India and development

I made a short trip to Delhi recently and visited the Select City Walk mall. Except for the crowds, and the fact that you didn't have to bus your own tables at the food court, I might as well have been in a mall in the US. Same stores, similar styles, same restaurants. There is much more security of course - you have to pass through metal detectors and get your bags checked when entering the mall, a constant reminder of the terrorist threat that looms close. Same holds for the Delhi airport. I am still pleasantly surprised on every visit.

The newspaper stands are full of the same magazines - Vogue, Cosmo, Elle. Even the home-grown glossy Femina proclaims very Cosmo-like headlines about sex and fashion. There is a craze for brand-names even in little kids. Women dress in the latest styles. Even the leading conservative political party is having very GOP-like identity crisis.

Kids are eating too much junk food, watching too much TV and obesity is a real concern. Going out and playing however poses a problem. There aren't many open areas to play in. Given the heavy traffic, and lack of sidewalks etc. purposeful exercise such as riding a bike to school or walking to the store is impossible. Most houses don't have yards. Most urban kids live in apartment complexes making going out and playing even more difficult.

India is in a rush to Xerox the lifestyle that developed countries took decades to build. The breakneck pace of this development is leaving no room to ponder the downside or a concerted effort to preserve what is unique. Maybe India will continue to remain the mish-mash of old and new that I see now, or maybe our kids will never know what it means to shop at a sabzi mandi.

I still make sure I make a trip to the Haus Khas village and Aminabad before they too become festooned with McDee arches and become a picture postcard of their original self.

So many conflicting thoughts swirl in my mind these days, and NY Times' India correspondent expressed them better and more poetically than I ever could.