Bond Of Spirit

As the sun rose, I was able to witness picturesque scenes of rural village life. This was the real India: agrarian people preparing for the day, happy cows being washed and milked, children waiting for the school bus, a young boy playing with his young calf, bored village policemen reading newspapers and numerous farmers taking produce to the market on tractors, horse, buffalo or camel. Of course, as I neared Saharanpur things got even more interesting. I saw many religious devotees walking for miles carrying red flags to the temple. Activity of all sorts were taking place on my way to Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh.

For decades, Saharanpur was vintage old India. A place where my Grandfather had a family clinic, a romantic town where my parents grew up, where my cousins still live and where we have a house affectionately named Saurabh’s cottage. In and around Saharanpur are farms growing sugarcane, wheat, barley, okra, mangoes, guava and maize. The town is also known for its artistic woodcarvings. Economists and government officials have long acclaimed India’s rural cities as new fountains of prosperity and incubators of India’s growing middle class. Cities like Saharanpur, Pune, Gurgaon and Aurangabad are thriving centers across India’s more prosperous states. In rush hour traffic, Saharanpur felt crowded with people hurrying home from work in cars and motorcycles or hustling to the market for shopping on scooters or tanga (horse and buggy). “There are many cities where Indians have money but are not indulging in luxury–they are always in savings mode,” says Debashish Mitra, head of sales and marketing for Mercedes-Benz in India. “But now that is changing. People want to spend and feel they deserve luxury.” Older men like Ashish Garde, who runs Nirlep, a company that has made nonstick pots and pans here since 1968 said the millions spent on luxury cars would have been better spent on investments in industries that would create jobs or donations to charity. “Those who get quick money, their relationship is different,” Mr. Garde said. “After globalization things happen very easily.”