More than mere nostalgia?

I miss the India of my childhood. A place where life was simple, but good clean fun. A place where driving was a pleasure. Where we could play badminton in the evenings. Where we could go out and sit at our fave diner and eat the juiciest burgers I've ever had. Where life was slow. and the rhythms were different. Where there were no ugly billboards and malls. Where air travel was a luxury and not a necessity.

When was it that we started measuring proress in terms of consumption? When was it that we decided to accept the degeneration of our cities into chaotic urban sprawls? When was it that we decided that having more cars would compensate for lack of open roads to drive them on? I look around me now and I can't help but feel that we have let something slip away. Something that had defined us. Characterless cities with a middle-class that has families which have become mall rats. Cities where you need a lot of money to just escape from the assault of bad taste and sweaty bodies. Where the reek of perfume can not overcome the reek of rotting garbage and sewage. Why have we, in our haste, to catch up with the world, adopted the worst in the world without even a glance at what else it can offer us?

ubergeek, the