A couple of weeks ago, I spoke with a young whipper-snapper who works off and on in the US, while based in India. This 25-year old was planning his honeymoon cruise to Mauritius, and interspersed details of the trip into his lecture on how the new and powerful India was, to paraphrase, going to kick American butt. "My generation", he claimed with pride, "is the strongest and toughest Indian one. We are not like the previous ones", he confided, no doubt without irony including the one that fought non-violently to gain independence from Britain, "we will change everything. We just need to get politicians and government out of the way".
A couple of days later an entire set of middle and upper class audience pilloried political boss Deve Gowda for his alienating the all powerful Narayanamoorthy (of Infosys) and politicking on the issue of urban IT pandering vs rural neglect.
Last week, walking by Mahatma Gandhi road, I came across the not uncommon sight of fashionable teenagers sporting western styles and mannerisms, prominent among them a young chap with a T-shirt displaying a large red swastika with a picture of Hitler at the center, and just to remove doubt, the word "NAZI" in bold lettering beneath.
Yesterday I noticed that the lamp posts were plastered with ads, each alternate one displaying a pretty young Indian girl, recommending a particular mobile phone service. Clearly visible on her left wrist, a fashion accessory: a wristband with the familiar confederate crossbars.
"India Shining" -- that was the motto IIRC of the outgoing govt. "India Rising" is a slogan that seems to be gaining popularity...
All the while here, I did not come across a single farmer suicide. I guess Cockburn was wrong after all... India is shining indeed.
--ravi