The last few days in Mumbai we sorted out a few things and I picked up my suits. We went to the Elephanta Caves which were about 45mins away from Bombay by boat-- they were nice to see as they are about 2000 years old and have stone engravings depicting several scences.
That night my friend took us to a posh club where the elite go. Drinks were $7 a piece (normally they were $1) and the crowd were def fairly well off. There were a couple Bollywood stars there that night too.The thing that struck us funny was that everyone spoke English -- I could not hear Hindi nor any other language being spoken. But as my friend said there is nothing 'less Indian' about conversing in English....which I totally understand.
The other thing that really caught me by surprise was the desire to be fair skinned and many of the people you see you could not tell if they were Indian. Ads for fairness cream are rampant and ads go far to say 'get fair, get sexy'. Many of these ads are sponsored by big names stars and there is a small backlash in the UK against the creams (let alone the negative health effects). I guess I shouldnt be surprised but the idea of bleaching ones skin (in the West at least) seems foreign and almost degrading. Could you imagine if someone in Canada who had dark skin openly told people they were lightening their skin -- i think it would be met with perplexed looks.
We really had an amazing time in India butto say that Mumbai and Goa are representation of India would be haphazard. It gave us a taste of Indian lifestyle and the various levels of poverty and wealth one can see. We plan on seeing other parts (rajistan, south india) in the near future but are glad that we had the opportunity to go now.
As I have Indian heritage i really have a greater appreciation for their culture and their pride. Its fair to say that 'indians' portrayed in western media has been of the baffoon and to be laughed at....having seen many of the Bollywood movies in the 80's there is no wonder this stereo-type has persisted. Even the beloved Simpsons started by portraying the Indian sterotype and there is not many 'normal' Indians in TV shows and movies (save Harold and Kumar). However, I think with some of the cross-overs taking place and the clout of the indian movie producers this will soon slowly disappear.
India as a whole is primed to be a leader in the world market/economy - with their large population, fluency in english, infrastructure, work culture and pre-existing connections to the outside their ability to be a world leader and beater are a force to be reckon with. Outsourcing is not just net result of this - many indian companies will be/have taken over large established companies in Europe/North america and I believe this will only continue. I do not think that any sector is immune and that investment banks will soon see their operations (ie not back office but pure research/analysts) move east. They can pay 1/10th the salary and get as good if not better results.
At any rate -- enough reflections....more to come later!
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