the hoover of india [the perspective of a nostalgic expat] [with a special emphasis on Pune]

Building malls, expensive theatres, overpriced Starbucks clones that make you believe that that dark-brown foul-tasting liquid called coffee is as precious as gold and dividers that reduce the usable space of narrow roads is a great way to fool a ton of overpaid overspending dung-heads that the city is heading for progress. Flyovers are yet another great example of destroying your Achilles heel with a bazooka. After getting this big mask up, we flounder on the basics: our overhyped multitudinous award festivals still reek of jhopa.DapaTTii origins (recent case-in-point: the MTV Immies). And we don't have any suitable implementation of traffic laws. This is where the USA actually scores: it's not that people are law-abiding there. It's just that (a) you specify heavy fines (what's Rs. 300 for driving without a license eh?) for offenses (b) you actually have cops who would rather collect the fines and thus enforce the law than accept bribes. This minor capitalist gesture will do wonders for traffic. As I thought of ways to improve traffic, one of the thoughts that hit me was "knock out those large slow polluting dying PMT buses" ... must be the smoke!