The Great Turn-On

re: hope for the future
While the reality of human existence in India is depressing, there is indeed hope for the future:
http://www.sulekha.com/redirectnh.asp?cid=321744
Sridhar

re: prosperity in India
Time for reality check:
http://www.sulekha.com/redirectnh.asp?cid=321747
Excerpts:

`` India is a nuclear power and a leader in information technology that rockets its own satellites into space, but millions of its people live as if time had passed them by. The fan, or ``pankha,`` puller, Mahato, and curbside caregivers like Jamal are among the masses of India`s working poor. They are the bedrock of an economy that is one of the fastest growing, yet most unbalanced, in the world.

Most of the benefits of India`s rapid economic growth are going to the wealthiest 20 percent of society, said economist Malay Chaudhuri. They have swimming pools in a country where millions of people don`t have clean water, and they stroll through air-conditioned shopping malls where security guards keep beggars at bay.

India`s elite is getting steadily richer from cheap labor that has been one of the country`s main advantages since it began opening up to global competition just over a decade ago, Chaudhuri said.

``The gap is growing between the poor in the bottom 80 percent, and the middle class and upper class,`` said Chaudhuri, founder of the Indian Institute of Planning and Management and author of a recent book on India`s ills.

``Those at the very bottom, below the poverty line, are seeing hardly any increase in their income,`` he added. ``If this growing gap goes on, it will be very difficult to govern the country.``

India has more than 1 billion people, and by more-optimistic estimates, as many as 300 million belong to a middle class. Their hunger for consumer goods has helped the economy grow at 6 percent or more a year during the past decade. But about 350 million others, more than a third of the population, live in dire poverty. In Calcutta alone, an estimated 250,000 children sleep on the sidewalks. ``
It is good to be proud but at the same time it is stupid to be ignorant of the realities.
Sridhar

#150 by ballukhan on November 24, 2003 5:20am PT
thanks for your suport.just not forget my share in 10 million $.

#147 by saminshah on November 23, 2003 7:18am PT

I hereby declare my resolve to accept the offer made by the venerable father-founder of vadapavvland and devote my entire life in liberating all my vadapavv brothers from the clutches of filthy Indian land. I will resolve to collect 10 million dollars from my NRI vadapavv brothers and shall ensure that the latest and the best arms are provided for spreading terror on the horrible Indians so that they will one day bow to our wishes of creating a pure vadapavv land filled with vadapavv faithfuls.

durman.tk #146,

Comparing standards of living of ``average`` Indians and Pakistanis will make
little sense, in my rather unsophisticated opinion. In fact, the income distributions
are so skewed in both the countries, that talking about a ``mean`` is very misleading.
You need many more moments to characterize the distributions.

#GujjuBani
But the same IMF says that the standard of living of an average is far higher then an average Indian does....What i was trying to refer to was the reality on ground.....Which you cannot ignore.

#GujjuBani
But the same IMF says that the standard of living of an average Pakistani is far higher then an average Indians....What i was trying to refer to was the reality on ground.....Which you cannot ignore.

to : #144 by ballukhan on November 22, 2003 10:46pm PT


thanks for support my new movemant for my dreamland called vadapavvland.your support is apriciated.i think you also vadapavv fan.i will declare you prime minister of vadapavvland when it come to reality.

re:#131 by gujjubania
Hey Gujjubania,
what is your point? That India is better off than Pak! Both are in terrible poverty. If you only step out of an Airport into the streets of India, you will know. There are people spitting and urinating in the open (though the good news is: more private built toilets are available but how many use them?). There are people sleeping in the open because they have no house. There are people who are so desperately poor that they literally starve to death.
Knowing about these would make you appreciate the problems better. When you keep harping on India`s prosperity, you sound like the Paki army brass which at one time claimed 1 Paki equalled 10 (or was it 9?) Indians.
India has a long way to go. We can all help in our own ways in making India a better place.
Sridhar

#143 by saminshah on November 22, 2003 7:26am PT

Great stuff! George Orwell could not have done better than this!!

I demand right of self determination as a gr8 fan of vadapavv and on behalf of 10 million vadapavv fans. I can’t tolerate more discrimination of vadapavv against sevpuri,bhelpuri,panjabi dish and south Indian dishes. I can’t bear more contempt to vadapavv eaters from sevpuri,bhelpuri,panjabi dish and south Indian dishes eaters.
So I demand separate country for 1o million vadapavv eaters where we(vadapavv fans) live respect fully, Progressively and with dignity. if Indian government don’t hear our demands then we have gr8 tool called terrorism which time tested and implemented veapon all our world by my peaceful Muslim brothers.I pladge every right of
Minorities (sevpuri,bhelpuri,panjabi dish and south Indian dishes eaters.) Protected in new country(my vadapav dreamland) with hidden agenda that
1 : if they don’t convert to vadapavv eater from sevpuri,bhelpuri,panjabi dish and south Indian dishes eaters then We force to leave our country.
2 : when in India new vadapavv fans cross 10 millions in future again we will demand right of self determination for them.

Gujjubania #139,

``If true , that can only mean one thing - the poor of Pakistan who constitute 33-36% of its population have been banished to the rural areas``

Wrong !! Read dost-mittar`s post#137 and figure out what other reasons there might
be.

gujjubania: as for those jokers surrendering, guess who paid to feed their good for nothing mouths for two years while indians starved on the streets? guess who paid to move their sorry 90,000 butts back to pakistan?

so indeed i would laugh if i saw those pictures (if i were to waste time clicking on those links you graciously provided, which i did not). i would laugh all the way to the bank.

and what better way to make pakistan a more sensible country, rather than one split in two a thousand miles away?

are you sure you want to be spending all this time posting 30 year old pictures to strangers on chowk when your boss thinks you are busy trying to get your computer programs to work?

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Khotasikka #136/Dost #137,

It is this abject, miserable, urban poverty in India that I was referring to.

Khotasikka - agree with you on the optimism in India today; unshackling
the economy has certainly achieved that.