Guest dada_rocks Posted December 22, 2007 Share Posted December 22, 2007 http://hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=c0afd77f-5c78-4731-a483-b29d59dbcc37&&Headline=Brown+man%u2019s+burden So — as India discovered this week — Infosys, Thomas Friedman and call centres notwithstanding, the world is not quite flat. At least not yet. The prejudicial snub from two luxury giants, Jaguar and Orient Express, was enough to provoke even the genteel and mild-mannered Ratan Tata into contemptuous and public anger against the entrenched white supremacy of the West. The non-believers, he said, were ignorant people blinded by an archaic vision of India as a “land of tigers, jungles and cobrasâ€. The timing of the controversy couldn’t have been more ironic. It seemed ludicrous that India’s most respected business house was battling barriers of bias in a week when a beleaguered Citigroup had just elevated an Indian (Vikram Pandit) to the top job. And just to throw another confusing ingredient into the cauldron, a Pew Foundation survey this week revealed that Indians have a higher opinion of their own culture than citizens of any other nation. Sixty-four per cent of us apparently “agree completely and without reservations†that India is culturally superior to other countries. ......................................... ......................................................... In the last decade, we have watched capitalism devour traditional class distinctions, create first generation billionaires and catapult small towns to the league of big dreams. Often, we disparagingly call this phenomenon ‘new money’. It’s our shorthand for people who are self-made, who possibly don’t speak English in clipped westernised tones and who spend their money in a way that some of us may consider crass. Snotty old city clubs (almost all colonial creations) keep ‘new money’ firmly off the membership rolls, citing exactly the sort of ‘cultural superiority’ that the French had once thrown at India’s face. Blissfully unmindful of our own prejudice, we lament India’s future as we watch the Oxbridge-educated politician being elbowed out by a new wave of netas who make no pretence at sophistication or subtlety. Armchair liberals may theoretically eulogise the emergence of Mayawati and Lalu Yadav’s potent caste politics, but will they be happy to discuss it over a shared lemon tart at the India International Centre dining room? I doubt it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
varun Posted December 22, 2007 Share Posted December 22, 2007 Nicely written Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chunky_lafanga Posted December 25, 2007 Share Posted December 25, 2007 Last time I checked Jaguar and Land Rover are about to fall into Tata's lap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jf1gp_1 Posted December 25, 2007 Share Posted December 25, 2007 didnt like the title. I dont care what a non Indians thinks about Indians. As long as we are on the path of grown and every single Indian is taking a forward step, it doesnt matter if world looks at us as snake charmers. If only educated middle class Indians knew how to work within our social setup without having double standards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lurker Posted December 25, 2007 Share Posted December 25, 2007 DR you have become obsessed with Barkha Dutt or other media person like her :((. This thread is very pertinent to India today and the last thing we need is a misleading thread. Yes TATA is definitely finding out hard to acquire Land Rover and Jaguar. Without getting overtly defensive about it we need to realize that while there may be an element of racism here, it is also true that "Made in India" does not have a good brand value as of now. So some anxiety is expected. However instead of looking that as a drawback I would like Indian companies to use that as a challenge to better themselves. I am reminded of the time in late 90s when Indian IT companies were given mostly maintanence projects and not some cutting edge projects. Indian IT companies worked hard to perform, most of our top companies acquired big software process degrees like CMM/Six Sigma etc. Before long not only our processes were fine tuned but we received admiration from the West. I worked with TCS in late 90s and early 200s and I maintain till date that TCS had the best process, even though I have since worked in one Fortune 50 and another Fortune 250 company in the world. Knowing TATAs I am sure they would not be fazed by it and would do their best. Remember they acquired Tetley, tea giant, way before any Indian company(IT or otherwise) started buying in West. And yes change the title man, half of the posters wont read it otherwise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jf1gp_1 Posted December 25, 2007 Share Posted December 25, 2007 DR you have become obsessed with Barkha Dutt or other media person like her :((. This thread is very pertinent to India today and the last thing we need is a misleading thread. Yes TATA is definitely finding out hard to acquire Land Rover and Jaguar. Without getting overtly defensive about it we need to realize that while there may be an element of racism here, it is also true that "Made in India" does not have a good brand value as of now. So some anxiety is expected. However instead of looking that as a drawback I would like Indian companies to use that as a challenge to better themselves. I am reminded of the time in late 90s when Indian IT companies were given mostly maintanence projects and not some cutting edge projects. Indian IT companies worked hard to perform, most of our top companies acquired big software process degrees like CMM/Six Sigma etc. Before long not only our processes were fine tuned but we received admiration from the West. I worked with TCS in late 90s and early 200s and I maintain till date that TCS had the best process, even though I have since worked in one Fortune 50 and another Fortune 250 company in the world. Knowing TATAs I am sure they would not be fazed by it and would do their best. Remember they acquired Tetley, tea giant, way before any Indian company(IT or otherwise) started buying in West. And yes change the title man, half of the posters wont read it otherwise. we still get crap and will continue to get crappy work till we start spending on R&D and product development. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dada_rocks Posted December 25, 2007 Share Posted December 25, 2007 point well taken about heading but unfortuantely posters can't change thread title Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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