First Impressions of India9/22/2007
The global economy has made an impact on the lives of most Indians, just not always in the way that many people imagine. Only a small portion of India's mostly poor population has gained middle or upper class status by working as call center operators, computer programmers, or accountants employed by multinational corporations. The rest have been affected, but to what degree, and whether it has been positive or negative, is dependent upon their situation. The people helping me at the airport may not be as rich as those that I'll be meeting with at the corporate office parks, but the opportunity to make more than their fathers is greater now that they have access to some of the wealthiest people on the planet, including me. Five minutes after getting my luggage, I was in the back seat of a shuttle car, winding my way through the maze of taxis for the four-minute trip to my hotel. My driver participated in the chorus of car horns as we somehow squeezed through this chaotic "system" without getting in an accident. In those four minutes, I saw shack after shack made of corrugated steel, As I look out my 3rd story balcony, I see a beautiful view of the pool, with hotel employees running about catering to the guests. Just beyond is the rest of Bangalore, still a third world city in many respects, with run down apartments and stray dogs running the streets. There also lies, somewhere out there, the "Silicon Valley" of India, where I will be visiting some of the most high tech, luxurious office parks in the world, such as Infosys and Microsoft. Standing on my balcony, I can hear voices over what appears to be a loudspeaker. My guess is that they are political candidates, driving through the streets and trying to gain support for their ideas on how to bring the most benefits to the most people living in the world's largest democracy during this new age of globalization.
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My first impressions of India have already validated my research: India is a Land of Contrasts. I hadn't left the airport before I was given several examples. The amount of passengers who were jockeying for a spot next to the antiquated conveyer belt baggage system made me quickly realize that in a land of 1.1 billion people, one has to literally position oneself to be successful. This was further illustrated by the number of people scrambling to help me find my luggage amid the swarm of baggage helpers and taxi drivers pushing their way towards potential customers. Initially they proposed that they were "only doing their job", or just "trying to be of help.” In the end, they were not afraid to ask for a tip, and were so insistent that I finally had to forcefully send them off with much less of a tip than they asked. These people are an example of the promise and the disparity in India.
concrete and bedsheets hung for privacy, just off the side of the road. I saw a few motorcycles, one with three people riding it. It was dark and looked like the parts of towns that most of us try not to venture into at 1:00 a.m., which it was at the time. As we traveled through this "urban jungle", we finally pulled into the Leela Kempinski complex, one of several 5 star hotels in Bangalore. It literally looked like a diamond in the rough.