Borincano
9th August 2004, 04:16
"On a typical afternoon, 26-year-old Shruti Sharma heads with friends to Gurgaon, a New Delhi suburb that's also a shopper's paradise. The malls here are vertical versions of their U.S. counterparts: five-story high-tech bazaars with multiplex cinemas, ice cream parlors, escalators, parking lots, even Muzak (smarmy versions of Bollywood disco hits). Outside it's so hot the asphalt is melting -- talk about Indian summer -- but inside, shoppers stroll in air-conditioned bliss past a Pizza Hut, a Subway, a Benetton, and a TGI Friday's. Sharma volunteers that her favorite brands are, in no particular order, Nike, Nokia, McDonald's, and Levi's. "Buying habits are changing," she says with a shy smile. "Nothing less than a brand name like Nike or Adidas will do."
I'm not sure what's more amazing: Gurgaon or Sharma. When I was growing up not far from here, Gurgaon was little more than a tiny town built on a fly-blown cow pasture where my friends and I would go to buy cheap Kingfisher beer. In the past three years, it's sprouted six malls -- with five more under construction -- and a skyline of shiny new office buildings and call centers. Filling these new structures are people like Sharma, who answers phones in a South Delhi industrial park for a U.S. Internet service provider. She earns more than $9,000 a year, 19 times the average Indian wage...."
Business 2.0 Magazine (http://www.business2.com/b2/web/articles/0,17863,650408,00.html)
What's your opinion on a country with 1 billion people that is seeking to have the same life styles and spending habits as the USA?
I'm not sure what's more amazing: Gurgaon or Sharma. When I was growing up not far from here, Gurgaon was little more than a tiny town built on a fly-blown cow pasture where my friends and I would go to buy cheap Kingfisher beer. In the past three years, it's sprouted six malls -- with five more under construction -- and a skyline of shiny new office buildings and call centers. Filling these new structures are people like Sharma, who answers phones in a South Delhi industrial park for a U.S. Internet service provider. She earns more than $9,000 a year, 19 times the average Indian wage...."
Business 2.0 Magazine (http://www.business2.com/b2/web/articles/0,17863,650408,00.html)
What's your opinion on a country with 1 billion people that is seeking to have the same life styles and spending habits as the USA?