Dirty, Sexy, Wealthy India

Are you upset that I am always saying bad things about India? Ok. Readd the second adjective in the heading. hehe!

I am using these adjectives because the India I grew up in, or the times when we all grew up in India as changed. If you want to really R2I successfully, stop expecting to come home to the country you left 10-15 years ago.

Why I am using dirty, I don't think needs any elaboration. A termed things as dirty naturally just after we R2I-ed. The little lake close to Papa's office was Dirty Lake. The road was- Dirty road. The children on road side were Dirty Boys(she did not know the boy and girl thing back then). It was amazing to see India from a US born 2 Year old's eyes.What has changed in 9 months is that as soon as she sees something good or lets say clean and uncrowded, she says "Wow!"

Now comes the interesting one- Sexy!
Not only because women wear much more revealing and body hugging clothes then 1999, but the usual glamor quotient on the streets of Bangalore has increased. Thanks to the fashion awareness and big labels. It is a very obvious reflection of the amount of money people are making, the amount they are spending and the amount they are willing to spend. Name a brand that is not here. Tommy is present in every A class malls.
Tommy has an out let on the airport as well. Levis has come up with an EMI scheme on jeans. So, don't be surprised if your maid comes wearing an authentic Levi's. You might want to consider visiting Tommy in that case.
Their is a positive thing about unsafe cities (read north India). Girls are unsafe and hence the fashion a little subtler. But, women in Delhi have even proved that wrong. Gosh! What fashion sense they have. Excellent figures, dresses and confidence! And I am not being sarcastic. Visiting a good mall in Delhi is like visiting a fashion show greenroom.

Now the more serious part- Wealth. Ofcourse you would like to come back to India with X+1 Salary. X being the highest salary you have heard about for someone who R2I-ed recently. 1 being any amount higher then X.
But even if you come at 0.3Y, you are fine. 0.5Y is good, anything above that is very good. Y being your current US salary in dollars. This is to maintain the same lifestyle as US. India is expensive. And people have money to splurge here. That is a very good thing because the living standard has increased. But, there may be times, when you might want to feel a little special then the rest of them around you. Then comes in the Y factor. Because actually anyone can afford everything and every place now. You might be surprised(read shocked) to see your co-diners at a moderately posh restaurants.

I really miss those days when growing up in a relatively smaller town (as compared to metros), fashion was anything other then Saree and salwar kameez, every one(upper middle class to elite) went to the same few restaurants in town, and things and people were much simpler.

But, on the whole, it feels good to be a part of it all sometimes. Because we are still not so out of the league. I wonder how we could have felt if we R2I-ed 10 years from now. A misfit may be.

Images- Thanks to images.google.com