Since immigrating to Canada in the last decade I've had 2 vacations to India.

This time it was a month long and I had a true exposure to life in India and how things have changed in India in the last 10 years.

My birds eye view of the same are as follows:

1.There is only one God in India. It is true if you are a hindu, muslim or a christian. The only god is Money. The so called hindu leaders or muslim leaders or even christian leaders are all there for making more money. It can be the Kanchi Shankara Mutt or a Lingayat Mutt or a Evangelical Christian Church like Paul Dinakaran Church or even a Islamic charity everybody is after money and power.

2.There is no national cause or attachement to motherland like in 1947. Today it is only money and more money.

3.People have no time for family, society or the nation. They are slaves of some MNC or local company serving a MNC. They are walking around like zombies with a ID card around their neck.

4.In Bangaluru a car driver makes a minimum of 10K, a sales girl in a local shop starts at 5k. Locals do not want to work cheaper and hence people are being imported from Nepal, Sikkim, Nagaland to work in hotels, security guard or other jobs.

5.In smaller towns like Tuticorin, Madurai or even Thiruvananthapuram people do not get household help like maids as they are working in factories.

6. Eventhough people make more money, the Inflation is around 30% and hence they have to make more to stay at the same spot. In 2003 bisleri used to cost 8 bucks it is now 25 bucks. The auto used to cost a minimum of about 8 bucks the same distance costs now 30buck.

7.With high amounts of automobiles coming on the road, traffic is so congested the time spent on the roads is extremely bad. The distance between Chennai and Bangalore by road is 350Kms. In this the distance from Bangalore city to outskirts is 30 Kms and the same from Ponamallee to Chennai city is around 30Kms. You can go across 280Kms in about 4 hours but you spend another 4 hours on crossing the 60kms in and out of the cities. Everywhere the same roads have been dug up and nothing is happening.

8.People are spending anywhere from 3 to 4 hours everyday on road traffic which would been 30 minutes a decade ago. What is the quality of life then when you cannot get to see your face of your wife or child every evening.

9.Every software of MNC guy has a car and he leaves home at 7Am and comes home by 8.30 to 9.00 Pm and further spends time on his blackberry till 10.00PM and he has a hurried dinner and goes to sleep at 11Am and the same routine continues for 5 days and sometimes into Saturday. What is the point of a Crore rupee salary when you cannot spend quality time with your kids?.

10.The cost of an idli was about 0.50 paise in 2003 and today it is anywhere from 4 rupees to 50 rupees per piece in South India. The cost of a limited veggie thali is anywhere from 40 bucks to 120 bucks in a decent non-AC place and in any other place sky is the limit.

11.We a family of 4 with driver stopped a Cafe-Day place near Chittoor, AP. We had 4 large Cafe Mocha and 1 Frappacino. The total bill was Rs.665.
I did not go through the conversion excercise of 46 for 1 Canadian. I could not think about the day I'll spend 665 CAD for the same in Timmys or Starbucks.

Still people are spending money like water.

Money is flowing, people are earning it and spending it.

The flip side of this is people are not caring for the aged and mostly they are ending up in old age homes.

12.What is the good I saw in the whole excercise is that if ALL ELSE FAILS, IF I LOSE MY JOB IN CANADA AND CANNOT FIND ANOTHER, I can relocate to India and find a job in an Engineering College as a Professor within 48 hours.

There are plenty of jobs and there is nobody without a job.

13.The cost of land has gone through the roof. I can guarantee you that if you have a piece of land in some remote corner of India you can sell it and pay off your mortgage in Mississauga. The cost of a cent of land(5.5 cents is one 60FtX40Ft ground) was about 2000 rupees in 2003 and it is now Rs.3 Lakhs. A small flat is minimum of Rs.3000 to Rs.10,000 per Sqft and fancier ones going into Crores.

14.All the banks, post office and other financial institutions are giving a minimum of 8% to 9.5% interest on FD's. These institutions are tightening their enrollement norms by insttiting on ID proofs like voter ID or PAN card.If you have any account in India do not close it maintain it otherwise you will have a problem opening it later.

15.Earlier days labour used to go from salem district to Bangalore for construction work. There used to lots of kannada-tamil riots in Bangalore. It is all coming to a halt as the tamils are all coming back to Tamilnadu as the government is giving 20 Kgs of rice free, most of the provisions at low cost, freeTV, free mixie-grinder, free fan and whole lot of free stuff. They are also given Rs.180 per day for manual labor for 6 months on some Central government scheme. These guy do not want to work and living for free now. This had led to a construction problem in Bangalore as lack of construction worker there nowadays.

16. Many Desi kids born of mixed parentage are flying back to Bollywood, Kollywood, Sandalwood to get bit parts or even work in AD films and other entertainment media.

17.What was East then and West then is changed with India being the West and Canada being the East.

18. You see more and more Indians everywhere now when you fly through London or Paris or Germany. They are wearing their traditional salwar with a bindi and carrying a laptop and a mobile.

19.Everything -Everything is available in India now. All cars with models you would not heard in west are available in India now. Right from Hyundai I20, verna to Fords Figo to VW to Nissan Micra , Skoda and you name it is available.Every TV LCD/LED is available.

One of my friend remarked now Foreign prostitutes are available in India and they are cheaper than the local ones. You name any country in ex-USSR or Thailand or Vietnam or far-East all these girls are in your city in India under the guise of massage parlour.

Every DTH with a minimum of 200 Channels on it is available. I watched on a remote place in Tamilnadu on Cable TV about 120 channels free with HBO, Starplus movies, NOW channel and many english movie channel for free which I would have paid CAD 15 per channel in Canada. The other stuff is MOSTof the hollywood movies are dubbed in local channels and telecast.

On the reverse NOBODY has time to watch these channels as they stuck in traffic.

There are no family dinners, family gatherings, people interacting and people have no time for themselves but for their companies/business.

20.The health care sector has opened up suddenly. If you say that you have insurance you are finished. Even for a small headache they will keep you in the hospital for 3 days and bill for an MRI, minor operation without doing it. If you ask them why they will respond that why do you care when your insurance is paying.

In a summary you have Good Money/jobs in India but good quality of life as TK used to say good water and air in Canada.

I wish I could work in India and live in Canada.

In India today there is only one God and that is money.This both Soniaji, Karunanidhji and YEDDYji have learnt it.

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Sunny Leone a true Canadian DESI now back in India !.

Money talks.

I had a property and it was termed a Villangam property(complicated) property in tamil.

I approached many lawyers who said that the person who had obtained Power of Attorney had died without registering it. This happened 10 years ago and said now the property reverts back to the seller as the documents were not registed by the buyer.

I approached a measley Document Writer who sits outside the Deputy Registrar office and who types these documents on stamp paper. He went and met the Deputy registrar. He came back and told to me that for 20,000 rupees he can make a proper document and get it legally registered with out any legal complication.

The registrar took Rs.5000 as bribe and he dictated to the document writer how to get it legally and also made sure that his audit team cannot nail him for more bribe.

What would have costed me Rs.1 Lac for a Crore worth property a document writer got it done for me for Rs.20,000 rupees. I paid Rs.5000 commission to the broker.

Now the 1 Crore property is registered now in my name in tamilnadu.

Money talks and walks in India.

The same way if you pay you can get your PAN card, voters ID or any form of ID.

If you pay the right broker he will deliver the Passport through Tatkal without any form of verification.

Money and only money talks in India.

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Sunny Leone a true Canadian DESI now back in India !.

V you have nailed it !!!! A very precise and to the point description of present day India.

I spent three weeks last year and came back with a shock and anger that I could never be able to live the life I carried in my dreams (extension of 80s and early 90s), no matter how much money I have. Literally there is no value to the paper currency there.

Be it is Hindu, Muslim or Christian followers, no one seem to follow their religion the same way the values are instilled by folks here. Strange...

Drinking is (atleast beer) seen as very casual.

One of the most important point to you failed to touch is the attitude of the people.

Last few weeks, I'd been reading Reporter (Kumudam) and JV just to get my blood boiled on the atrocities (land grabbing mostly) committed by previous MKs regime.

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The cowards never started,
The weak died on the way,
Only the strong arrived.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yK1i9cLAMM

Good one Vandemataram.
Red

Really good one by Vandematram.

Again it is all about money and facebook life in India.

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DELHI INDIAN

Wonderful summary, Vandemataram.

You have really travelled and experienced India the way it should be.

I agree with everyone of the points made especially 'NOBODY has time to watch these channels as they are stuck in traffic.'

I wonder how things will look in 10 years time. will India be better off or worse?

Look at the positives, you came back from India a Crorepathi.

regards

Rajagopal.