31 May 2007

Prologue

Its always fun to be back to your hometown after a while, find somebody there to receive you at the platform and saying these two things in the same order.. "How was the journey, zyada problem to nahi hui?" and quickly comes the second thing.. "What happened to your health? Itne patle kaise ho gaye?" And then you go back to your place, everybody specially your mum scrutinizes you with one long stare and then gives you one hell of a hug..! Truly heart wrentching, isn't it? You almost feel like Shah Rukh Khan when he drops down his chopper and runs towards Jaya Bachchan in K3G...

Anyway so this time when I came back to my place for the summer holidays which are rather long, after these general happenings when I went out to take a stroll in my area- I found so many small shops being replaced by fewer but beautifully designed big retail outlets, most of which are a part of a national chain. Everybody promises to give you the best offer, as if it was a dream of the founder of the company to provide good quality goods to the poor man at the right price. But what are they exactly doing?

A chain called Spencer's Daily opened up in Lucknow at four or five different locations, causing most of the petty sabzi-wallas to cry in distress and hatred. Why hatred? Obviously now these big companies after having tried their hands at petroleum, telecom and what not have resorted to even grocery to satisfy their hunger for more money? Now this maybe okay in a country like the US where most people are adequately rich not to be forced into a business such as what our regular sabzi-wallas do... but what about the condition in India?

Now if they really wanted to serve the poor man, they should have given these sabzi-wallas jobs inside their air-conditioned showrooms.. who gets the jobs? Normally the students doing their graduation who need some pocket money most of which is spent in malls and pubs. Now who needs these jobs? The carefree students, some of those who even spent this money on doping, or the sabzi-walla who has a hungry kid at his place!

Now one should think about these things. I am not an admirer of the Left parties, but in some aspects they really are right, the condition will only worsen once Walmart marks its entry in India.. the result: we remit checks of huge sum to a trillion dollar inc. based in Florida and force these sabzi-wallas who earn something like a hundred bucks a day to resort to something else including crime.

14 comments:

Namrata said...

uve always been so cool n natural in ur descriptions n this is surely no exception.........keep up the gud work dude!

Unknown said...

dude, this is the first time i read ur blog, i must say i was really impressed with u r writing.
Rish

nihar joshi said...

i do agree with u over the state of the poor subzi walah's but i think that in a country like india u cannot restrict growth of such retail outlets..one has to draw a line between the two..one suggestion as u said is to give the affected people some basic training and employ them in the malls..

nihar joshi said...

i tend to be more of a leftist than u mohit..they atleast follow the principles on which the communist party is based upon..though i am totally against their strikes adn everything :)

Califus said...

aur thoda bada likhta yaar.....is baar chota tha...

Unknown said...

hmm..intersting..

Oink said...

i quite agree with ur view on the gujjar issue...someone has rightly said... India is the only country where people fight to be called backward !

Pradeep said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Cho Ramaswamy(editor of a tamil weekly) once said that "If India's future is with the left,India has no future left".I couldnt agree more.In any good democracy,the consumers should b the most powerful.I dont want to sound insensitive but if ppl r prefering the air conditioned malls to the vendors,its only bcause they r offerin them things at better quality and price.Discouraging the growth of retail outlets would defintly not b a wise move for a growin economy.If the basic problems of education n helthcare r concentrated upon,v wouldnt b facin most of the problems that v r facing...

and btw,very interesting blogs dude...waiting 4 updates...

Winnie said...

well well..i'm impressed!!
looking forward to more posts...

Harshita Chouhan said...

well...being more or less an ayn rand follower i m nt agnst all these chains entering india coz survival of th fittest is wht th rule ought to b. it'll b tough competition 4 th small vendors mayb even disproportionate bt thn u cant keep th better ppl ( in terms of service nd lets face it quality 2) out 4ever to protect th local vendors. nd th fact is tht th competition will also lead to comin up of more competitive indian outlets like reliance fresh. every1 wants th best product 4 their money nd thtz th truth.if i can afford to spend more bucks 4 better quality thn so b it.nt every1 can do tht nd considerin tht so many ppl in india cant afford tht due to low income these vendors still hav a market though decreased. do i sound selfish? lets face it thtz how ppl r.

Ranjith said...

well commenting for pradeep..,

jus think wht the sabji wallas can provide u???

air conditioning??? n stale or stored food???

jus fresher outside air n fresher food!!???

Pradeep said...

I think v shouldnt mix sentiments with bussiness.If everyone felt that the retail outlets sell 'stale or stored food',they wouldnt bother the the vendors.It is only bcause they r offerin quality products at competitive prices that people think that they r a threat to the subzi walas.

Anonymous said...

too good....fully agreed with u