Welcome Mr. President!

There you go! Mr. Barack Obama is in town in what appears to be a visit by a salesman, and some media reports claim that some 400 plus CEOs are part of the president’s entourage.

Here is an interesting perspective in The Economist.

Wow, what a full circle we have come, with respect to the global economic landscape? There were days when every occasional visit by a head of a Western Nation to India would be measured in terms of how big an aid cheque they would be willing to sign in favor of India.

Now, the first symbolic victory of Obama’s trip is proclaimed in the form of some 54,000 jobs he created for his own people back home and the $10 billion worth of contracts signed with Indian firms, within the first few hours of his trip.

The beggar’s bowl has definitely changed hands!

Every statesman happens to be a politician as well and no wonder, the almost lame duck president Obama has to play the politician’s role more, given the current political scenario back home and the 3 main things in his agenda are Jobs, Jobs and Jobs!

Irrespective of the economics and politics around the visit – three things stand out.

First, the politics of terror – what the Indian media and people expect is for Mr. Obama to reign in on the bad boy next door. This reminds me of how and when a principal makes a trip to the class, the meek, yet timid frontbencher would complain about the unruly bully sitting next to him. What he would love to see is the bully get a caning or two from the principal. Unfortunately, the master himself is caught perplexed on how to fix the bully.

Second, market economics – what can we buy from the US in 2010? Obviously, the American firms are eyeing the hefty defence and energy budget that is up for grabs. Fighter planes, passenger aircrafts, discarded arms and equipments, poisonous and genetically altered seeds from Monsanto or Cargil, failed automobile models from GM and Ford, junk food from Pepsi and Coke.

Worst of all opening up the Indian market space for the US Banks and Insurance firms, whose greedy creations almost brought the world to the brink of financial doomsday!

Anything that they can sell in the weak legal framework available here, that reduces their civil and criminal liability. Anything that will entice the 300 million middle class to spend or rather lead them to the same debt trap as many of the failed economies around the world.

Not to discard the innovative spirit of the Americans, but instead why not get technology transfers and investments that would benefit a growing nation and its billion people? We as a nation waste more than what we consume. Sounds atrocious, especially when millions cannot even afford a full meal a day. Why not share technologies and innovation in food processing, storage, logistics and distribution?

Technology that helps our farmers to be more productive, technology that helps us improve our sanitation and basic healthcare standards, technology that helps us lay roads that won’t disappear during every rain, innovation in the field of education, entrepreneurship?

But, as Calvin Coolidge, the 30^th US President once put it – “The business of America is business!”

Third – call it symbolism. But, how many of us really knew Mani Bhavan in Mumbai? Thanks to his reverence to Bapu, amidst all his hectic business parlays at Mumabi, Obama did find time to visit the Mahatma’s home and the First Lady was at her best, when she danced and played hopscotch with the kids assembled at the University of Mumbai.

It’s a different story that the nation has totally lost its touch for the Mahatma and the handpicked kids at the University in no way represent the true picture of the millions of poor kids in this country, who every day struggle to get one square meal or basic education!

Mohali Magic

A lot has been spoken and written about the great Indian Mohali victory and VVS’s special innings.

To me, the tone of this entire test match and the series was set right on Day 1, with what happened with the Zaheer and Ponting spat. How things have come full circle in the cricketing world in couple of years? Yes, India is the No. 1 ranked team now and the Aussies trying hard to stay in the middle rung. The masters of sledging happend to be at the receiving end this time and Ponting did really look like an old war horse, gone past his prime, shaken for a moment on what has really happened.

This is the new age Indian team, with the right mix of youth and vintage class middle order batsmen, ready to fight not just with sport, but even otherwise. You need not always cross the line like the Aussies or a McEnroe or a Dennis Rodman.  But, in any competitive sport, occasional, yet controlled flare ups, just adds spice to the game. Way to go Zaks!

Other than Gambhir and the skipper, who still appears to be in a jet lag after the successful T20 Champions League campaign, their shoddy performance could have been the single biggest difference between such a close finish to a stroll in the park for India. The rest of the entire team delivered.

That does help clear some doubts about the No. 1 ranking for the Indian test team.

The 200cc Culture.

It was yet another day of chugging back home from work, jostling thru the maze of people and vehicles in the evening Chennai traffic and bang – I heard a sudden bump on my car.

Not a surprise, cause seldom you see any vehicle on the road that is bruise less – if that can comfort you in any way!

The next moment, I see couple of guys smirking their way past my car and picking up speed in their 200cc bike. Not even a pause, not even any iota of concern for the damage they caused. Sure, I looked like an idiot to them, immobilized in my car and the traffic.

The dent on my ego and the inability to do anything but, fly-out some abuse made my blood pressure rise higher, than the physical damage to my vehicle and my wallet.

Welcome to the world of what I call ‘the 200cc culture’. These are the days of guys flaunting their shining bikes with alloy wheels and digital odometers, trying to zip across our roads, to mimic the stunt scenes played on those two-wheeler commercials. Of course, who cares for those tiniest of ‘do not try this at home‘ disclaimers, that are perhaps shown with the intention to make them not readable?

Remember the effervescent ‘Hamara Bajaj‘ jingle of the 80s? That is one of my favorites on those days when public broadcasting via the TV was limited only to the state run Doordarshan.  As portrayed in the commercial, the two-wheeler was a pride possession for the family, with the dad trying to balance between a kid standing in the front, gleefully enjoying the breeze, the wife on the pillion and also at times another kid stuck between the mom and dad!

There are multiple versions of that jingle.

The one I like the most, is the one where style is put in contrast to respect for human dignity. A youth pausing his bike for a moment to utter a prayer to a street corner Ganesha idol, couple of youth in their bikes twirling across to not disturb a colorful rangoli on the street, a guy seeking forgiveness the moment his foot touches a fellow biker.

Unique Indianess, Elegance and Human Values, shown coexisting beautifully. Isn’t that life after all, in a civilized society?

These are the times of a fast paced world, a country that appears to be outpacing the rest of the globe in GDP numbers and claiming improved economic and living conditions for its citizens.

If Vespa, Lamby and Chetak were the ones to don the roads couple of decades back, it is the time for a Pulsar, Flame, Wind, Storm, and Hunk. Names – very much synonymous with the time and the highflying youth of our times, yet caught in the harsh reality to coexist peacefully with a huge mass of people.

Two decades later, how far we have come and how much has life changed and in this transformation, where did we lose sight of fundamental discipline that forms the basis for peaceful human coexistence?

Crowded roads with people fighting for every inch of it and fragile infrastructure that has not really caught up with the changing times. So are the people of the times, zipping past their new toys with zero tolerance for the limitations we have to live with.

We are caught in the mad rush of fast lane life ignoring the basic needs of a civic society. It appears as though, over the times, what has changed is the economic affordability, but not the affordability to coexist peacefully.

‘Hamara kal, hamara aaj’ – Yes, of course.

‘Buland Bharat ki Buland tasweer’ – I am not sure!