Indian Middle class' Hypocrisy

There are couple of Newspaper editors who do an awesome job everyday. I follow Shekhar Gupta of IE on Saturday and Vir Sanghvi of HT every Sunday. I dont even know the name of the editor of India's largest circulated Newspaper, so you can forget about the editorials. Should be as crappy!

Ok so VS wrote a very though provoking article on the Delhi demolition of illegal structures. It is an awesome read and he touches on the hypocrisy of the middle-class in India. Its a good read I am just copy pasting that part...

You would think that an urban middle class that spent so long complaining about the decline of our cities would vociferously oppose any deviation from the rules and would fight against the offenders to preserve the character of their hometowns.

On the contrary. As long as we can add illegal balconies to our houses, run offices in our basements and let out our garages to small manufacturers, we don’t really give a damn.

The complaints are made in the abstract. The offenders are people we don’t know. As long as we can bend the rules by paying off some official, we are content to hammer one more nail into the coffin of urban India.

There is no better illustration of our selfishness than in our attitude to illegal encroachments by those at the margins of our society: the slum-dwellers.

I am something of a fundamentalist (extremist, even) when it comes to urban planning. Nevertheless, I am deeply saddened by the spectacle of shanties being bulldozed out of existence; of poor people clutching their few pathetic belongings and surveying the wreckage of their homes.

But, as much as all this upsets me, I recognise that the alternative is even worse. We cannot hope to retain any sense of urban planning if people are allowed to construct illegal slum colonies wherever they want. Finally, an encroachment is an encroachment and must be treated as such. It is up to us to be humane in removing the encroachment or in resettling those displaced. But no city in the world can afford to permit the spread of slum encroachment all over its environs.

Most middle class people share my view; they hate slums, they consider them eyesores, they are worried about the security implications (even though they will cheerfully employ domestic help from those very slums) and they treat them as examples of the venality of the political class: the slums survive because they contain voters.

But why is it wrong for poor people to construct illegal structures and perfectly okay for middle class people to do exactly the same thing?

What is the difference between an illegal slum and an illegal sari showroom? Aesthetics, perhaps (though, judging by many sari showrooms these days, I am not even sure of that). But otherwise the arguments are much the same: both are encroachments, both place unacceptable strain on the infrastructure and both destroy any sense of urban planning.

And yet, such is our middle class hypocrisy that the very people who complain about slums and demand that the homes of the poor be destroyed are content to make crores out of shops and offices that are just as illegal and illegitimate.

Logic suggests that if there is any sympathy to be directed at encroachers, it should go to the poor slum-dwellers. Instead, nearly all of it goes to the traders, the shopkeepers, the businessmen and the fat cats. And that’s because they are middle class — like us. The marginalised people whose homes we want destroyed, on the other hand, are almost sub-human and worthy of no consideration at all.

Its quite true and his thoughts ring a bell when you look at it. When we built our house, we made sure that we left so many feet on either side of the house to take care of the corporation norms. There were roads on two sides of my house, which meant that we had to leave an extra feet on those two sides. I am sure a lot of law-abiding citizens do that. And it pains when you see a shop jutting out on the road or a balcony protruding out into the road. And when the Govt authorities come to demolish it, the sympathy is always with the affected. I mean if you knew you were doing something illegal and wrong, you should pay for it.

Bangkok Diary

Welcome to Bangkok - the concrete jungle. Last time I was here, I didnt get enough time to move around. I didnt get anytime in this trip also, but still made the most of it.

This is the view from Nonthaburi, a small suburb on the other side of Chao Phraya river, which is now part of Bangkok. Here is an interesting trivia of the name Bangkok. Though we foreigners use the name Bangkok, the actual name of the city is Krung Thep. Bangkok is just a part of the big city. The the city's full ceremonial name is "Krung Thep Maha Nakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udom Ratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Phiman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanu Kamprasit", which translates to "The city of angels, the great city, the eternal jewel city, the impregnable city of God Indra, the grand capital of the world endowed with nine precious gems, the happy city, abounding in an enormous Royal Palace that resembles the heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god, a city given by Indra and built by Vishnukam"

Infact the full name of the city is the longest place name in the world. I do not know how the connection of God Indra etc come into the picture with respect to Thailand. In the new airport there is a huge replica of the Hindu mythical story of Samudra Manthan, the gods and the asuras churning the ocean using the snake!!!How the hell did the Thais come to know of this story and why is it so important for them to keep it bang in the middle of the new Suvarnabhoomi airport. Beats me.




The once place which I could go was th water-ways inside the city. I could catch a glimpse of them in my numerous taxi-rides, but couldnt take it. A James bond movie, I think the "Man with Golden Gun" has a nice boat chase etc in it.

And another surprise is that there is no local car company in Thailand. So all the cars are foreign. I think its pretty sad for a country like Thailand. They have the technology, the manpower and other resources, wonder why they still dont have a local car!!!


Well talking of the good infrastructure this country has built we should look at the long term vision there rulers had though you can say that, even after doing so much there is so much of traffic jams inside the city. But to think that they completed those expressways running above the city that connects most of Bangkok in and around 1995 and they have a double network of overhead transit system of trains - The MRTS and BTS.

The picture below is the new station they are constructing on the Nonthaburi line. Once this line complete, they will have farther more connectivity and hopefully the traffic constraints should reduce. The trains are much better and bigger than the LRT in KL. There is only one issue I have with the stations, they dont have any toilets! Ya so they must have saved a lot of money on that. I had to rush to the nearest mall to relieve myself:(


This picture below is taken from the Wikipedia, awesome picture this is of Bangkok and the skytrain!

The new airport is not connected to the train system but the way work is progressing in Bangkok, maybe by middle of next year that will be operational too. But unlike the old airport where you have to bargain with the taxi drivers outside the station to get into the city, here the pre-paid system is very tourist friendly. Last time I had to wait for close to 2 hours for my visa on arrival. I had to wait in a queue, fill a form, submit it along with my passport and photo and wait for my turn to be called. This time it took less than 5 mins and all you have to give is the passport and photo, no more lousy forms etc. Pretty efficient I should say.

The airport is still not completely finished in the sense that you can still see some painting jobs to be done etc. The number of shops inside the new airport must be double or triple of what you have in KLIA but I think they should have made it more spacious as the passages are a bit narrow. I have a complaint though. In the old airport there was a Nike showroom, form where I picked up my Argentine and Brazil jerseys. This time I walked the nearly 3 km long passageways leading to all the gates, trying to locate the sports shop. It seems there are no more shops/sports shops selling any football jerseys. Too less!


Talking of the coup and its after-effects, the city seems to be quite normal. There are posters of the king hanging from a lot of buildings. It is the year of the King's 60th Bday and hence this show of wishes. I remember seeing a program on TV in which they showed what all good the Thai monarchy has done to the people of Thailand. So the vote for the best monarchy in the workd should go to the Thai King and family. Much better than the ones in this country. I havent seen anything good coming from the words or deeds of the sultans of this country.

Thaksin the ousted PM seems sold some 49% stakes in Shin Corp a telecom company to temasek Holdings, which was illegal and to top it, it seems our man amended the laws just prior to the sale and saved on taxes for a sale of close to $ 1.8 Bn in stakes!!! And this is what basically led to the coup happening as the whole country was witness to this drama being unfolded.

But the other side is that it seems Thaksin for all his evil deeds also had a good side. He was the one who planned the new airport to rival the local challenges from KL and Singapore. UNfortunately he could not even attend the inauguration of this airport. He introduced a scheme where any Thai citizen could go to any government hospital for treatment of any ailment (from fever to cancer) for 30 Baht (which is equivalent to Rs.30). How I wish they do something similar for the numerous health centres in rural India atleast.

And talking about food, well South East Asia is not a place for the vegeterians. If you want to enjoy all sorts of meats this is the place. I didnt go to the place where they have grasshoppers, that would have been too much for me. This is a local roadside place selling nice fish and meat for the people who want a quick bite.

I didnt try it though, but the green curry chicken is my favourite with a-dish-i-forgot-the-name of, which is basically chicken which is roasted inside coconut leaf (I think). Thats heavenly!

I landed in one of the designer planes of Air Asia. The Man U one!

Genting & some movies

Went to Genting HIghlandswith couple of my friends recently. This place is at a higher altitude compared to KL and is a easy getaway for KLites from the heat. The avg temp is around 15-20 deg and there are intermittent showers to cool it further. I never thought I had the nerves to do some of the rides they had for offer. I was freaked out before my small and harmless roller coaster ride itself. It all dates back to a consumer expo in Trivandrum, when I sat in a ride called "Torra Torra". Well to make it worse I was sitting on the edge, which means that I was supportig the entire body-weight of the person sitting next to me!!! As soon as the ride got over I just walked to the side and puked:( Since then, I stay away from Giant-wheels, roller-coaster etc etc


This story dates back to some 11 years. So when we were in Genting, I thought I should try out some of the rides as I had stopped doing such childhood scares (throwing up when going up an altitude, throwing up when the flight was taking off) some time back :) So here I was rejuvenated and in French company and had to keep apna desh ka naam ooncha and all...I did some amazing roller-coasters and somethign called Space shot (pic below), which is some 15 storeys high and drops down, like bungee-jumping, but the difference is that you would be sitting. The whole process is less than 1 minute, but gives you the kick. I still didnt do the rotating/revolving kind of rides:)




Then we did the casino, I lost some 30 ringgits and my friend lost 300! It gets addictive I should say, but it was mu first visit to a casino and now I know how the owners of Genting, are one of the richest people in Malaysia. There are thousands of gamblers in this part of the world. Genting is one of the companies which has bid for the Sentosa Casino in Singapore.

Saw Munnabhai some time back. I think its a very funny way of looking at changing the country but not as realistically possible as RDB though. It is a tough task to make a successful sequel and they have done it. Also saw Omkara, another good Hindi movie. There are some good directors in Hindi for a change. Now can the KJ's and gang retire from the indutry. Also a parting shot on Don, didnt like it as much as the original. I would watch AB version anyday over the SRK one. And SRK can never do justice to what AB did in "Khaike Paan Banaras waala..." Impossible...

Indonesian Diary

It’s been close to a month since I blogged. I have been travelling around quite a bit, though that is no excuse, as it is part and parcel of a Sales job. The most fascinating job of sales and the most difficult part is sitting across the table and trying to convince your customer to buy your product. So there is a sympathetic corner for every sales guy I come across.

My job took me to the Republic of Indonesia. This is one country which is in the news for all the wrong reasons – Floods, earth-quakes, mud volcano and forest fires…With the fourth largest population the roads, buses, malls etc are crowded like India. As with every crowd, rules are broken on the roads, as with every poor country, corruption is rampant in every walk of life. But the new president is undoing or trying to change the scenario and is fighting corruption as much as he can. The ouster of Suharto and emerging of this new government made for some fascinating reading.

This part of the world has another similar fascination – high rises! They are all over the place. They are making the tallest/lightest twin storey apartment complex, which is supposedly one of the 50 best apartments in the world! I went for an expo and tell you what some of the best home furnishings can be sourced from this region. They do amazing work with wood, fabrics and fibres. Amazing stuff, highly recommended for home furnishing products.

The craziest thing to watch out for in Indonesia is the bus lane. They have this running on the middle of the road and at some parts they are at a raised platform, like the footpath, but at the wrong side. So you have bus-stops at the middle of the road which are connected by overhead walkways and the doors for this buses are on the right side!!! This idea has been borrowed from Bolivia/Colombia (one of these South American countries).

I took a nice train ride to a place called Bandung, which is supposedly the textile centre in Indonesia and I came to know this when I was leavingL Most of the popular brands that you wear in some parts of the world gets made here.

If you are a non-vegeterian, this is the country for you and the food is very similar in terms of your chicken curry, fish curry etc. They add turmeric and other spices in abundance and so the taste is also quite similar. In the restaurants, they keep all their dishes on your table and you can pick and choose whatever you want to eat. Once you are done, they will come and clear and charge you according to what you ate (touched). Eating with hand is not a crime. Talking about food, I had a really nice dinner at MU Café, yes Manchester United Café. I went in at 7PM and they showed me the way out as due to the Ramadan period, all the tables were booked. So went in at 9.30 and peacefully enjoyed the ambience. Got some stuff for some of the ManU-fan friends of mine.

Football Trivia for Indonesia – They have a football magazine called 4-4-2!