The India that was and that is

Throughout my India trip, I was left wondering at so many places Is this the same country that we lived, not more than 4 years ago?”. So, the immediate thought that came to mind was that I should blog about them and here it is. With majority of the readers of this blog being here in the US (who visit our country once in 2 years), I thought you will be interested in knowing about the same. The following were some of the most drastic changes that I noticed during my India trip...

- Traffic, obviously. Not only there is an unbelievable increase in the number of cars on the roads, there is also a big difference in the brand of cars that can be seen on Indian roads. Gone are those days when Maruti 800s and Omnis ruled the roads. We have actually even moved away from Santros & Zens to Corollas & Citys & the amazingly high number of SUVs. I was really taken by surprise to see such a large number of Corollas and Citys, not just on Chennai & Bangalore roads, but in the roads of every single city/ town that I visited during the trip.

- Dwelling on traffic again. Such a huge increase in the number of cars automatically means traffic jams and congestion. Driving on the Mount road is nothing short of a nightmare. Long queues are the order, no matter what time of the day you are riding your bike. If it’s a 4 wheeler, it gets all the more scarier. There were times when the traffic which starts from the Nandanam signal extends all the way to the Saidapet signal.

- Staying on traffic still, on national highways, we now have an increased presence of highway patrol vehicles. And the fear of fines (read bribes) does instill a sense of caution among our drivers who slow down when they see such vehicles from a distance. This is a very welcome addition to our highways.

- Trust me, this is the last one on traffic :) Parking has been given increased attention with more assigned parking spaces both on the roads and in big name malls like Spencer's. The sight of increased number of towing trucks bears testimony to the same.

- Talking of Spencer's, it looks like this one huge town by itself and can easily be called the Tidel Park of malls. But the one thing I noticed that many are just coming in there to hang out bcos of the air conditioning in there. Many of the stores are literally empty but the crowd is just too much, implying that people do come in just to hang out.

- Many of the cine actresses can now be seen in TV commercials. This is something, which was considered not a good sign of an actress's career graph during those days, is now apparently a good indication as to how well she is doing.

- And oh, the other thing - I saw a lot of couples (by couples, I mean guys & girls hanging out together) everywhere I went, be it in theaters, hotels and malls. This was probably the biggest shock for me, to see more guys and girls going out together. Gone are those days when a boy & a girl walk on the road, all the eyes would be on them. But now, it looks like commonplace stuff.

- On the highways, the mushrooming of rest areas & plazas similar to the ones we have here was a pleasant surprise. Many of them are owned by big name companies like Reliance & BP and boast of all the essential facilities.

- Sun music is probably the most popular channel in our TVs. Anywhere you go to a common place where a TV is switched on (say in the lobby of a hotel or in the waiting room of a hospital), Sun Music is invariably the channel that is being played.

- Yuvan's albums are the hottest selling albums in the audio market. Looks like the Rahman craze has rightly and surely died down, with Yuvan ruling the charts. The guy at the biggest audio store in Madurai (they only sell original CDs and cassettes, which is a very good thing) says without missing a beat that Pudhupettai & Pattiyal (this after Godfather and before VV were released) are currently the best selling albums and after Chandramukhi & Ghajni (mainly bcos the films were super-duper hits), it was Yuvan's albums all the way, in the best selling albums of last year.

- Now, we have cut-outs being placed even for the audio release for a movie. The local Ajith fans had placed a cut out of Ajith in Godfather with the name of the shop. I will have to add that I did not see the same for any other movie. So, I am not sure if this was bcos it was an Ajith movie bcos from what I have heard & read, Ajith fans are the most loyal of fans, next only to Thalaivar fans. I am sure there would have been cut-outs like these for Chandramukhi, as well.

- ATMs seemed to have spruced up in every nook and corner. I still remember those days when they were only a handful of ATMs in Madras city and we had to travel all the way from Velachery to Adyar to withdraw some cash. Do you know what the best thing about these ATMs is? They have finally taught our people the virtue of patience. Nowhere else (where standing in a line is required, say in the theater counter or in the railway station) would you see our folks act more disciplined than at the ATMs.

- Petrol now costs 50 Rs and we now have a premium version of petrol called Speed which is a couple of rupees more than the regular one. Again, something we see here.

But these are some things that have not changed a bit in all these years.

- Sun TV and Jaya TV going at each other. If only, they have actually become worse, throwing allegations at each other & singing praises of themselves a bit more than what I used to see during those days when I was in India

- I was going to write a similar post like what Preethi came up here about the attitude of our people back in India, about how they don't offer words of courtesy et al, like when they step on your toes and such similar situations. That has not changed a bit but when I was conversing with my American friend here, he gave a beautiful insight that could possibly explain the behavior of our people. He said that the main problem with Asians was that they do not enjoy the kind of private space that Americans over here enjoy. Dwelling further upon that, he said that the private space of a person from Asia extends only as far as his nose whereas the same for an American might be around couple of feet. And he also attributed the reason for this to the high population in Asian countries like India and China. So, that kind of explains it, right?!

- Our folks' craze for cricket has not changed a bit (again I should say that the mania has only increased). The following incident kind of proved it all. Picture this: I was watching the 3rd ODI between India and Pakistan at my friend's home in Namakkal and since it was around 7pm & I had to get back to Madurai, I had to leave midway. India had another 100 or so runs to chase with Dhoni just joining Yuvraj after Sachin's dismissal for 95. I board the bus to Madurai and immediately I realized that the one thing that all the folks around me wanted to know was the latest score. They ask me and I tell them the latest score that I know. Then after a while, the bus stops at a small village on the way and the guy sitting near me asks a guy on the road if he knows the score & unfortunately, the guy on the road did not know it. I was smiling at him, amazed at the undiminished fan following cricket has enjoyed in our country. Then, he looks at me and asks me if I can call someone on my cell phone and get to know the score. So, I call my friend and my friend after telling the score (India had to score 3 runs off 18 balls or something like that), was chatting with me about how Dhoni was providing the fireworks. But the guy got restless & kept asking me what the score, even while I was still talking to my friend on the phone. I told him the score and then continued. Then, the bus stopped immediately in the next stop, another really small & remote village. A group of guys who were walking across the bus then broke the good news to everyone in the bus (from the road) and there was such a rejoicing inside the bus. I was taken by complete surprise. I am still sure if this reaction was bcos the victory was against Pakistan or bcos it was just an Indian victory.

Now, over to you guys, for your valuable comments...