not everything is falling

some businesses are failing. in fact, a lot of businesses are failing completely. a lot of people are going unemployed or underemployed. there are many industries which are built on the notion that people will always have disposable income that they would rather spend on consumer purchases than save for later times.

some businesses are thriving. nintendo had a great year, as did amazon. walmart, mcdonalds, etc will all do fine throughout this, as low cost sellers. differentiation companies, like starbucks, will have to rethink their entire perspective or face a grim year or two. and this will last at least through 2010.

so in the meantime, we have to look at this as an opportunity. in 2 million minutes, one of the commentators notes that Americans lack the basic economic urgency that Indians have, and thus are not as committed to innovation. well, I wouldn’t count on our security blankets to last too much longer. the financial bailout has done nothing. the auto bailout will do nothing. in the end, we will probably have to nationalize large swaths of public companies just to stay afloat. and to those laissez-faire free-market proponents, I’m sorry, you had your chance, people got greedy, and now we’re SOL.

what I ask myself, as a hopeful entrepreneur, is how to develop and deliver value to someone in a time when money is sparse, consumer confidence is low, and no one wants to buy anything. mainly I see that I don’t want to enter the job market anytime soon. even still, my prospects as far as employment opportunities/future education are looking great, so I’m not terribly worried. I’m worried for the rest of my peers. this may not be something that we bounce back from and grow stronger because of; this might be something that irrevocably changes the dynamics of the global economy. so what side of the globe will you be on when all is said and done?

final night

we’re back in bangalore, which isn’t nearly as exciting as before. it’s not nearly as colorful as jaipur, and there is more traffic than in delhi.

i’m more or less over my stomach troubles (which we pinpointed to some fish that Bob, Liza and I ate and Brittany skipped, leading the three of us to some rough days), but we are ready to come home for some bland American food.

at the same time, leaving a wonderful land of amazing customer service, clean and spacious rooms with beautiful views, and expensive wines and champagnes, and returning to the world of rude Americans, dirty fraternity life and cheap beer is a little tough.

more and more I become confused why the people and places of American and India are so backwards. Indians work hard day and night, are friendly and welcoming to others, care for the family, respect all religions, believe in a harmony of environment, and modernize without losing their thriving culture. Americans are by and large lazy and large, rude and suspicious of others, care for themselves above others, hate all religions but theirs, promote causes because it makes them feel better, and try to export their culture on the rest of the world.

yet America is beautiful, our streets are clean, our houses are large, our tap water is pristine (…and still people drink bottled), our schools are advanced, our malls are gigantic, our cars can transport livestock, our workweek is light, our job safety nets are expansive, our paychecks are huge…

it probably has a lot to do, among other things, with population size. with a billion and change people, India can’t keep up. so pollution rises, traffic rules can’t be obeyed, there is no social security, and as we recently saw, the government can do little to protect its citizens from an increasingly hostile part of the world. 

trying to get to a dinner last night, I was confused why there was so much traffic at 9pm. Apoorva told me it was Rush hour, which still didn’t make much sense to me. she explained, of course, that it was from all the people going to work at the call center, since they have to adjust for our daylight hours. it suddenly dawned on me that we have changed their entire culture, forcing people to work graveyard shifts just for our benefit. and yet, the best job in bangalore is still working these call centers, so that we can dial in and get “Joe” or “Mike” to help us with whatever electronic gadget we were too lazy to read the simple instructions for.

when things in nature are at such unequal levels as they are here, an equilibrium is always reached, with one side giving way and the other gaining. I fear for just how much way we are going to have to give in order to reach this balance, and I think my generation and my country is, as is typical, severely unprepared, unaware, and uncaring.

midpoint

internet connections are not always readily available here, even though driving through the streets one will see the ubiquitous “i.s.o. s.t.d.” signs all over the place, which we know have something to do with a telephone/internet connection.

but, more to the point, we have been busy. any image one can conjour up upon the thought of India, more than likely we have been there, done that, taken pictures, gotten the tshirt.

I saw a snake charmer (and had a cobra around my neck), sipped wine on the back of an elephant, had a camel almost fling me off his back, rode countless rickshaws through crowded city streets, visited the Taj Mahal, had a New Year’s celebration at what was once a Palace of the Maharaja (and won a prize for being the best dressed male there), eaten spicier food than I have ever had back home, gotten really sick because of it (I’m fine now), and all around been treated like a visiting king. The only time the men stop and stare more at me than Brittany is when I have been wearing my kurta and turban (there are plenty of pictures), at which point they must only assume I’m rather important. But, considering we were featured in around fourteen of the top newspapers in Bangalore and India as a whole on the first day we arrived, we might as well be.

We head tomorrow back to Bangalore, to the fourth hotel in four nights. A few more days remain.