Photoblog

A blog only comprised of photos, capturing the fleeting moments of life abroad. Updated today.

www.bangalora.blogspot.com

"I need Media Attention": Bangalore as the Paris Hilton of the IT World.

Despite the ongoing NYTimes coverage concerning the "international cosmopolitan city" that I live in, Bangalore somehow keeps finagling its way into stories.

With endless articles poking fun at the dismal entertainment scene (legions of corrupt cops with night sticks make sure everything closes at 11:30 or even earlier), the inexcusable lack of infrastructure (pot holes large enough to hide an obese cow- in which they sometimes seek refuge) and the hot buzz word "global talent pool," extolling the wealth of skilled english speaking workers... little old Bangalore is getting much more than its 15 minutes of fame.

1. (CNN Link) Michael Dell, venturing far, far from the suburb bubble of Westlake in Austin (Moment #1 for Hometown pride) was in town on Monday. Unsurprisingly to announce that he would join the rest of the IT companies like Microsoft, Intel and HP in expanding his South Indian operations... possibly even opening a manufacturing plant. A daring move, considering the Indian economy's relative weakness to China and Eastern Europe. We're all IT. We scoff at lowly factories.

2. (NYTimes Link) Venture Capital is also heating up in the city, and gets a comparison to entreprenuerial Austin! (Moment #2 for hometown pride.)

Falling for Stereotypes and Neoism

The movie that won this year’s Best Picture revolved around racial/cultural stereotyping in Los Angeles, and we went (Gold Class Lazy-Boy Seating Style) to the cinema a couple nights ago to watch it. Very intense. As relevant as it is to American Life, and a testament to the culturally diverse situations we find ourselves in Stateside, it also finds meaning here.

An Example:

About an hour after we got out of the movie and sitting around impatiently waiting for a late-night taxicab, I wandered off by myself to locate a restroom. I forgot where it was, and ended up lost on the fourth floor, the third floor maintenance corridor, aimlessly searching and became uneasy as many leering men began to give me odd looks.

Unfortunately, I’ve had one too many unpleasant encounters while walking around town to dispel the idea that most men here would just be innocently looking at me because I look different from them. So I immediately began to view everyone in my preconceived “Slightly dirty sketchy Indian Man” category, as I’m sure they were making the equally incorrect assumptions about me.

A break-down:

White women: filthy rich and easily swindled out of large sums of money, drinks excessively, promiscuous, void of all morals.

Indian man: hypocritical, sexually repressed, inappropriately forward with foreign women, void of all morals.

A situation ripe for misunderstanding. Yet precaution is absolutely necessary. Alas, the perils of stereotyping...

PS. You can now outsource your entire life-- A writer from Esquire delves into the dark side of sloth-like laziness hires multiple “personal assistants” who call his parents on their anniversary and sends flowers to his wife. What a world.

http://www.smartmoney.com/esquire/index.cfm?Story=20050909-outsource&pgnum=1

And finally looking into a new apartment this weekend. The exciting prospect of living in a real housing establishment in a real neighborhood is almost unbearable! Plus I’m falling for Neoism ("the international movement of games and total freedom"):

"When one creates Neoism, one destroys Neoism. The evolution of Neoism makes Neoism obsolete. Each explanation of Neoism makes Neoism retract." - Monty Cantsin

Two girls wearing silver overalls and Monty Cantsin-look alike masks visited Monty Cantsin. The first girl said: "I bet this is an allegory." The second said: "You have won." The first said: "But only allegorically." The second said: "No, in reality. In allegory, you have lost."

The safety of contradicting oneself. I think I’ll be Monty Cantsin this weekend.

This country may only be large enough for one Texan.

(A lot of links to wade through, but definitely read the last. Especially if you want more of my ranting anti-NYTimes' promotion of ethnocentric travel, begun yesterday.)

A fellow former resident of Austin has arrived in India- President Bush is currently in Delhi. Since news of his arrival hit India last month, scores of reporters have showed up at our doorstep eager to get filler stories about India to flood the evening news during the week of the President’s tumultuous tour through South Asia.

My roommate Winnie acquiesced, and one night we had a mini team of paparazzi trailing us. Not so exciting- in fact, slightly embarrassing when we arrived at dinner with friends last Sunday, with an inconspicuous camera crew in tow.

I liken it to a kindergartener departing for school, waiting at the bus stop with his fellow 6 year olds... trying to copy the cool kid persona, yet unable to shake the overly anxious mother still trailing him yelling reminders to wash his hands after using the bathroom and eat his fruit snacks. So embarrassing.

First, the CBS coverage on my IndianIT company and a few random expats: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/28/eveningnews/main1356810.shtml

In more interesting/relevant happenings, the speculation over President Bush's visit to India has sparked massive protests (visualize placards in Delhi parks proclaiming "Die Bush Die America") and suspicious authorities raising questions why the US wants to befriend India (Nuclear Energy, China).

A news blast on the prediction of the future in Indo-US Relations...

From the US point of view, an examination of the Indian Government (from Newsweek):

Built during the British Raj, massively expanded in India's socialist era, it is filled with bureaucrats who are in love with their petty powers and privileges. They are joined by politicians who enjoy the power of patronage. And then there are some journalists and intellectuals who still hold on to some romantic idea of Third World socialism. There are many in India's ruling class who remain deeply uncomfortable with the modern, open, commercial society that they see growing around them….

…But the real stumbling block to a deep Indo-U.S. relationship will come not from Washington but New Delhi. While Singh and some others at the top of the Indian government see the world clearly, and see the immense opportunities it opens up for India, many others are blinded by their prejudices. For many Indian elites, it has been comfortable and comforting to look at the world from the prism of a poor, Third World country, whose foreign policy was neutral, detached (and, one might add, unsuccessful). They understand how to operate in that world, whom to bargain with, whom to beg from and whom to be belligerent with.

But a world in which India is a great power, in which it moves confidently across the global stage, and in which it is a friend and partner of the most powerful country in history—that is an altogether new and unsettling proposition. "Why is the United States being nice to us?" several such doubters have asked me repeatedly. Even now, in 2003, they were searching for the hidden hand. China's Mandarin class has been able to rethink its country's new role as a world power with skill and effectiveness. So far, India's Brahmins have not shown themselves the equals of their neighbor.

The danger for India is that this moment might not last forever. The world turns and India will have its ups and downs. But today it is India's moment. It can grasp it and forge a new path for itself. Along that road lies a genuine and deep relationship between the planet's largest democracy and its wealthiest democracy. Until now, this has merely been a slogan. It could actually become a reality, and who knows what such a world might look like?

An Indian publication assessing the evolution of the US government's attitude toward India:

As a member of the Sixties' generation, India held a special place for President Clinton. At a time when the American campuses were in revolt against materialist
excesses, India offered the perfect antidote. As part of the mysterious Orient, it became the personification of exotica. To this hazy incense-ridden legacy, the Clintons added the friendship of successful Indian Americans. The association swelled the Democratic war chest and lent a cosmopolitan flavour to their social world. It also conferred on a clutch of desis what they always lacked—political connections. The Clintons and their Chhatwals, Kashyaps, Chopras and Guptas enjoy a mutually exploitative relationship.

Bush's deification of India is the 21st century equivalent of Lord Curzon's infatuation with the "sacredness of India." It is not born of mystical woolly-headedness; it stems from hard-nosed strategic calculations. Curzon never wanted India and Indians to be replicas of the "mother country". He doted on the robust, traditional values and the squirearchy of the "real India" and perceived the subcontinent as an autonomous power and the natural bulwark against an expansionist Russia. Replace yesterday's traditional values with today's democratic rumbustiousness and the Russian bear with the Chinese dragon and you have the importance of India to Bush.

From {http://dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1015243&catid=19}

And the current situation President Bush faces in India:

Overview of the Bush protests (after South America, are they becoming redundant?)

http://www.forbes.com/business/energy/feeds/ap/2006/03/01/ap2560485.html

A synopsis from an Indian POV of the state of affairs in Hyderabad (40% Muslim), the closest he’s going to travel to Bangalore. As I mentioned to a family friend earlier who had helped me try to gain access the events surrounding the President’s visit (thanks Jeanetta!), curiosity could lead me onto a plane tomorrow to jump straight into the brouhaha.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1638730,001302100000.htm

One more link to suffer through (not political)...

Found in this week's NY Times travel section, an egotistical and misleading review of Bangalore. Does a city only get credit as a viable "exotic travel destination" when it produces enough expensive clothes to satisfy the most pampered Parisian clotheshorse and enough nightlife to assuage the most jaded LA clubber? If all the NY Times reader wanted was a polluted imitation of South Beach, then skip the painful 20 hour flight and jet to pleasurable Saint Tropez. Bangalore has enough non-western attractions to captivate any audience, as the NY Times sadly overlooked.

http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/02/26/travel/26bangalore.html?ex=1141794000&en=67fe48f0f230f1f7&ei=5070&emc=eta1