Venk's Indian Adventure Venk Chandran

Stay tuned to MyBindi as Venk will be sharing his experiences with us while travelling through India.

Week 2: Indore and New Delhi

We left Bombay for Indore; a city in the interior of India, at around 5:00am. The city still has the ability to spread a fine layer of nasty mist around your body. I love it. Domestic travel has improved in and around the country. There has been a bit of deregulation in the domestic airline business here, and there are currently two major airlines: Jet Airways and Safari. Here’s my nonpartisan advice: go for Jet airways. They are bend-over-backwards nice, and there is a minimum of confusion regarding your luggage. The fleet is also relatively new – consisting of Boeing 737's.

Indore has a beautiful airport, situated in the vast acres of farmland, it resembles an old moghul style palace/house. Getting off the plane and walking across to the terminal is a nice, cool, and windswept experience. It’s a slower pace of existence in Indore, reflected in terra-cotta house colonies, and meandering farm animals. Quite the change of pace from Bombay, Indore however, did not prepare me for the shock that was Delhi.

Delhi and I have always had a love/hate relationship. Whereas Bombay will often be remembered as a home (sort of) – I blame Delhi for the gastronomic problems of my last Indian encounter.

Delhi Belly

Delhi belly. I’m not going to discuss it – because I believe in not tempting fate.

It’s become more crowded with Maruthi Suzuki autos, TATA sumos, Fiats, Ambassador cars and rickshaws – however, a lot more of these yellow and black steel cockroaches now ride with natural gas instead of kerosene. This actually makes a difference. Delhi always borders between regality of the past and the squalid present. India Gate is still the discerning fixture of Connaught square, and it is still a shopping experience. You know, the MTV concept is really defining culture shopping here. Each of the major brand names (Levis, etc.) all operate their respective stores with MTV branding. It’s a well packaged and marketed strategy that seems to be doing well. The average pair is about 1400-1800 RS.

Gods, Cricket and Amitabh Bachchan

The realization hits me in the face: There is a lot of disposable money in India today. The middle class is really spending well these days – and this has the West just salivating. However, it’s not easy – there is an aversion to the usual branding techniques employed. Mcdonalds isn’t doing well, and neither are any of the Fast-food joints. It’s probably because they haven’t thought of the few things that really influence the Indian culture. Here they are in no particular order (except my own)

1. Gods: Be it Vishnu/Shiva/Brahma, or a Guru – the gods can push anything successfully – from soap to supari.

2. Cricket: The cricket match fixing crisis. This has been front page news since I got here. “Say it ain’t so Azharuddin! Say it ain’t so!”. Cricket players are demi-gods here, dwarfed in number and popularity by the one, the only, mythical…

3. Amitabh Bachchan. : This is the driving influence on Indian Culture. His booming voice, his stature, his jet black dyed hair. This is an icon that can really move the population’s material whims. I’ve seen it happen. He can sell rice and ties at the same time. He’s got the power of a giant game show (Kaun Benaga Crorepati!) and the hit movie Mohabbatein. I’ll go on about the pervasiveness of the great one later.


Week 1: Arrival and Mumbai

Week 2: More Mumbai->Indore->New Delhi

Week 3: Delhi->Madras(Chennai)->Calcutta

Week 4: Fear and Loathing in Goa