Skip to main content

A New National Affluence Index....... :-)

You know affluence in the country is up when....... 1. You see grown ups wearing designer shorts in important public places..... 2. There are at least 3 houses in your neighbourhood that have eitherexteriors painted with Lavender or bright green or very dark yellow. 3. People own cars with seating capacity twice that of number ofmembers in their house 3a. People have a driver even for their 800 cc car. 3b. People have 2 kids and put their names in italics on the backglassof their cars! 4. People drive their cars to holiday destinations that are even 1500 km away. 4a. But..... take a flight for destinations that are just 300 km away. 5. The per capita consumption of country liquor drops in favour of Rumand eventually Rum consumption drops in favour of Beer. 5a. The per capita consumption of vegetables drops in favour of fish and eggs and in time the consumption of fish and eggs drops in favourof chicken (broiled!). 5b. The per capita consumption of til oil goes up and is soon replaced by vanaspati+ghee as the oil of choice and eventually by vegetable oils and ultimately by rice bran oil!! 5c. You can mail order "hyderabadi mutton biriyani" or Hilsa from anywhere in the country!! Or pick it up fresh at the right airports.:-) 5d. The average body weight of people goes up up and up over one toone and a half generations and then starts to plateau and eventually starts to come down as people start to think "being lean and muscular"is hip. (Starting a health club or investing in one is a good optionat this inflexion point!!) 6. People spend more each month for Spa treatments (or ayurvedic massage) than even food! 7. You have barbers flying Business class across the country to give haircuts (to women). 8. You have 100s of women queuing up for a 900-rupee haircuts (fm barbers mentioned in item no. 7 above!!) 9. You have Malls in movie theatres and vice versa. 10. Toilets in public places reinvent themselves and start to look like parlours with Italian marbles and hip plumbing. 11. Your weekly picnic is to the movie theatres where you eat more (junk!) food than all 3 meals put together 'cos movie theatres are selling u an experience not just a movie. 12. You had a fight that morning with the "thela gaadi tarkaari wala"for 50 paise but gladly pay Rs. 63.50 for a small popcorn or a Veg puff at the movies! 13. Orthodontics becomes a real career option. 13a. Being a Pedicurist becomes a real career option. 13b. You laugh at all your Doctor friends who bugged you in the past for not getting into a regular medical college and becoming only a Dentist 'cos you are making more money and working better hours than them. 14. You have at least 3 toothbrushes - one for each time of the day and a different toothpaste to go with it. 15. You spend more money for the earphones than the music system itself. 16. You buy a 200 Grand home theatre system so that you can hook up all the various gadgets including your TV that you watch only news on in any case. 17. Only the service technician knows how to operate all the features on the above system. You learn only to turn it ON or off and how to play with the volume control!! 18. You paid a fortune for the membership to the local Gym that you seldom use but only flaunt the card to your friends. 19. Your paperwala delivers papers on the latest " lifestyle"motorbike and is listening to his iPod to mitigate the monotony of delivering the daily morning paper. 20. The youngest member of your staff has a mobile that is 3 times hismonthly salary. 21. You find people wearing sneakers below their Dhotis or lungis. 22. You spent more money on your sunglasses or prescription glasses than what you spent on your entire wardrobe last year. 23. There are more opticians than eye doctors in your neighbourhood. 24. You go to the Doctor even for your hangover. 24a. And he prescribes at least 4 tablets to be taken 3 times a dayfor 5 days that includes protein supplements and two types of multi-vitamins in addition to the usual placebo. 25. You spend a fortune on Platinum jewellery and keep reminding all your friends at the party that it is not silver!! (Works with diamonds and cubic zirconia as well!!) Wish economists start to look seriously at these indices as well inaddition to their drab commonplace ones. LOLOL....

Comments

  1. Sriraman RanganathanTuesday, October 20, 2009 12:59:00 PM

    Hehe....nice one..

    ReplyDelete
  2. PathySunday, January 24, 2010 4:05:00 PM

    Corollary to 12..You pay Rs 100 for the 63.50 for Popcorn. You get Rs 35 and a toffee without asking for (for the Rs 1.50 that the shop keep owes you), and you don't whine..

    ReplyDelete
  3. ChariSunday, September 10, 2017 10:44:00 AM

    Interesting sir

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Inner Engineering Retreat at the Isha Yoga Centre

Inner engineering - had heard so much about this program that I finally succumbed to my curiosity. Am also in a transition phase in my career and thought I had done so much of outer Engineering - Education, Networking, continuous learning of techniques and tools so felt it is time for some Inner Engineering. A three and a half day investment seemed quite appropriate as well at the Isha Centre in a scenic setting near Coimbatore. Here are some key learnings and insights for the ones interested….. First, it is a completely new journey into a realm that is beyond our normal logical, questioning mind. It calls for a leap of faith into a new dimension not easily explained by the axioms we are so familiar with in day to day life. However, it is done in a very "secular", non denominational, non-religious manner without pushing you too much. So well packaged and marketed in my view!! Second, it is an intense program both mentally and physically. You are in the program 24 hrs...
16 comments
Read more

The Grams’ Laws of execution (Strong Adult content Beware!!!)

Execution for us in India is always a challenge. We come up with the best of plans and designs and conjure up awesome things but fall woefully short, mostly in time to delivery or quality of the work. Oftentimes it is not necessarily for want of resources but of the deep execution DNA - the rigor, the micro detailing and passion for the "checklist" and structured reviews.... Here are a few laws I came up with some years back to illustrate to my colleagues the importance of getting it done and may be nudge them towards better execution. The name Grams' Laws was coined out of gratitude and in dedication to my ex-colleague, Grams. He is a brilliant IT engineer and a great visionary when it came to dreaming up a scheme for a software program/module. He would tirelessly present the minutest of details of how this piece of code would work and what it would do and how it would be the mother of all programs that would solve not only our but even some of world's pr...
4 comments
Read more

R.E.S.P.E.C.T...

The title of this post may trigger thoughts of Aretha Franklin's classic number that arguably became the theme song of the American Feminist movement in the 60s. But we aren't far away from what I have in mind. But this is more about what happens to people in organisations. Read on.... Many of us, even though we refuse to accept, depend on our colleagues and subordinates to become successful. This is even more true when we come into a new organisation and are struggling to establish ourselves in the first few weeks. We will need specific help from our compatriots to get us started on the job or to show us the way in those incipient days. Many would expect our bosses to help but this seldom happens. So we are left to fend for ourselves and quickly find allies. This is where a vast majority of us fail to make it and feel frustrated in the first few weeks. We feel we have no authority or have not been empowered enough to do the job. What we fail to realise is that we have to b...
4 comments
Read more