when I was part of this city , there was hope that this would one day classify itself as a world city counted amongst London , Paris , New York and other such distinguished cities playing their role in world theatre . But , Bangalore today is an abssymal mess . From booming metropolis to busting destination .
The two and half kilometer stretch from the airport to my Indiranagar office takes an hour and a half . Utter chaos reigns as humongous amount of traffic converges at the Domlur layout signal wanting to fan out towards the cantonment area .
The huge corporate offices of Brittannia and Titan on one side and the Leela on the other act as monoliths of commerce through which this commuter mass must pass for their daily work . There are no lanes – it’s a pot pourrie of bikes , cyclists , autorickshaws , taxis , buses , cars and trucks . There is an ambitious flyover being constructed – something that is going to look like an octopus with tentacular roads leading to three-four parts of the city . If you are headed to Koramangla , which years back was touted as the next big premium residential cluster , there’s some relief in the patch after Domlur layout , but beyond that it is crazy . Indiranagar is spared the vehicular deluge primarily because of its residential status .
The airport is in shambles . While most airports have some sanity around the airport area , this one provides a ringside view to thousands of homes with people peeping out to see a dredgy flight go through its motions while landing and taking off . Won’t these guys be deaf in ten years ?
This is probably the only airport that has the smallest toilet . Delhi greets one without electricity , there were no lights in the loo last time I rushed in when I landed .Bangalore greets one with filth .
The taxi queues are mad. Everyone , from the ones who have come to fetch people to the ones who have come to ferry people , from cabs to cars , from localites to transit visitors , there’s no discipline .Everyone creates their own path , like they say .
Houses have windows looking into each other as unabated construction continues . What were premium residential complexes many years back have become mass residential areas with thousands of people moving in and out of the place constantly . There are no gardens in garden city .
Somethings haven’t changed though .
The young women who hand out crepe paper roses from Kids Kemp everyday to passengers on landing , do so even now with the same sincerity .
MG road has the same old brilliance . The same old warm , flat masala dosa that one remembers served in the same old heavy white ceramic plate with a fork and a spoon . The same bunch of junkies that occupied this then seem to occupy this now. Brigade road , the ever eventful . This is one place you are sure you’ll bump into some of your oldest friends . The darshinis , or the small stand-in fast food outlets serve a kind of tomato rice that tingles ones taste buds . Bisse Bele Bhath or Chow Chow bhath – take your pick. The country’s first Kentucky Fried chicken appeared here ten years ago .It has stood the test of some of the most rebellious local politicians looking for a cause . Thousands of farmers led by the local politician had descended on this outlet years ago protesting against foreign invasion !
In fact , the local political powers that be still fight the intrusion of people from other states into Bangalore . Only thirty seven percent of this city is local son-of-the soil residents . That give it the cosmopolitan feel with its cultural ensemble . Kannada movies are anachronistic . The heroes are huge , fat gross guys fighting all kinds of evil while the actresses are nubile young things in their twenties mostly imported from the North .There’s hardly any story and the more brutal the movie , the more commercially successful it is . Then there is a ban on any hindi or English movie releasing in Karnataka within four weeks of its launch in Mumbai . That’s as primitive as primitive thinking can get . King Kong has hit Bangalore this week while the rest of India has seen it many weeks back .
I have fond memories of The Plaza theatre on MG road where I had seen some of the best of movies of those times . Was a small theatre occupying only two hundred or so people with seats in a eighty degree incline like the dome theatre in Wadala , Mumbai . Except the screen was smaller. There’s no movies being screened here . Next to the glittering shops all around , it stands today as a relic . Just a memoir of the great movies gone by .
One thing this city definitely is - the IT hub of the world . This is the epicenter of the business process outsourcing revolution that has gripped the developed world . China takes away the manufacturing and hardware work, Bangalore takes away the software work . Ironical that some first generation software emigrants to Seattle in the US thirty years ago should find their children losing jobs in Seattle to their country cousins in Bangalore .
Around the turn of the century , Bangalore played a great role in the dotcom revolution . Its engineers went around the world solving the Y2K problem and gained worldwide recognition . Thousands of dotcom companies ruffled the feathers of the brick and mortar engineering workshops in Peenya industrial estate in west Bangalore , creating high paid jobs like bee eggs . It survived the dotcom bust to reemerge with credentials as an software engineering metropolis , riding the animation and business process outsourcing booms .
On a flight a couple of months back from Bangalore , an bright young American sitting next to me got talking ,
‘ Hi ‘
“Hi”
‘Can I borrow your newspaper ?’ said the bloke
‘Sure ‘ , said me
‘You work in Bangalore ?’
‘No , in Mumbai ‘
‘ IT ?’
‘No, Radio ‘
‘ It feels nice to meet someone who is not in IT ! Everyone I meet in Bangalore is in IT .‘
‘ Ha ! ‘
‘Am amazed with this city , so much of software work is done here . Did you know that Madagascar was actually created by these blokes here ?
‘Yup , read about it . ‘
‘What about you – visiting for business or pleasure ?’
‘ Business – I run this animation firm in Illinois and was here to explore some possibilities of co-creating some products for some of my clients ‘
‘Was the visit useful ?’
‘Yes , exceeded my expectation . These guys are marvelous . Just the infrastructure needs some attention ‘
‘Agree with you . Unlike your cities in the US and other world cities , Indian cities don’t have a mayor or chief minister . Our chief minister rules the state – which is a mix of urban cities and rural towns and villages . The problems of one are the benefits of other . Agriculture and Industry have different requirements . So , the chief minister of Bangalore could lose his job if he performs well for Bangalore but neglects the other villages . In fact , the last minister lost his job because he was focused on Bangalore and not the state of Karnataka . Heard of Hyderabad ?
‘Yes , Microsoft is there ’
‘ Same happened there too ; Minister lost his job there too ‘
‘So why don’t you guys change the system ?
‘As a democracy , we need to take care of everyone’s needs. We don’t do it in an organized manner like you do it in the US with the social security network , freedom of information , equality of opportunity and all that , but we manage the same in some way . And we have a billion guys to please ! ‘
‘Cold towel for you , sir ‘ said the hostess with a grin
We broke our conversation as I dipped into a magazine that I had pulled out of the pouch at the back of the seat in front . After having lost a couple of books enflight , am undergoing a period of no-books-on-flights .
Call centres in Bangalore exist on every road . But as they say , it takes just seconds for data to get transmitted from Chicago to Bangalore and hours to reach office from home .The customer who has ordered a pizza is San Mateo is likely to know where his pizza has reached answered by the call centre girl in Bangalore while if the girl ordered a pizza for herself for lunch , it would reach her at tea.
If you type ‘idly’ or ‘dosa’ , two of bangalore’s staple foods , on a nokia mobile phone , the dictionary accepts them as regular words .
Evidence that the software was made by some nerd in one of Bangalore’s software sweat shops .
This has generated a lot of new money for Bangalore . So , theres’ a flurry of retail activity too as brands and products hit their lifetime high in sales .The malls are only getting better . Around ten years ago , Shoppers stop opened its outlet at the back of the MG’s , and created enough flutter to generate newstories for a month . These days , a mall has to get by with not a mention in the news . Bangalore Central is the newest addition to the city’s list of fifteen malls already . What would happen to the rose-giving largest mom-and-pop store Kids kemp ? As they say , time will tell .
Still queueing at a movie counter ? Not in Bangalore , for sure .
There a peculiar problem that a non-techie faces in Bangalore . If you need tickets to a multiplex in Bangalore and you are the traditional one-hour-before the show buyer , this is not the city for you . The nerds here block every available ticket at every movie running in any multiplex on either the cell phone or the net . Anyone not used to booking tickets on the net , forget catching movies here . Airline ticketing agencies face the same problem , with e-ticketing the norm . Every airline that launched e-ticketing and e-checkins in Bangalore has more virtual tickets than real ones .
The advertising capital of the south , Bangalore has its fair share of great creative opportunities . Titan , Brittannia , Itc foods , Lee , Wrangler all lend themselves to some great advertising . The ad agencys’ Maa Bozell office on Airport road is an architectural wonder . Right at the centre of the entire four storey circular glass office is a large tree . the desks are arranged haphazardly giving it a wonderful appeal . I had met Nitya Premkumar here , the bookish classmate Nitya who stood first when I stood second in my ninth standard in Ambala . She was a media planner then , someone who operates at the bottom end of the advertising agency food chain . Today media planners rule the agency system . Martin Sorell , for instance , owns Mindshare , the mecca for all guys who work in an agency anywhere .From making wire and plastic products , Sorell got into the advertising business and created advertising history when his company became the largest media planning agencyin the world . His wealth was amazing . Sorell recently , settled ,alimony with his wife , an unprecedented twenty nine billion pounds including three parking lots at the harrods in London , fifty percent of his net worth . The world’s biggest negotiator lost out in negotiations to his ex-wife . Money makes for good irony .
As martin sorell looks for healing , Bangalore could be s good destination .
Bangalore needs healing , too . So it has Sri Sri Sri Ravishankar , the architect of the other AOL . Art Of Living . This guru of good cheer officiates over devotees in a hundred and forty five countries , by helping them make sense of life , consciousness and compassion. His thousand buck one-hour-five-days course on breathing skills , the sudarshan kriya , has spawned a massive following amongst all and sundry from movie stars to housewives .It’s international headquarters is the Ashram , twenty one kilometers off Bangalore in a hundred acre area around Kanakapura road . Like others of his ilk , he is always seen in an angavastram – which is a plain white seamless robe with an embroided border . Yet he is different . Unlike Rajneesh , who captured the imagination and wealth of the first wolrd with his unique philosophies on the serious mysteries of life , Sri Sri is more at ease . His simplistic solutions - like how to breate easy – make his charisma enduring . Rajneesh on the other hand constantly reinvented himself .One fine day , Acharya Rajneesh became Osho . His white robes changed to orange and then to maroon . His RIP plaque reads – Acharya Rajneesh , never born , never died, visited planet earth between 1945-1994 or some such date . He escaped impeachment and imprisonment in the US with his three hundred and sixty five Rolls Royces and landed on Indian shores to create a beautiful Ashram on the filty Mulla river in Pune . He had many sanyasins , pretty firang women of all origins ; german , dutch , british , Australian , chinese and some Indian . He would preach free sex ; which is always an inviting opportunity to join his elk . He had a treatise on everything – love , work , money , world , peace , relationships et al . He had enigma , mystery and undoubted hypnotic charisma . His remarkable Ashram in Koregaon Park is a landscapers marvel . It’s noiseless huge mosquito netted meditation hall with a capacity of squatting a thousand meditators has a cool granite floor and is sheer delight . The maroon robe is a cult fashion statement , desired , bought and worn by many . Then , one day he wore a bandana on his forehead , followed by a neat rich fur cap a couple of months later . When his ashram was coming of age many years ago , a local politician was preparing an army of young martial arts experts to attack Rajneesh and destroy his creed . It was spoilt by the police as they intercepted . The episode created massive international news , adding effectively to Rajneesh’s persona . He emerged from that episode with his halo brighter than before . For each session in the evening , he would emerge slowly in the main hall , walking with his sanyasins in tow after the entire mass of followers had assembled . Each discourse is recorded and reproduced in cassettes , audio disks , VCD’s , DVD’s and books . There are exclusive book stores selling his wares . All mystery , even after his visit to earth has ended .
Sri Sri , on the other hand , is a simple achiever . The photogenic guru of joy sports a naughty , mischievious smile , is very energetic and has a spring in his step . He walks around his acres of greens , mingles with his devotees and bonds ;the fact that he was recently nominated for the Nobel prize for peace rests easily on his shoulders . The Bangalore police expects two and a half million people to turn up at the twenty fifth year celebrations of the Art of Living course in the second week of february . Said to be held at the 250 acre Jakkur airfield , it is the world’s first and largest meditation for world peace .
Am just disgusted traveling through the roads and the traffic and the mess with it’s existing forty million people . The thought of an additional two and a half million people on these roads is scary .
Am marking my calendar , so I don’t plan to travel back to Bangalore anytime close to this date . My peace is more valuable than world peace .
The headlines in the paper lying in the car caught my attention , just as I left the hotel to the airport to catch my eight forty five flight to Mumbai . ‘The Son rises ‘ , it screamed .The news detailed the overnight events of January the eighteenth of a split in the party , Janata Dal , of India’s former prime minister Deve Gowda in Karnataka by his son Kumaraswamy who was breaking up from him with a huge set of members . Dislodging the father’s political party that was currently ruling the state by gaining a majority in the legislative assembly would mean two things for the son . Gowda would enter political wilderness and his son would get to be sworn in a Karnataka’s chief minister with the help of right wing hindu fundamentalist Bharatiya janata Party . The State Governor has given the son two days to prove his majority against his father and stake a claim to be the chief minister , banishing his father from politics . Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb imprisoned his father , the mighty Shah Jahan , many centuries ago and took the throne .
Et Tu , Kumaraswamy .
‘Ladies and gentlemen , Jet Airways announces the departure of its flight 442 to Mumbai . All passengers please board the aircraft from gate number two .’ The announcement spurred me to action as I moved to get through the security check counter .
A newly wedded couple stood at the other side of the security check counter , waving at their parents . Two sets of old couples on this side waved back . They were fragile , in their sixties and wore simple woolen sweaters to keep the Bangalore cold away .
All of them were pretty much of the same height . Couldn’t make out who was on the brides side and who on the grooms’ .When I reached the other side , I saw the freshness of the newly wedded couple . The elaborate mehendi on the girls hands was still new. The guy was unsure whether to hold her around the waist or to put an arm on the shoulder or to keep away till the parents dissolved from sight . The bespectacled girl had a clear jaw and was wearing a bright red leather jacket on brand new blue jeans . The guy had a diminishing hairline , had a spanking new blue overcoat and looked confident of giving this girl a time of her life .
Did he ?
I will never know .
Saturday, January 21, 2006
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Zero degrees in Delhi
Yesterday was Delhi’s coldest day in seventy years , so says the head of the meteorological department on national television . Zero point two degrees on the ninth of January two thousand and six. Seventy years back was Nineteen hundred and thirty six. Three years before world war two . Man !
I took the eight am flight from Mumbai today , just so that I don’t land up in Lucknow like the passengers of Sahara did last week when fog reduced visibility to five feet . And their Mumbai – Delhi six am flight was diverted to Lucknow as Delhi airport could not be seen !
I remembered my days , a couple of years ago , when I would drive at five thirty am in the morning from our house in the National Media Centre in Gurgaon through Dhaula Kuan , Subroto Park and Connaught place to the Delhi railway station on the Ajmeri gate side . There I would park my car and get into the Shatabdi Express to Ludhiana . The drive was routine . Every Monday through bad visibility . I remember driving blindly , just following the lights of the car in front till it would take a different path and then follow another vehicle all the way to the station . I had always thought flights would have some kind of fog light and control landing equipment , just like they have in the US . That they don’t , is a pity.
Zero degrees is surely new to Delhi . Five , Six degrees is the winter norm . Zero degrees is patented by Srinagar .Acquired meteorological knowledge tells me that Srinagar is sub-zero degree centigrade for a good part of December . As television presents visuals of the frozen Dal lake , I remember my days in Srinagar . Dad was posted in Srinagar in the freezing ranges of Baramula , Kargil and Drass where many a battle has been fought with Pakistan . Dad fought there as a young second lietnenant in Indian Army's 18th Infantry brigade in 1971 , defeating the Pakis to free Bangladesh as an independent country . It’s very cold in Srinagar , but the three layers of sweaters below overcoats with mufflers and monkey caps that we wore to school every winter , kept us warm and excited .Tucking into huge quilts and waking up to the chill was mortal pleasure . Hot milk never tasted better and a hot water bath was bliss .
Delhi winter is welcome , because it is well earned . All through summer , it is one extreme boiling pot at forty degrees centigrade . The tyres swhiss at the vapours on the tar . Acute power shortage makes bearing the heat even difficult , with failing air conditioners , fans and inverters . The densely populated roads add to the overall misery ; there are fourteen lac cars on these roads compared to four and half lac cars in mumbai . There are no rains . A short wet spell in late November is heavenly . Summer also means a shortage of water in this landlocked city . The four letter word for Delhi in Summer is hell .
Winter visits to Delhi have their own rewards .
Just outside the office is this guy who sells boiled eggs . Good , hot boiled eggs for two bucks a piece , sliced and spruced with salt’n’pepper . Cheap and wow ! Also , the afternoon sun is brilliant . As we lunched at the roadside dhaba in the middle of the road in Okhla Phase three industrial area , I lapped up the sun . Never has one liked the sun more . The warm rays breathe new life into my being .
My hotel has a warm water bottle waiting for me . The large room also has a heater in the center that radiates much needed heated conditioning .
I asked the chauffeur to turn the car’s air conditioning to heating as frost formed on the panes of its windows . The lancer is a very low base car , so for some reason you feel colder than a higher car . As we passed through the empty Aurangzeb road , Tughlak road towards sardar patel marg , there was not a soul on the road . Actually , in this part of delhi , there never is anyone anytime . As one moves from the densely populated northern Karol Bagh area to central Connaught place and thence to southern delhi where richness knows no parallel , you see lesser and lesser people . There are various shades of Delhi ,from the markets in Greater kailash one , M block , Lajpat nagar to the Malls in Gurgaon , Delhi is a city in transition .
In Karol bagh , the cycle rickshaws is an intergral part of ones life . The houses are small , the lanes are cramped and the cycle rickshaw is the only means of transport . In central delhi , taxis rule the roost alongwith auto rickshaws . The areas are plush , the country is governed from here . The best houses occupy the areas around these roads . South Delhi is an address . Something like Downing street .Only taxis here . And , Gurgaon has no taxis , just private cabs , costing a bomb . You need to have your own cars to move around , no autos for miles , no public taxis , no buses , no nothing . Have lived here enough to understand that there is a lobby of private cabbies and automobile manufacturers , maruti , honda and hyundai who rather have people buy their own cars rather than let public transport spoil their party .
They can’t stop the metro though . Three more years to go and Gurgaon gets connected to Karol bagh through Delhi’s underbelly in fifteen minutes . Automobiles lobbies will then be out in the cold. Economic cold .
Groups of people collect wood and light fires to keep themselves warm . Very primitive in concept , but works well fine . Business meetings find everyone dressed in smart suits . I love putting my blazers to good use in these visits .
And Delhi women in winter ?
They look beautiful too . Their cheeks flush red due to the cold making them glow wonderfully. Their phenomenally white skin freshens up , oozing pleasantness . And wearing bright body hugging pullovers , they are enticing and warm . Denims , warmer than the salwar kameezs , showcase wonderful legs , making you conjure up possibilities .
Ah , Tangdi kababs !
Prefer zero degrees in Delhi to seventeen degress in Mumbai .
Anytime .
I took the eight am flight from Mumbai today , just so that I don’t land up in Lucknow like the passengers of Sahara did last week when fog reduced visibility to five feet . And their Mumbai – Delhi six am flight was diverted to Lucknow as Delhi airport could not be seen !
I remembered my days , a couple of years ago , when I would drive at five thirty am in the morning from our house in the National Media Centre in Gurgaon through Dhaula Kuan , Subroto Park and Connaught place to the Delhi railway station on the Ajmeri gate side . There I would park my car and get into the Shatabdi Express to Ludhiana . The drive was routine . Every Monday through bad visibility . I remember driving blindly , just following the lights of the car in front till it would take a different path and then follow another vehicle all the way to the station . I had always thought flights would have some kind of fog light and control landing equipment , just like they have in the US . That they don’t , is a pity.
Zero degrees is surely new to Delhi . Five , Six degrees is the winter norm . Zero degrees is patented by Srinagar .Acquired meteorological knowledge tells me that Srinagar is sub-zero degree centigrade for a good part of December . As television presents visuals of the frozen Dal lake , I remember my days in Srinagar . Dad was posted in Srinagar in the freezing ranges of Baramula , Kargil and Drass where many a battle has been fought with Pakistan . Dad fought there as a young second lietnenant in Indian Army's 18th Infantry brigade in 1971 , defeating the Pakis to free Bangladesh as an independent country . It’s very cold in Srinagar , but the three layers of sweaters below overcoats with mufflers and monkey caps that we wore to school every winter , kept us warm and excited .Tucking into huge quilts and waking up to the chill was mortal pleasure . Hot milk never tasted better and a hot water bath was bliss .
Delhi winter is welcome , because it is well earned . All through summer , it is one extreme boiling pot at forty degrees centigrade . The tyres swhiss at the vapours on the tar . Acute power shortage makes bearing the heat even difficult , with failing air conditioners , fans and inverters . The densely populated roads add to the overall misery ; there are fourteen lac cars on these roads compared to four and half lac cars in mumbai . There are no rains . A short wet spell in late November is heavenly . Summer also means a shortage of water in this landlocked city . The four letter word for Delhi in Summer is hell .
Winter visits to Delhi have their own rewards .
Just outside the office is this guy who sells boiled eggs . Good , hot boiled eggs for two bucks a piece , sliced and spruced with salt’n’pepper . Cheap and wow ! Also , the afternoon sun is brilliant . As we lunched at the roadside dhaba in the middle of the road in Okhla Phase three industrial area , I lapped up the sun . Never has one liked the sun more . The warm rays breathe new life into my being .
My hotel has a warm water bottle waiting for me . The large room also has a heater in the center that radiates much needed heated conditioning .
I asked the chauffeur to turn the car’s air conditioning to heating as frost formed on the panes of its windows . The lancer is a very low base car , so for some reason you feel colder than a higher car . As we passed through the empty Aurangzeb road , Tughlak road towards sardar patel marg , there was not a soul on the road . Actually , in this part of delhi , there never is anyone anytime . As one moves from the densely populated northern Karol Bagh area to central Connaught place and thence to southern delhi where richness knows no parallel , you see lesser and lesser people . There are various shades of Delhi ,from the markets in Greater kailash one , M block , Lajpat nagar to the Malls in Gurgaon , Delhi is a city in transition .
In Karol bagh , the cycle rickshaws is an intergral part of ones life . The houses are small , the lanes are cramped and the cycle rickshaw is the only means of transport . In central delhi , taxis rule the roost alongwith auto rickshaws . The areas are plush , the country is governed from here . The best houses occupy the areas around these roads . South Delhi is an address . Something like Downing street .Only taxis here . And , Gurgaon has no taxis , just private cabs , costing a bomb . You need to have your own cars to move around , no autos for miles , no public taxis , no buses , no nothing . Have lived here enough to understand that there is a lobby of private cabbies and automobile manufacturers , maruti , honda and hyundai who rather have people buy their own cars rather than let public transport spoil their party .
They can’t stop the metro though . Three more years to go and Gurgaon gets connected to Karol bagh through Delhi’s underbelly in fifteen minutes . Automobiles lobbies will then be out in the cold. Economic cold .
Groups of people collect wood and light fires to keep themselves warm . Very primitive in concept , but works well fine . Business meetings find everyone dressed in smart suits . I love putting my blazers to good use in these visits .
And Delhi women in winter ?
They look beautiful too . Their cheeks flush red due to the cold making them glow wonderfully. Their phenomenally white skin freshens up , oozing pleasantness . And wearing bright body hugging pullovers , they are enticing and warm . Denims , warmer than the salwar kameezs , showcase wonderful legs , making you conjure up possibilities .
Ah , Tangdi kababs !
Prefer zero degrees in Delhi to seventeen degress in Mumbai .
Anytime .
New Money in Indore
Ever witnessed a mom and pop town transport itself to mega mass retail ? Go to Indore . It’s all happening there right now .
The first new spanking retail mall opened to curious Indorians a couple of weeks ago . Aptly called treasure island , people visited it from places as far as Ujjain , three quarters of an hour away and Bhopal which is a good one hundred and fifty kilometers away . All kinds of people thronged the mall as if it was an unidentified flying object , landing suddenly – bang in the centre of the town .
Indore is what my old collegue Gurudutt used to say , a one horse town . Three roads make this town of a million and a half – the MG road ( Mahatma Gandhi road – show me a town in India that doesn’t have one named after the father of the nation ) , the AB ( Agra-Bombay , not Amitabh Bachchan ) road and RNT marg ( what’s literate , nobel laureate Bengali Rabindranath Tagore doing in central India ?)
The most interesting bunch of shops are in an area called chappan dukaan , local lingo for fifty six shops . These are a set of great food shops all lined up in a straight no-nonsense path with each vying for your attention with its special preparations . From Aloo – tikki , chaats , bhajjias to dosas , idlis and Chinese noodles – all in one great food bazaar . The town was full of shopping centres like Ashok centre , Citicentre and Apollo square each of which had housed the city’s best jewelers , garment stores and restaurants . The retail revolution was restricted to a new coffee shop being opened or at best a new brand of apparel making a splash with a large showroom in one of these shopping centres .
And suddenly , poof ! lands this spacecraft called Treasure island .
And my good fortune , that I land there too to witness history in a completely un-historic town .
It is imposing even by Mumbai standards . A huge seven storey monolith with massive glass exteriors . Very well illuminated and airconditioned , it is home to brands like Geoffrey’s ; yup , the one in downtown Mumbai where you catch Rajesh Jhunjunwala , the filthy rich stock broker downing his drinks on penny stock losses , Be ; the outstanding women’s store selling great expensive tops , Noodle Bar ; the current chinese craze in Mumbai , Copper Chimney ; brilliant Indian food , barista ; the eighty rupee coffee and conversation joint and Benzer ; the uber-rich , uber-cool design store . They say , a swanky disc and lounge bar will open here alongside a multiplex , PVR , on the seventh floor.
The first day of its launch saw such a huge turnout that the mall owner , Mahesh Khilnani , decided to charge a hundred rupee entry fee . People still poured in , in droves . Twenty seven thousand people came in on the second day .That’s the kind of people who fill a stadium for a Dandiya in Gujarat . There was no place to stand , breathe or stare .
The mall closed doors on day three . Khilnani pondered on the issue .
As out-of-towners realized that this was just another set of stores where they could afford nothing , they cleared out .From the fourth day , local Indorians swelled as buzz mania engulfed them . There’s nothing much to do in Indore on a weekend . A mall offered a larger-than-life expansive , clean environment . Kids liked the limitless roof , the bright colours and the attention at each of the stores . The value shoppers like Big Bazaar , the Wal Mart of India , till Wal Mart comes to India , that is . There’s Dollar Store where everything costs a dollar or two .
As I looked around , I could see how people were devouring their first experience of a mall . The most exciting place was the escalator . There is such a commotion as people grapple with this new technology that takes them to the next floor giving them a ringside view of all that the mall offers . An old lady took a full five minutes to decide on choosing the escalator step . It was risky , but had to be done . Curious onlookers bade her on . Go , Go , Go .
There was this couple that carried a handycam around shooting the mall’s plush interiors . They moved around the shops capturing a historic moment in their lives .
A group of young students walked upto the open-air Barista counter and asked for coffee . They heard the price and exchanged glances .
One of them , a bright young smart guy with hair parted in the middle and a big extra large smile took the initiative .
‘Five coffees ‘
The young boy at the counter punched efficiently in the cash register .
‘ Mocha , Frappe or Cappuchino ?’
‘What’s Mocha ?’
‘ Basic frothy coffee while Cappuchino has rich chocolate and Frappe is cold coffee on the rocks ’
‘ Cappuchino ‘ , said one of the girls .
‘Frappe ‘ said two others .
‘And two Mocha’s ‘ said the young lead manager .
‘Any chocolate doughnuts ?’ he asked pointing to the doughnuts .
‘Three ‘ , he said with quick glances , indicating that the gang would share .
‘Four hundred and sixty ruppes .
The coffee and doughnuts were placed on a tray which the youngster carried onto the table . There was laughter , lots of giggling and absolute satisfaction .
This is new money , for sure .
Young , new money .
From the BPO park in Khandwa , perhaps .
Dollar employers . Rupee employees .
Younger consumers.
Who need a life .
So need the malls .
Indore , their sleepy one-horse town , has one now .
The first new spanking retail mall opened to curious Indorians a couple of weeks ago . Aptly called treasure island , people visited it from places as far as Ujjain , three quarters of an hour away and Bhopal which is a good one hundred and fifty kilometers away . All kinds of people thronged the mall as if it was an unidentified flying object , landing suddenly – bang in the centre of the town .
Indore is what my old collegue Gurudutt used to say , a one horse town . Three roads make this town of a million and a half – the MG road ( Mahatma Gandhi road – show me a town in India that doesn’t have one named after the father of the nation ) , the AB ( Agra-Bombay , not Amitabh Bachchan ) road and RNT marg ( what’s literate , nobel laureate Bengali Rabindranath Tagore doing in central India ?)
The most interesting bunch of shops are in an area called chappan dukaan , local lingo for fifty six shops . These are a set of great food shops all lined up in a straight no-nonsense path with each vying for your attention with its special preparations . From Aloo – tikki , chaats , bhajjias to dosas , idlis and Chinese noodles – all in one great food bazaar . The town was full of shopping centres like Ashok centre , Citicentre and Apollo square each of which had housed the city’s best jewelers , garment stores and restaurants . The retail revolution was restricted to a new coffee shop being opened or at best a new brand of apparel making a splash with a large showroom in one of these shopping centres .
And suddenly , poof ! lands this spacecraft called Treasure island .
And my good fortune , that I land there too to witness history in a completely un-historic town .
It is imposing even by Mumbai standards . A huge seven storey monolith with massive glass exteriors . Very well illuminated and airconditioned , it is home to brands like Geoffrey’s ; yup , the one in downtown Mumbai where you catch Rajesh Jhunjunwala , the filthy rich stock broker downing his drinks on penny stock losses , Be ; the outstanding women’s store selling great expensive tops , Noodle Bar ; the current chinese craze in Mumbai , Copper Chimney ; brilliant Indian food , barista ; the eighty rupee coffee and conversation joint and Benzer ; the uber-rich , uber-cool design store . They say , a swanky disc and lounge bar will open here alongside a multiplex , PVR , on the seventh floor.
The first day of its launch saw such a huge turnout that the mall owner , Mahesh Khilnani , decided to charge a hundred rupee entry fee . People still poured in , in droves . Twenty seven thousand people came in on the second day .That’s the kind of people who fill a stadium for a Dandiya in Gujarat . There was no place to stand , breathe or stare .
The mall closed doors on day three . Khilnani pondered on the issue .
As out-of-towners realized that this was just another set of stores where they could afford nothing , they cleared out .From the fourth day , local Indorians swelled as buzz mania engulfed them . There’s nothing much to do in Indore on a weekend . A mall offered a larger-than-life expansive , clean environment . Kids liked the limitless roof , the bright colours and the attention at each of the stores . The value shoppers like Big Bazaar , the Wal Mart of India , till Wal Mart comes to India , that is . There’s Dollar Store where everything costs a dollar or two .
As I looked around , I could see how people were devouring their first experience of a mall . The most exciting place was the escalator . There is such a commotion as people grapple with this new technology that takes them to the next floor giving them a ringside view of all that the mall offers . An old lady took a full five minutes to decide on choosing the escalator step . It was risky , but had to be done . Curious onlookers bade her on . Go , Go , Go .
There was this couple that carried a handycam around shooting the mall’s plush interiors . They moved around the shops capturing a historic moment in their lives .
A group of young students walked upto the open-air Barista counter and asked for coffee . They heard the price and exchanged glances .
One of them , a bright young smart guy with hair parted in the middle and a big extra large smile took the initiative .
‘Five coffees ‘
The young boy at the counter punched efficiently in the cash register .
‘ Mocha , Frappe or Cappuchino ?’
‘What’s Mocha ?’
‘ Basic frothy coffee while Cappuchino has rich chocolate and Frappe is cold coffee on the rocks ’
‘ Cappuchino ‘ , said one of the girls .
‘Frappe ‘ said two others .
‘And two Mocha’s ‘ said the young lead manager .
‘Any chocolate doughnuts ?’ he asked pointing to the doughnuts .
‘Three ‘ , he said with quick glances , indicating that the gang would share .
‘Four hundred and sixty ruppes .
The coffee and doughnuts were placed on a tray which the youngster carried onto the table . There was laughter , lots of giggling and absolute satisfaction .
This is new money , for sure .
Young , new money .
From the BPO park in Khandwa , perhaps .
Dollar employers . Rupee employees .
Younger consumers.
Who need a life .
So need the malls .
Indore , their sleepy one-horse town , has one now .
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Kolkatta rising
There’s no middle class in Kolkatta . The consuming class of Kolkatta is outside Kolkatta . If one goes to the fourth floor gym in the swanky new multiplex forum in downtown Kol , you’ll realize that it costs six thousand bucks per month for a gym membership . Now , gyms in Mumbai cost three thousand a month at best . The ones in Mariott would be ten thousand a month , but that’s where you find Amitabh Bachchan at five am . There are cheap gyms at hundred bucks a month , run from apartments and pretty unhygienic . One of the best restaurants is O ! Calcutta , for authentic bengali cuisine , where you can run up a bill of two thousand rupees for a dinner for two . The smaller ones like Mainland China , Marco polo , peter Cat , Don Giovanni are pretty expensive too . There’s nothing in the five hundred to nine hundred range . there are a lot of roadside eateries , though . A meal for five bucks is easily available . The one multiplex , Kolkatta , have tickets costing two hundred bucks for a weekend . A new year party in Kol costs above four thousand for a couple . That’s the same price as in Mumbai .
You need to be either very rich or very poor to enjoy Kolkatta .
The trams and the Mercs co-exist in Kolkatta . the super rich are all industrialists who have been here for generations , amassed a lot of wealth and have the traditional old wealth . There is no new generation wealth in Kol .
That is also one of the reasons that the Bengalis who are not in Kol don’t like the ones who are in Kol . The non-resident Bengalis in Mumbai , Delhi and other cities , own houses , earn good incomes , own cars and work in good organizations don’t want to come back to Kolkatta .
That is set to change .
One recent investor from Malaysia , Salim just bought five thousand acres of land in Kolkatta to develop an industrial hub . He wants to manufacture a low cost scooter with Kolkatta as a hub. Mitsubshi Electric corp wants to create a Haldia equivalent and pledged six thousand million dollar investment to the govt. Buddhadev Dasgupta , the erstwhile finance minister in Jyoti Basu government , welcomes investors with open arms even while Mamta Banerjee and opposition leaders stage dharna’s and block roads against these so called invaders .
Builders have changed the Kolkatta landscape . The Rajarghat area which is now the defacto route to the airport have construction frenzy . Wipro has come up with a BPO outfit that now employs more than three thousand young people who will have monies to buy things at reasonable prizes . And businessmen might just be forced to look at this market . China might find easy access to Indian market through kolkatta . Jute and Tea are the next rising markets as coffee has already taken over Indian pastimes with a series of coffee retailers like Barista , Café Coffee day , Qwirky’s and Just Coffee in most metros . Tea is the next big thing .
Bengali movies are hitting the hindi league . Choker bali with Aishwarya hit bigtime. Antar mahal roped in Abhishek bachchan and captured national imagination .
Kolkatta is rising to its past glory .
Slowly , but surely .
You need to be either very rich or very poor to enjoy Kolkatta .
The trams and the Mercs co-exist in Kolkatta . the super rich are all industrialists who have been here for generations , amassed a lot of wealth and have the traditional old wealth . There is no new generation wealth in Kol .
That is also one of the reasons that the Bengalis who are not in Kol don’t like the ones who are in Kol . The non-resident Bengalis in Mumbai , Delhi and other cities , own houses , earn good incomes , own cars and work in good organizations don’t want to come back to Kolkatta .
That is set to change .
One recent investor from Malaysia , Salim just bought five thousand acres of land in Kolkatta to develop an industrial hub . He wants to manufacture a low cost scooter with Kolkatta as a hub. Mitsubshi Electric corp wants to create a Haldia equivalent and pledged six thousand million dollar investment to the govt. Buddhadev Dasgupta , the erstwhile finance minister in Jyoti Basu government , welcomes investors with open arms even while Mamta Banerjee and opposition leaders stage dharna’s and block roads against these so called invaders .
Builders have changed the Kolkatta landscape . The Rajarghat area which is now the defacto route to the airport have construction frenzy . Wipro has come up with a BPO outfit that now employs more than three thousand young people who will have monies to buy things at reasonable prizes . And businessmen might just be forced to look at this market . China might find easy access to Indian market through kolkatta . Jute and Tea are the next rising markets as coffee has already taken over Indian pastimes with a series of coffee retailers like Barista , Café Coffee day , Qwirky’s and Just Coffee in most metros . Tea is the next big thing .
Bengali movies are hitting the hindi league . Choker bali with Aishwarya hit bigtime. Antar mahal roped in Abhishek bachchan and captured national imagination .
Kolkatta is rising to its past glory .
Slowly , but surely .
Bookless in Indore
This feeling of being lost has begun to get to me . Pre-dawn dashing from the taxi to the airport counters in Mumbai is beginning to cost me a packet . Last time , I parted ways with Woody Allen and today it was China !
445am in Mumbai , guess , is not the best of times for me . On my way to Lucknow the other day , I hurried out of the taxi only to find that I had left Woody Allen’s brilliant book Side Effects in the trolley , realizing a minute afterwards only to find that the trolley had vanished .
Last week , I decided to understand the Chinese and how they are faring in the race with India to become the next superpower . Picked up this book called China Inc. Written by a journalist with an American newspaper , it described how the Made in China tags with the China Price are going to rule the world in the next 10 years . They say that instead of disincentivising urbanization , they actually thrive on it . They have over 160 towns with a population more than one million , each of which is being converted into a huge manufacturing base . The US has 9 towns with one million plus poluation , the whole of Europe has twenty six. India has twenty two . China one hundred and sixty and counting . The strict displinarian society also makes it easier to implement things . At Taiwan airport boarding area , there’s this sign that reads ‘ Please switch off phones else six months prison ’. Compare that with requests that polite announcers in India make , ‘since it interferes with airline communication , please refrain from using your cell phones during the flight ’. Six months prison , I guess , says it better .
The soldiers of the US army posted in Baghdad are not worried of Taliban’s revenge or a civil war in Iraq . They are more worried that they will lose their jobs back home to some Chinese low cost manufacturer if they stay in Iraq too long . Thousands of jobs are moving weekly to China .
Chinese are quite some people . They quote Karl Marx and the stock price of Mitsubishi in the same breadth . Tianammen Square co-exists with Shanghai Loots . On my flight to Amsterdam , my co-passenger was a Dutch who mined granite in a quarry miles off Bangalore , shipped it to China for polishing and sold it in Amsterdam and Europe for a three hundred percent margin . The Netherlands is called the flower basket of the world . They export Tulips around the world. This Dutchman explained to me how thousands of Chinese descend onto Amsterdam during peak summer flower-seasons and are trying to decode the code – climate , seasoning , care needed to produce tulips in large quantity and export from …China !
The shower curtains in the Radisson hotel in Warwick , Philadelphia are made in China . The ticket counter stub of all my Jet Airways tickets are printed in China . The wonderful five dollar watches that I bought from manhattan sidewalks are all made in China . Half of Wal-Mart is made in China – from skateboards to shoes . There are more goods in Linking road in Mumbai from China than are in Chinatown in New York . The machine tool manufacturer in Rajkot I met ten years back was very worried that Chinese lathe machines would ruin him one day . The bicycle parts manufacturer in Ludhiana had Chinese visitors five years back. Today , he doesn’t have a factory . Infosys , the bellweather of the Indian software industry last year started outsourcing to China . Millions are learning English in China , even getting their tongues operated upon to be able to get an American accent .
Everthing now has a China Price .
Seeking to understand these changes in the new global economy , I bought the book , China Inc. And left it in the taxi today morning in the rush to catch my early morning flight to Indore . It was an instant . My moving to retrieve my travelbag from the taxi , lugging it onto the trolley , paying off the fellow and a split second concentration on avoiding the taxi which drove into the airport taxi bay . The book and the taxi was gone . As I called out over the din , the taxi guy couldn’t care less .
I am very possessive about my books . All two thousand of them .Hate to lend , hate to lose , hate to share . Now have managed to lose two of them in the last six months .
Damn !
445am in Mumbai , guess , is not the best of times for me . On my way to Lucknow the other day , I hurried out of the taxi only to find that I had left Woody Allen’s brilliant book Side Effects in the trolley , realizing a minute afterwards only to find that the trolley had vanished .
Last week , I decided to understand the Chinese and how they are faring in the race with India to become the next superpower . Picked up this book called China Inc. Written by a journalist with an American newspaper , it described how the Made in China tags with the China Price are going to rule the world in the next 10 years . They say that instead of disincentivising urbanization , they actually thrive on it . They have over 160 towns with a population more than one million , each of which is being converted into a huge manufacturing base . The US has 9 towns with one million plus poluation , the whole of Europe has twenty six. India has twenty two . China one hundred and sixty and counting . The strict displinarian society also makes it easier to implement things . At Taiwan airport boarding area , there’s this sign that reads ‘ Please switch off phones else six months prison ’. Compare that with requests that polite announcers in India make , ‘since it interferes with airline communication , please refrain from using your cell phones during the flight ’. Six months prison , I guess , says it better .
The soldiers of the US army posted in Baghdad are not worried of Taliban’s revenge or a civil war in Iraq . They are more worried that they will lose their jobs back home to some Chinese low cost manufacturer if they stay in Iraq too long . Thousands of jobs are moving weekly to China .
Chinese are quite some people . They quote Karl Marx and the stock price of Mitsubishi in the same breadth . Tianammen Square co-exists with Shanghai Loots . On my flight to Amsterdam , my co-passenger was a Dutch who mined granite in a quarry miles off Bangalore , shipped it to China for polishing and sold it in Amsterdam and Europe for a three hundred percent margin . The Netherlands is called the flower basket of the world . They export Tulips around the world. This Dutchman explained to me how thousands of Chinese descend onto Amsterdam during peak summer flower-seasons and are trying to decode the code – climate , seasoning , care needed to produce tulips in large quantity and export from …China !
The shower curtains in the Radisson hotel in Warwick , Philadelphia are made in China . The ticket counter stub of all my Jet Airways tickets are printed in China . The wonderful five dollar watches that I bought from manhattan sidewalks are all made in China . Half of Wal-Mart is made in China – from skateboards to shoes . There are more goods in Linking road in Mumbai from China than are in Chinatown in New York . The machine tool manufacturer in Rajkot I met ten years back was very worried that Chinese lathe machines would ruin him one day . The bicycle parts manufacturer in Ludhiana had Chinese visitors five years back. Today , he doesn’t have a factory . Infosys , the bellweather of the Indian software industry last year started outsourcing to China . Millions are learning English in China , even getting their tongues operated upon to be able to get an American accent .
Everthing now has a China Price .
Seeking to understand these changes in the new global economy , I bought the book , China Inc. And left it in the taxi today morning in the rush to catch my early morning flight to Indore . It was an instant . My moving to retrieve my travelbag from the taxi , lugging it onto the trolley , paying off the fellow and a split second concentration on avoiding the taxi which drove into the airport taxi bay . The book and the taxi was gone . As I called out over the din , the taxi guy couldn’t care less .
I am very possessive about my books . All two thousand of them .Hate to lend , hate to lose , hate to share . Now have managed to lose two of them in the last six months .
Damn !
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