?Ewe,? said Boss, speaking to the boy who had run away from Mangalore (now Mangluru) with money from his lorry-driver father?s purse to work in our hotel in Bombay (now Mumbai), flicking a premium designer label idli deep fried in aromatic tandoor scented red coloured oils flecked with little pieces of imported (from Poona, now Pune) Old Parmesan cheese, ?move smartly there. You will be renamed? Sheep from?Oudh (now Uttar Pradesh)?if you?stand around doing nothing like people from Patna (was Pataliputra, and will revert). Just because the Bhaiyyas (now North Indians) are being chased by MNS (previously Shiv Sena) goons, don?t relax. A few decades ago, they were after the South Indians (now Dravidians), especially in the King?s Circle (now Matunga) area.?
We had flown in from Palam (now IGI-GMR=Dial) to Santa Cruz (now CST- GVK=Bial) on Indian Airlines (now Air India/Indian/Nacil)?on a day when P Chidambaram (always PC, which could also mean politically correct, in veshti or business suit) threw a minor flutter into the loving arms of the protocol lot who did not have a clue on why the management of Delhi?s Airport?had switched off the runway and almost all other lights at Delhi?s Airport in honour of a threat perception caused by a toilet leak on top of the arrival hall baggage carousels. He may well have to levy fringe benefit tax (FBT) on the frequent flyer miles and loyalty programmes if airport passenger traffic keeps growing at this rate, to bring down the number of babus (previously public servants) who travel only to collect points.
Truly,?regardless of what they rename it as,?we do not understand. Economic growth and economies of scale should have brought prices down, but everything is getting costlier, and salaries are not keeping pace. Not just that, stock and property prices and profits in retail are tumbling. Telecom will soon be free, ?conditions apply? notwithstanding, and IPR in media will soon vanish, with so many new TV channels, newspapers and magazines reporting the same old stuff.
At the same time in India, forget the luxury market, there are major price drops at the bottom of the totem pole. The per kilometre rate for metred taxies in Mumbai has actually come down, and the premium for a taxi badge is down to a few thousand a year from a lakh-and-a-half a few years ago.
Raj Thackeray?s MNS may have a point. Time for many, not just taxi drivers,?to move smartly now. Out of Mumbai. Even the seaport is dying. There are better places.
