Highway construction in Bomabay

Recently, one of my friends who came to Bangalore from New York was astonished to see people buying stuff worth 6k to 7k as their monthly shopping from a local Food World. This is not only comparable to what they as a family of four buy in the United States, it was also much more than that. She did not understand how so soon things have changed. I kept my trials and efforts to a bare minimal since I did not understand the phenomenon much over the years. It has all happened in front of my eyes.

I have seen a Tiger Woods, A Roger Federer , Sachin Tendulkars cricket career and my viewership started at the same time and now when it is time for him to retire, even I feel the same from my post near the television. I have seen them all , but how on earth could I explain to a friend who has not gone 4 yours ago to the united States that India has seen some tremendous growth in the consumer market and the American companies who till date only considered the developed countries as a playground for their businesses are having serious board room discussions as to whether they have missed their chances or not or whether they should start playing soon.

Walmart the clever guys, have already started some training classes for future retail managers. I am serious about it that once you have a good start in the Asian markets with Walmart it is a journey worth travelling.

 

But inspite of all these, finally when we switched on the television , I realized that not all things  are as good as you are made to feel. ( courtesy , India Today , Outlook etc ) . There has been as many 136 events or mishaps on a slippery highway outside Mumbai in the last four days, That is like one every hour.

 

There has been 7 deaths in the last week and that is all in the name of development. I believe small time corruption is alright as long it is a few hundred rupees, but when the broader good and projects worth crores of rupees ( nowadays they touch billions of dollars and not even rupees ) , there should be some amount of accountability . There is a dire need to stop evil people , politicians and bureaucrats from usurping all the public money. We have people in politics with 1000 of crores of rupees in their pockets.

 

That is not a myth anymore and there are instances when foreign banks who have tried to disclose the accounts to the public but the top brass has always stopped them from doing so. This is a astounding statement of the state of development in the nation. Actually development is happening but at a slower pace, in an un planned manner , in a whimsical nightmare.

 

Too fast no where