There are many Indias….
I think there are about 30 Indias (yes I mean it in plural).
One set can buy 3-4 Mercs and one cannot buy a Merc poster.
The utter poverty in CITIES is to be seen to be believed (at 4am if you see a scavenger look for food near the dumps of small time hotels, is he not in utter poverty).
And the rich people can really really blow money. I recently (did not attend it) heard of a party where the servants of the host flew to NZ to buy lamb meat (or whatever) for the evening party 🙂
Or marriages where the decorations cost a million rupees.
Read the following article about the USA. It is scary, but true.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/08/david-simon-capitalism-marx-two-americas-wireÂ
Mira D
I remember reading in Suketu Mehta’s Maximum City about a killing for – not Rs 5 lac or 50 K but RS FIFTY…
My maid tells me in her basti anyone just arbit walks in and picks up any money or valuable or even vessel lying around…
Pravin
It is true that poverty exists and it is apalling many times.However it helps to have a perspective of human history.
The default condition of humanity has been poverty. It is WEALTH that needs to be explained.
If your measure of prosperity is tilted towards the availability of goods and services, consider that even the poorest American’s today (those below the poverty line) have access to phones, toilets, running water, air conditioning and even a (used )car. Go back 150 years and the wealthiest robber barons couldn’t have hoped for such wealth.
The amygdala in the human brain makes us react to negative and bad news about the world three times more carefully than good news.That is why if we switch on the TV or read the paper,the world seems to be going to hell. It is an evolutionary wiring in the brain -panic is given preference over quiet progess.
India has pulled out a large swathe of its people out of poverty since 1991.The trend continues.The poverty remaining is immense,but clearly the trend is NOT in the opposite direction as these fear mongering articles by Guardian implies.