A cup of filter coffee in one hand, while one tries to do justice to a plate of idli-vada with the other hand even as a hit song from the Tamil film in which popular actor Karthik made his debut blares in the background.
Chennai in the 1980s? Actually no. It is Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2010. As I sip the coffee and drink in the atmosphere I could not but experience a sense of déjà vu of being back in the Chennai or Madras as it was then know of my boyhood. After one steps outside the hotel though all thoughts of being in Chennai disappear. There can be no mistaking the fact that one is in Malaysia or at least the fact that it is not Chennai. Despite, the significant strides that India has made as a nation in the last five years, despite remaining relatively unaffected by the global economic meltdown, India lags far behind other countries when it comes to infrastructure. What all this has resulted is in that while the India story has been good in terms of improving the income levels of at least a certain section of the population, it hasn’t translated into a better quality of life for Indians
Despite this shortcoming there is a sense of pride as one goes about ones business in an elite Kuala Lumpur shopping mall. It only reconfirms my impression that today there is nothing lacking in India. The old paradigm of Indians going abroad for their shopping and then showing off to their neighbors is gone forever. Add to this that fact that India is a vibrant democracy where one can freely speak one’s mind and you realize that you have got a good deal in India. Sure it is a democracy that is flawed. Sure one would give a lot for uninterrupted supply of water and power. And yes, the roads can be much better. But then India has managed to marry democracy and growth. Not many countries from the developing world have managed that particular combination. As India continues its journey on the road less traveled all one wants to make the journey complete is good, clean roads. Then the dream would continue when gets out of a Kuala Lumpur hotel next time.
1 comment:
COmpletely agree sir. In my fair number of global travels the only place i feel has roads more pot holed than India is Cairo. Thats not a consolation considering even the by lanes of Vietnam can beat our roads hollow. BTW -- The bad roads is more of a "mumbai" phenomenon as both Delhi and Hyd have made significant progress
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