Some thank yous going out because I feel good I'm in India. Here goes,
- Thank you black market: For having such a large presence in the Indian housing sector. Were it not for your preponderance, we'd have all kinds of regulations and control. We still do but even you know how that works.
- Thank you politicians: For having the foresight to grab all the land you could. Before anyone else, it was you who realised that without a house, there can't be a housing crisis.
- Thank you Government: For being so occupied in grabbing land, defending archaic real-estate laws, tweaking FSI and going tipsy in urban planning norms. If you weren't, you might have created a Fannie, Freddie or Sally here in India (what would you call it? Mortgages United National Association, i.e. Munna? or Public Mortgages of India Enterprises, i.e. Pummie?). Full marks for staying away (officially) from the housing market in India.
- Thank you builders: For holding on to your fantastic profit margins. Your steadfast refusal to cut the prices of your homes means that no one is buying your houses any longer. And if people stop buying houses, then how can there be a housing crisis? (PS: We admire your firm belief that Ma Durga, Lord Kuber, Lord Rama and the accompanying Gods in the coming festive season will shower riches on your prospective buyers who will then buy your houses.)
- Thank you banks: For holding on to your pants. For not going overboard in throwing money to people at Churchgate Station and Dadar to buy houses through your loans. For not then packaging these loans as attractive investments for other banks to buy and sell.
- Thank you RBI: For keeping banks under check. Even if there's only so much you can do when every bank and their aunts wants to offer money to builders and home-buyers, you realised early that this shit can blow up and went to DEFCON 1 by increasing risk weightage on mortgages.
- Thank you citizens of India: For understanding what flat broke feels like. For paying your credit card bills on time. For buying houses to live in and not to bet on. For paying your home loans on time. And more than anything else for saving.
- And special thanks to that person who coined the saying "aamdani athani, kharcha rupaiya" warning many generations that, well, you can't spend more than you earn. Duh. If only that one small country in the West had heard it earlier, perhaps this world might have looked different today.
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
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8 comments:
Well, people in the financial markets in India don't have the reason to feel so good though. Or software engineers for that matter! The s#@t is yet to hit the ceiling, if you'll excuse the expression.
India is not America but there's no guarantee that Indians will not imitate Americans in spending.
Diviya - Thanks for the comment! Actually depressed is the preferred state of mind, no matter where. And if the shit is yet to hit the feeling, then well..what can I say. Brace up!
Anil - Thanks for the comment! And let's hope that doesn't happen.
I was staying in DLF, Gurgaon till 6 months back. Now this is the town which probably kicked off the real estate madness in India. One day we decided we should buy a house. Though both my husband and I predicted a crash in prices, I was amazed at the brokers' arguments against the same. Arrey sir, there is a highway coming up, prices are bound to rise. Next month : Arrey, there is the metro coming up, how will prices fall.
I have actually driven around aghast at the rampant, ad hoc construction and greed wondering who, when, where would fill up the huge supply of houses. It saddens me that it had to come to this. More parks, better planning of cities would have been so much more welcome
Very well written! :)
Hey You,
how's the lil guy doing ? njoying daddyhood ?
Dont speak too soon! You will see in a few months.
For peace, prosperity and goodluck the panvati name Mumbai should be changed to Bombay which was the original name of the city. Somewhere in the early 17th century, a fisherwoman, by the name mumba, installed an idol of a hindu goddess at the Bori Bunder Creek (VT) in a makeshift temple and gave the temple her own name. The citys original name Bombay has been changed to Mumbai not in honour of any hindu goddess but in honour of a fisherwoman named Mumba. The kolis who are the original inhabitants of Bombay never demanded the renaming of Bombay to Mumbai. So why did Bal Thackeray the chief of shiv sena took personal interest in renaming Bombay to Mumbai. Bal Thackeray was a native of Pune why has he never demanded the renaming of pune to punaka the original name of that city.
Out of Bombays 1.8 crore population 25% are marathi migrants. The 25% marathi migrants in Bombay have cornered more than 90% jobs in BMC, BEST, police, state/central undertakings, etc and it is a baseless allegations of the Thackerays that the marathi migrants in Bombay have been sidelined.
The Political dominance of rich maratha politicians from western maharashtra have done injustice to the people of Konkan including Bombay and Vidharbha over the years. Some of the native leaders from konkan and Vidharbha have been demanding separate state to free themselves from the clutches of the rich maratha politicians. Some of the people who want Bombay to become a city state or union territory should instead join the native leaders of konkan and demand statehood for entire konkan ( thane, Bombay, raigad, ratnagiri, sindhudurg, goa). Bombay will bloom if it remains the finance capital of India and state capital of Konkan.
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