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Last weekend, I was in Mumbai and a couple of things made me realise that India has arrived!

Of course, it had to do with wheels!!

Scene 1:

I step out of my hotel in the moring and on the porch, I see a pearl white Porsche Cayenne S parked bedind a silver 911 Carrera and to its left was parked a gleaming black BMW 650i. these are all pretty exotic cars in their own right, but what really caught my attention was the sheer lack of it!- thats right, no one was so much as paying a second glance at these beauties.

I remember an instace about 5-6 years back in Delhi when I was coming out of Taj Palace hotel after a dinner with my family. all of a sudden, a red Ferrari 348 pulled up to the porch and it was as if time stood still! this was in strack contrast to the scene in Mumbai.

anyways, this was just the beginning and not really a dramatic scene because you can see similar situations in most big Indian cities these days.

Scene 2:

I was in my cab crossing an area where the Prosche showroom is located (dont know the name of this place- the Mumbai boys can enlighten). the traffic was crawling and my eyes went towards the display window, and parked there were the usual suspects- a silver cayman, a white Cayenne and something in between them. at fisrt I thought- "naah, that cant be right", but sure enough, as my cab inched forward and i got a better look- there it was! a CARRERRA GT!!- in gleaming dark silver. I was like HOLY COW!!:Shockked:....the only other time I have seen a Carrera GT anywhere in the flesh is in the Porsche SHowroom close to kensington high Street in London.

Scene 3:

so I was still in a state of shock and motoring along, when a white continental Flying Spur passed me by. I was like-"hmm, nice car, great road presence." but nothing extraordinary, since I have seen a couple of them in Hyd and more than a few in Delhi. But what really got me was when the car was in front of me- it was a TAXI!!!!
Now I had seen it all.cheers:

Miscellaneous observation:

the number of superbikes in Mumbai- amazing.
I was having lunch on sunday at a restaurant called Pot Purri in Bandra. this is a roadside cafe, and frankly the number of audis and BMWs that were corssing that intersection was amazing- i stopped ocunting after 10! this is the only time that I have seen and Audi A8 on the road in India (A brilliant shade of deep metallic blue)

all in all makes you feel nice and you tend to think- hey, maybe India has arrived!

Cheers

himanshu

In India there is a great divide among the rich and the poor. The rich are very rich, the poor are very poor.
Consider this:
-85.7% of the population lives on less than $2.50 (PPP) a day
-28.6 % of population is still living below poverty line
-The passenger car penetration in India is at 8.5 vehicles per thousand people absolute terms. It is among the lowest in the world.

A handful of people driving Porsches and BMWs does not signify anything. What India needs is all-inclusive growth which is well distributed between various strata of the society, geography and communities.

This looks like a case of bending the rules for tax saving. Remember the Kerala registered Porche 'Taxi'? :)

EDIT: Got shot down by FountainHead and Abhinav before I could get this right! :(

agree:

Suprising you didn't spot any Phantoms, your image of Mumbai would go even higher then.

And a Ferrari has it's own thrill and charm that can't be compared to the cars you mentioned in scene 1. Even in Mumbai it often does make time stand still.

Sigh! It was a Ferrari :D

Wasnt that the ferrari or are both taxi registered ?

India has arrived when - "You don't import cars. You buy them off the shelf".

India has arrived when you queue up behind a long line of people with lazy looking grumpy immigration officers gauging you suspiciously and then proceed to stamp your passport lol:

On the other hand when you go off to an island (Majorca or Mallorca) in spain to see a TATA motor dealer about 4 years back clap:

gimme a break.

per capita comparison wise, the maharajahs ensured india in the early 30s was BETTER off, compared to today.

Guys,
lets kill the pessimism. We're getting there slowly. Question is what have you all done to improve things in the country? If you can answer in the positive then cool. Otherwise start contributing now!.

Phantoms are quite popular in Mumbai. they're beautiful! as for ferraris and lambos, they are spotted more often in the suburbs, between bandra and versova. Also the most rare car i've seen was a Rolls Royce corniche with its top down being driven elegantly at 7:00 am near juhu beach. The owner smiled at me in my optra D and waved me ahead..he has no point to prove. Life stands still when you own a roller!

I was in Mumbai back in October.. for about 10 days.. during my stay I had seen a White Nissan GTR (I have posted pics on one of threads here), saw a White RR Phantom, 2 Bentley Flying Spurs (one with PB reg), 2 Hummer H2s (I actually dislike Hummer a lot), A few Porsches including one silver 997 GT2 I saw in the Bandra area (any ideas whose it may be??), A Ferrari 308GTS (at a gas station) and countless BMWs, Benzs, and Audis!! Everytime I go to Mumbai I see at least one exotic! The best Exotic I have seen in Mumbai was a red Ferrari 360 Modena, saw it parked at a gas station at night, My friend told me it may have been Tendulkar's one!!

Boss, I pay my taxes. When I get good roads and cheaper cars and fuel, then I'll start thinking India is getting somewhere. If we don't shortchange the government while paying taxes, why should they shortchange us?

India had arrived when we started seeing politicians competing for industries to be set up in their states.
When ministers went to various corporates across the world and invited them here to India
When the CM of AP went to persuade the F1 boss to bring a race to Hyd.
When folks across the world are talking about how important a big market like India is.


and of course agree to your points as well Himanshu.

This might sound a bit pessimistic, but for me India has arrived when people start winning Booker's prize, Golden Globes for stories based on India's culture and progress instead of slums and poverty!