india better viewed thro western eyes

westerners often have a better ability to understand india . perhaps it is because our sense s are numbed by the everyday occurances which we take for granted. i enjoyed reading this article in the NY times, some excerpts here:

Debt, once anathema for the middle class, is now an acceptable means to an end.

America, of course, went through a similar evolution: the making of a postwar consumerist economy; the introduction of credit cards and growing comfort with, and dependence on, debt; the rise of an advertising culture. India today offers the chance to watch it in real time, at a hyper, almost-out-of-control, pace.

ndian society has always been more about duty, or dharma, than drive, more about responsibility to others than the realization of individual desire.

"The value system is finishing now," he said. "We are gradually increasing everyone for himself." Luxuries are now necessities, he said, and children are focused more on earning for themselves than on caring for their parents. Indians have always been critical of what they see as American selfishness, the way children relegate parents to retirement homes so they can pursue their own lives. Now, suddenly, they are hearing such stories among themselves.

There are still only about eight million passenger vehicles on Indian roads, in a country of more than one billion people. By the late 1920's, in comparison, the United States had 23 million registered car owners.

India's growing material hunger has another downside: it is largely being sated by credit and debt.

With borrowing comes the danger of overstretching, and pricy cars purchased in Vishakhapatnam's Toyota showroom can always be taken back.

That is where the repo man comes in.