Indians Are Rich By  Western Standards

I look forward to  lazy Sundays, when I get extra newspapers.Not that I am a very busy person, but Sunday has that charm,when I can eat breakfast without brushing, or having bath, just laze around with a big pot of Tea, and just read away,lost in my thoughts, and digesting all the news that comes in.

Today was no different.I finished TOI and HT, and moved to Indian Express which I get only onSundays, and there were two articles that caught my eye.Both made me think that Indians are far better off than their Western Counterparts.

UK -  Farmers in UK don’t go often to their fields, and store huge quantities of Diesel on the Farms.One guy went and found that thieves had stolen 10000 litres of Diesel from his tanker parked at the Farm.the loss was 70000 pounds (appx 56 lakhs), of what they stole, and what they let drop on his field as they did not have such big truck to take all, and the cleaning up of the waste was huge.

3 years back the price of diesel was 11 p ( 9 rupees) per litre, and today is 70 p, a rise of more than 6 times.And now thieves are moving in Trucks, and stealing diesel and petrpl from Cars, and even stealing from Trucks that go to deliver diesel to petrol punps.

And we have the US secretary of State, going to South  Korea telling Koreans to import and eat American Beef.The Koreans say “ No US Troops and No  American Mad Cow Beef”.But she has been pleading with them, to eat their Beef.

We Hindus don’t eat Beef, because we consider Cow the Mother, as I understand.Fair enough.But the American Cow is not our mother,Right ? Why cant we import their cheap Beef, and give them Rice instead.Give Rice to Rice.And does Rice have no work but to propogate the sale of Beef, as Secretary of US.I don’t think any of our  Foreign Ministers  go specially to tell other countries to buy our Food products.Sounds Funny.

And look at Indian thieves, so much more forward than their American and British counterparts.They steal petrol and diesel, and our guys steal the Car itself.Previosly our guys were small timers , like they stole the 4 wheels of my friend’s Car parked outside his home, but now the whole car itself goes.Our guys can open schools and teach their American counterparts lessons in stealing.

And our petrol prices in the last 3 years have just jumped from 40 to 55 maybe, that’s 40%, and abroad by 600%, and life goes on.Big cars are still selling, and anybody with 2 lakhs in his pocket wont even look at a Maruti 800, but straight at a 20 lakh Skoda, a fuel guzzler, but we have courage, to pay back the heavy installments, and negotiate the traffic with the Buses and the Autos, and with Elephants and Camels on Jaipur Roads.

An Uncle of mine traveled to USA recently and told me there is Butter shortage along with Rice.And stores of second hand garments have opened, and people are thronging to wear what someone else wore a little while ago.And people not being able to pay their house installments, just post the keys to the Bank and move out.Jobs are being cut,and Obama just made a statement in the papers today, tax breaks will be given to those who will create jobs in the USA, and taken away from those who outsource to China and India.And they told India not to give Tax break to Exporters like me, and now we have to pay full taxes, as others.

And Americans future policies , well the less said the better.Around 4 or 5 years back,I read, that there was a lot of milk production in the States, which if sold, would drive down the prices.So the American Govt gave an incentive to the Farmers.Kill the Cows that give milk, and we will compensate u for the profits lost, and for 5 years you will not do this job again.and what about that Beef ? They thought that they would export it to the ThirdWorld countries, the Frozen Beef of these Cows, in Freezers on the Ships.

But they forgot we like Fresh Meat, never Frozen.And after the ship docks say at Mumbai, where are the refrigerated Trucks to take them to towns like Pune for eg, and do the shopkeepers have freezers, and if so , do they have uninteruoted power supply ?We did open up the import restriction, but the scheme failed as it had to.

And today they have shortage of Butter, and we can buy as much Butter as we want in India, alongwith Rice.Price is immaterial here, as poor are those countries, where u take money but don’t get the product.

And with people complaining about their household expenses going up, but are they doing their bit to cut down on the frills and unnecessary expenditures, like cutting down on the kilo meters driven,going out less to the movie theatres(watch the movie a few months later on TV, or buy the CD for 50/- later),eating less of MacBurgers and Pizzas, and not changing their working mobiles for a new model,and so on.Readymade Shirts and pants for Gents, Branded are like 1500 no less, cant we buy the fabric and give the tailors for less than half , to our fittings.

I see most people infact spending more and more, instead of tightening their belts.This means they have the confidence that they can pay off their credit card bills with 40% interest from their future earnings,which speaks well of the confidence of the Indian.

We are not the crybabies like the Westerners, everyday we read their crying that petrol has gone up etc.Today Americans are paying $ 4 per gallon ( 4.5 litres), which works out to  less than 40 rupees a litre, and we pay more than 50/- a litre, and we still smile.

And mind u we earn in Indian Rupees and pay 50, and they earn in dollors and  cry at 40/-

Are we not rich by American Standards !

KAMAL MAHTANI