[Urbanstudy] A City Is its People

[Vinay Baindur]

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?282216

opinion
A City Is its People <http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?282216>
Capitalism runs amok, but Hyderabad retains its old, genteel values
 Ratna Rao Shekar<http://www.outlookindia.com/peoplefnl.aspx?pid=14383&author=Ratna+Rao+Shekar>

With one scam after another tumbling out of the closets of this once
Nizamia city, it would seem to the outsider that there is a crook at every
street corner in Hyderabad. A city where the general public has been mostly
concerned with where to get a plateful of good biriyani or hot avakai rice
with sound ghee has, in the last few years, been elevated to the status of
a city infested with big time scamsters planning mega swindles.

To begin with, we as Hyderabadis are equally shocked by the mega scams
perpetrated by the very people who we have run into at dinner parties in
the city’s new megalith five-star hotels. Unlike angels who have their
halos, these men didn’t have distinct caste marks. Instead, they came
dressed in Hugo Boss suits and their watches were pure Rolex gold—so there
was no way of knowing they were scam artists. Or else I at least would have
asked them why they need to make more money than they can spend.

I wonder if the simple Telugu-speaking person (whose main focus in life
thus far has been to crack the IIT entrance exam code or study MBBS to
practise in the US) would aim to become a wily businessman, or an even more
oily politician, whose aim is nothing more than to make money
by means that would condemn him into patalam, the same netherworld
highlighted in the once-popular Telugu mythological cinema of NTR and ANR?

Is entrepreneurship in the Andhra mindset at all? In an earlier era, this
part of the country was not known so much for its industries as for its
education. It was marked by its wise statesmen and competent bureaucrats.
To be sure, it has not only given the maximum number of presidents to the
country from Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan to Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy, but has
exported enough Andhraites into the IAS for Telugu to be one of the
official languages in the corridors of power in New Delhi. And let’s not
forget the PM who engineered reforms: P.V. Narasimha Rao.

Maybe it is the new focus on “making money” that has led to the city’s
notoriety. And the easiest way of doing so in Hyderabad now is to indulge
in wheeling-dealings in land. In another time, we would have asked these
newly rich (who are no more than their notional property values) what their
achievements were: were they graduates from MIT or IIT or, if they were
Pondhur-khadi-clad politicians, had they done something for the state that
their grandmas back in Guntur would be proud of?

But these days, the house you own, the car you drive and the bag you carry
are what distinguish you. Did you know that the most number of Mercedes
sold in the country after Jalandhar is, in fact, in Hyderabad’s Banjara
Hills? Did you know the weekly pastime of rich women is to go for sales for
diamonds, designer shoes and bags? And did you know if there isn’t a
Bollywood celeb dancing at your daughter’s sangeet, the groom and his
family might as well go home?

Obviously, all this keeping up with the Reddys and Rajus requires unlimited
cash flows. And there you have an answer to everyone’s hunger for more
money. Who wants to drive a scooter when you can ride on a Harley Davidson,
and who wants to have a quiet birthday party for the two-year-old when you
can have photographs of the party published in the papers for a few
thousand rupees?

Consumerism, however, is endemic to all India. Therefore, to brand
Hyderabad with its six to eight scams in the last few years as a city of
scamsters might not be fair. Are we saying that there are no scams in
Mumbai or Delhi? Six scams in a decade do not make for a city of scams.

Let us not forget that this is also a state which has businessmen who have
brought cheap and affordable medicine to the country. Or that we have NGOs
which have taken off the lid on fake terms like CSR. This is the home of
pharma and IT companies. This is a city where, it’s relevant to point out,
women are safe, and where Id and Ganapati celebrations do not degenerate
into communal riots. This is the home of some fine institutions like Nalsar
and isb. And yes, now badminton. In fact, I’m wondering how come no one is
doing stories on Hyderabad being a city where Pullela Gopichand has churned
out Olympic-level players?
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