The photograph alongside
displays an interesting perspective. It shows a seaplane a service of which was
launched at Juhu Airport in Mumbai to connect Lonavla, the popular hill station
near the metropolis. The plane will land at Pawana Dam near Lonavla.
The photograph
shows a sea-plane poised for takeoff. In the foreground an agricultural worker
continues to do his sowing work quite unconcerned. Beyond the aircraft, in the
background one can see a shanty settlement from many of the shanties of which
DTH antennas can be seen sticking out. Shanties and DTH? This was unthinkable a
few years back. But today it is a reality – not only in Mumbai, even in Bhopal
too. Within those small spaces the shanty-dwellers generally have all kinds of
gadgetry and appliances the most ubiquitous of which are the TVs and mobile
phones. These are the people who constitute Modi’s “neo-middleclass”. They have
emerged from below poverty level but are yet to stabilise themselves in the
(lower) middle classes
Outside the
shanty clusters in Bhopal I have had occasion to see a number of motorbikes.
And, also push-carts that sell hamburgers and other fast food items of Western
and Chinese variety. On top of the carts there are signboards with FAST FOOD
writ large on them in English.
Looks like, India is surely on the move.
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