Another step towards disaster

The decision to allow FDI (foreign direct investment) in Indian retail sector is going to kill all small scale store businesses in a few years. Corporate retail giants like Walmart will not think twice before opening their acre long stores in every nook and corner of India as the customer base is so enticing. No matter what they invest, the are going to make a profit - such is the the Indian consumer base and greed to certain extent.
Memories about the "main road" back in my home town is associated with a long array of small individual stores that sells only stationary or house hold items or grocery or vegetables etc. Once the big retailers open their "everything-under-one-roof" style stores, all these stores will be out of business and the whole "main road" is going to look like a zombie strip.
On the positive side, those who have money can plunge themselves in to shopping bliss for hours in those retail stores. There may be an initial price discounts to help such businesses catch up. Hopefully the government will introduce some regulations to these big retailers that they can not operate all over the place and kill local businesses.
Thinking about this, India is emulating that is bad America - like the saggy pants that show your under pants - like focus on celebrity personal life etc. In India, it is capitalism mixed with "license raj" and corruption at each level. We do have all the ingredients to head to an economic situation similar to what USA is in right now. To a worst kind where the poor and unemployed will be a great part of the population and 90% of the wealth will be with nation's 5%.

Things that die out .. part 1

In 2009, I had a train ride from Bangalore to Madras(Chennai). To be honest, the trip was really good. I was impressed by the comfort and feel of the A/C chair cars in the "Shatabdi express" that hardly stopped anywhere during the 1000 km journey.
I felt this way because I am from the "railway-deficient state" Kerala. Back there, we still have the diesel locomotives for the northern part (North to Shornur Junction). Even the tracks were just single track almost 5 years ago. That was fun. Your train would suddenly stop nowhere for no apparent reason. You look out of the window and notice another track running parallel to the track you are in. You may wonder where the parallel track appeared from? Suddenly a thundering WDM-2 loco will roar pass pulling numerous brown cars -and you realize that you were giving way to another train...and the double tracks were just to deviate for such good times.
Like any other kid I was also a big fan of trains. During our road trips from Kannur to Kozhikode ( through national highway with 4 railroad crossings) I would pray that we get stopped at least in one of those so that I can catch a glimpse of those wild trains. Though trains in Kerala still suck, all over India, it has improved a long way. WDM-2, the massive diesel beast is not to be seen in most of the places.

India Under attack(Again)

Well, this is the umpteenth 9/11 for india, but our laid back attitude will allow these terrorist factions to grow bigger and bigger. I am waiting for the day when our government will declare "the war on terror". Wonder if that will happen in my lifetime. 

At the same time this is the message for the stupid fanatics who were trying to eliminate North indians out of Bomaby. Wake up and face the "real music" you morons.

India as it is..

Though I am in USA these days, I closely follow what is going on in my "Des"(Hindi word for Country). Most of the media today focuses on spreading bad news, that would let you down for the day. Just for this reason, I go through the Indian online newspapers only in the nights.

These days, the fight between thoughtless natives of  Bombay and people from other states are spreading like wild fire. This leaves me thinking if our country of billion people is going to be the next Congo. Today's headline news is that a man from U.P( northern Indian state) was beaten to death (Well, what a nice way to showcase our 3000 years of culture and tradition!) in a commuter train. Bombay, as of today is built by men from all states all over India. There is no reason why a Bombay-native should have preference over an outsider. Everyone in the country is entitled for his dreams and fortunes in the so called "commercial capital of India". What has Bombay-natives given to Bombay except for renaming it to "Mumbai"?