My little car in India

So finally after nearly 2 months going in a rickshaw and walking around, I bought the Maruti (suzuki) Swift. Sweet little car with European styling. Got away from buying big cars, the american way. Now buying this little car was an experience.

You would think as an NRI its easier to get a loan. Sorry everybody, its the most painful experience. So I gave them tonnes of paperwork, the guy says everything will be ready on Monday. In India, promises and timeliness are not be worried about too much. Monday comes and goes. Tuesday comes, same issue. I had a fit and took the branch manager into a room and gave him a piece of my mind. I asked him to fire three girls who are all attitude and no customer service in front of them. It was pretty ugly. Anyway, now wednesday comes.

I get more papers faxed from hyderabad. So I wait, finally I get the call. Sir Ji, everything is ready. I go there, pay cash and the car is delivered in 20 mins. Now, about the personal touch that you do not find anywhere. There is a coconut, sweet and some kind of religious thread. He realizes that I am not a hindu so he takes my friend alone and asks him about me. Then he slowly takes the religious thread away. Then he again asks for my friend and asks if I would like to do pooja on this car. He says no.

It took me 7 days to do paperwork where as it took me 30 mins to do paperwork and take the car away in U.S 6 months ago. In U.S, all I got was "Have fun driving" where as I got a nice box of sweets and a personal touch. Some things never change

Introspection in retrospective

So sitting here one day, thoughts come to my mind. I am bored. Do not have much at home. I realize I never stayed at one place for more than 2 years. you do not have much. you are using things for a while and leave. The inanimate objects stare and laugh at you, you leave, we will be here. Its not very profound. Just the usual I call Deepak Chopra kind of thoughts. :)

So I leave the house after I get a call from friends. Now suddenly another world. Got to open a company. I am wasting my skills. So drive to Maneswar, on the way to Jaipur, about 20 kms from Gurgaon. On one side, huge economic zone, 3 lane highways, very well planned city. Should we look for plots or buildings here. Three guys with too much enthusiasm and not much else.

So suddenly we thought, where are all the guys who work here come from. The other side is supposed to be residential zone. There is not a single house or an apartment. So we decide to investigate. Go to a real estate dealer. He says sirji, all the low class people come from villages, all the others drive from Delhi and Gurgaon. We look at these villages, not much to look at just the typical village where you do not see too much changes.

Just like I leave in two different worlds, India has two different sides to it.