Superstar India Excerpts - 2

India has to make up its mind on this score—how does it rate on the current cool quotient? I’d say, pretty high. Neo-Indians are highly enamoured of the relaxed attitude. They can identify with it far more thanmy generation could condone the hypocrisies of the pseudo-socialists who preached Gandhian austerity but lived like kings. Am I equally guilty? Neo-Indians love extravagance. Splurge is the bold name of a weekend supplement that encourages readers to indulge without guilt. Another magazine is devoted to spas and spa treatments, some of which are pegged at Rs 6,000 an hour (‘cheap by New York standards,’ says a friend). That used to be, till just two decades ago, the average pay cheque for a salaried professional who’d put in at least ten years of service. I remember my own exultation when I crossed the important Rs 5,000-barrier. I really thought I’d become a millionaire. Today, my driver earns much more than that. And chances are, given half a chance, my young daughters would blow that amount in a single night on the town—infact, the youngest did just that on New Year’s Eve.