Poverty & Opulence

I recently had a chance to interact with an American family, who had recently visited India (Bangalore). The guy is a top level executive with an American company. He has been selected by the company to head the Indian operations. As part of the familiarization trip, the family had visited India, and they stayed in Bangalore for a week. They had just returned and I had a chance to interact with them. When I asked them about their first impressions on India this is what they said ‘Poverty & Opulence’.

They stayed at the Leela Palace and the couple in unison said, Leela Palace was the best luxury hotel they had ever stayed in. At the same time they agreed that it was a totally different world when they stepped out of the hotel/Office. The traffic, dust, crowd, noise and poverty on the roads were totally in contrast to what they experienced indoors. They were a little overawed by the contrasts in society. I guess we Indians are used to it and hence it doesn’t affect us so much. But now thinking more of it, I feet ashamed at the thought of eating a $20 meal ( I have done it more than once…what a shame) when I know for a fact that there are people in the same city who cant even afford to have one square meal a day.

We in general talked about India and I was boasting about the success of arranged marriages and the low rate of divorces, but the American couple dented my pride by highlighting the dowry system and the plight of daughter-in-laws. In fact, he pointed out the high number of fire accidents as a by product of dowry system. So not once but twice I was on the back foot. In the end, it was a whole new experience to look at India from an American perspective. I guess as a country we have a long way to go. If we all decide to give something back to the country, then some day it is very much possible.