The heart of India

I think one of the surest signs of a developed country is that manual and menial labor would be very highly valued, the simple logic being when something is not easily available, it will be expensive. True? What do you think? In India, somehow people who exert themselves the most are paid the least. And under no circumstances will I accept that the work we do provides more value than that of say, a carpenter. Generate more money for our firms, probably yes! But provide more value...huh, no! There seems to be this gross misplacement between value and price.

Anyways, I am in MP finally...FI..NA..LEEEEEEE :) ...and theres an outside chance that my next project could be based out of here..I now really understand why people say that India is multicultural or diverse or whatever...truly, the different states are so incomparable that it almost feels like another world...

Ive been here for a few days now and its very cold...too cold to even blog :(....and I dislike dressing up in layers and layers, though its fun to pretend I'm in London and wear coats and boots :)..but my brain works really slowly in winter and I fall ill easily...but the great food here almost makes up for it....its poha and roasted cashews with milk for breakfast....and I maintain that poha is one of our biggest achievements ever :P....and then there are these spiced cucumber and cabbage soups they sell round every corner which I can never get enough of...not to mention huge pans of flavored hot milk in every street...see the pic.....and you can choose your spicing too, my fave currently is cinnamon with brown sugar...it beats coffee anyday!!

One of the brightest things about winters are the colors...seriously, this place is so colorful and its so is hugely uplifting...wherever you go, people are brightly dressed, shops are festive  and full of activity and the whole atmosphere is so alive....and you can imagine by the pics how much of shopping I mustve done :)...and even the walls here seem jolly - full of murals and paintings...this is a very happy place really :)...and on every street corner you have bonfires too, conjured up by no one but open to all...and all the people are really friendly and everyone is full of smiles:)..the winter sure brings about a characteristic bonhomie, I guess :P....

You know, though its bad to generalize, people say that every state has an aura...I guess its the same that makes you detest it when you are there but long for it when you are not...Im yet to find MP though :), which is a good sign or maybe I need to stay longer to know or travel a bit more.....dunno if you are getting what I am saying, but I'll leave it here for now...Anyways, all said and done, this is really a good break and it couldn't be more welcome and I feel so much better for it :)

Oh and another thing...I stumbled upon this extraordinary pricing strategy followed by certain airlines...consider this...if you were given a choice between something that costs 600 bucks on a regular basis and something that is claimed to actually cost a 1000 bucks but is available to you at 600 after a 40% rebate, which would you choose??? Most people would choose the latter, thinking they are getting more for less...when it need not be the case at all!! Its all about presentation...What a sham! Devious na?? But then, these airlines should do a bit more research because not everything can be acquired by playing on the consumer's mindset.....for instance, certain customers always choose only the airline that provides for a live camera on the wheels :P