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Published: July 29th 2006
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Kingfisher
I’ve had a couple of meetings scheduled in Bangalore this week. Flew in yesterday via Kingfisher Airways. There are a ton of private domestic airlines in India. By Western standards the prices are a bargain. I was particularly taken by Kingfisher because it is operated by this Indian brewery mogul. Most of the Indian restaurants that you go to in the West will have Kingfisher as their beer of preference. Here in India, the company’s got a massive presence. Anyhoo it stuck me as living on the edge to travel with a company that promotes alcohol consumption (drink n' fly)!
Bangalore is even busier than I remember it being in 2004. Back then I was in the city to practise yoga. I was kinda hoping to go and see my teacher Masterji, but I’m in a completely different section of town and there’s no way I’m going to have the time. Too bad… my yoga practise is so non-existent :-( At the airport in Chennai, I was enviously eying a Westerner practising his Sun Salutations in the corner of the airport. My Indian counterpart that I’m travelling with would have thought I’d lost my mind if I broke into
a couple of Surya Namaskars and tried to stick my leg behind my ear. Oh well.
Back to the city. Big, polluted, growing rapidly. Its also modern, cooler than Chennai and has loads of great restaurants. There’s massive IT investment in this city. Lots of Western companies have there technical support offices in Bangalore - I saw Intel, Accenture and IBM. There is also a fascinating character in Bangalore. Mr Murti who created an IT monolith called Infosys. The guy is amazing. He practises “compassionate capitalism” in which he makes a concerted effort to counter greed. So, despite the fact that his company is a multi-million dollar international operation, he pays himself less than $50k. His take is that India is a poor country, with many haves and many more have-nots. He figures that the haves are completely deluded if they try to live the opulent life and still relate to the common person. So he leads a relatively modest life and spends more on improving the living conditions of his employees (there’s golf courses, swimming pools, libraries … on the InfoSys campus). Really interesting stuff.
All this IT stuff is fantastic for the Indian economy and creates
lots of jobs in the city. It also attracts a lot of the rural poor to city in the hopes of finding jobs and services. But as a consequence, there is no urban planning or at least limited government capacity to meet the influx. There are also no/limited land rights and so slums go up quickly and can be pulled down equally quickly (with relative impunity).
Water Needs
I stopped by at one urban slum today. I was there to participate in efforts to get clean drinking water to the community. The community only get piped water from the local municipality every few days. Trouble is that often the pipes are corroded and the water gets contaminated from the raw sewage canals that run adjacent to the pipes. Without, piped water the community has to collect water from a distance. There’re issues of contamination at source and as the collection vessels can be a breeding ground for nasties. The incidence of dysentery and other water borne disease is very high among the kiddies. Today’s program was an education program. Often, it’s the women in the community that drive any change and so most of the audience was filled with
women and young kids. I didn’t want to snap photo’s because it could have distracted from the message that was being pushed. As it stands, a bald Indian looking Westerner can be enough cause for distraction. We’ve also working with a leading Indian water filtration company to re-design its product line to make it accessible to communities such as these and well as for some of the disaster relief needs. Its fantastic work and I think we’re making progress in getting the initiative of the ground.
Lots of other meetings before heading back to Chennai.
Escape from the Boogeyman
Back in Chennai, I finally reached my threshold with the snoring security guard outside my door and the dogs that have been getting me up every night. Switched hotels and am now much happier. I walk to work every day, dodging the every form of vehicle. Snapped a few pics of street life for you.
My time in India is starting to draw to an end. I’ve been asked to come back next year, likely in January pending my schedule. Right now, I have one week before meeting Judy back in London. May try to get one more blog in before then.
Ciao for now… but one more thing:
Congratulations to Janine, Scott and Kate who now have two more additions to their family - Wil and Colin!!
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