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India has growing wealth with worst poverty { July 31 2007 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/30/AR2007073001880.htmlIndeed, India is a place of confounding contrasts. According to the United Nations, 42 percent of India's children are malnourished, a higher rate than in most African countries. Children are a fixture on bustling city streets, their hands outstretched for spare rupees.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/30/AR2007073001880.html
Birthday Bashes That Take the Cake
For Parents in India, a Chance to Display Generosity, Affluence
By Emily Wax
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, July 31, 2007; A01
NEW DELHI -- Inside the chandeliered party hall of an upscale hotel, with its canopies of balloons and sparkly lights, three video cameramen and two photographers jostled like paparazzi to get a glimpse of the guest of honor.
Waiters in black tie waded through the crowd, serving endless silver trays of chicken tikka kebabs, grilled shrimp and samosas. Several DJs spun fast-tempo Punjabi pop that pulsated from refrigerator-size speakers. There were cocktails for the adults, and for the kids, cotton candy.
This was, after all, a birthday party for a 2-year-old -- little curly-haired Taisa Arora, to be specific. On a recent Saturday night, she wore her Strawberry Shortcake Mary Janes and a princess-like sequined outfit, and yawned as her grandmother cradled her amid the excitement of 125 guests, most arriving after 10 p.m. and only some of them children.
In India, weddings have long been extravagant celebrations of a lifetime, costing families huge sums. But with prosperity growing in urban India, more and more parents are spending exorbitant amounts on children's birthday parties -- sometimes in excess of $4,000 a bash.
"The birthday party is the new wedding in India, and the sky is the limit," said Rakesh Gupta, a party planner who has seen his business double in the past few years. "It's a serious industry now, and people want to spend lavishly and outdo each other. People in India don't like to save. They want to enjoy life and live for today after so many years of poverty and struggle."
For India's wealthier classes, birthday parties are a chance to network with business colleagues and to reunite relatives, bringing together overworked families from cities around the country. Perhaps most important, the parties are a source of pride for Indians looking to demonstrate their new wealth, as parents try to impress one another with opulent soirees.
The Indian economy has enjoyed record growth rates of 8 percent to 9 percent during the past three years, in part because the once-socialist country has opened its markets globally. The country has developed a large service industry, with the technology, pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors serving international markets. Although India has the largest number of poor people struggling to survive on $1 a day, its middle class has more than tripled in the past two decades, according to the World Bank.
In cities, swanky stores hawk shiny bathroom fixtures and $2,000 Jacuzzis, and television ads show smiling Indian housewives buying new washing machines and moving into condo complexes.
When it comes to birthday parties, the change has been striking. Gone are the days of the quiet birthday visit with grandparents to a Hindu temple and a simple box of Indian sweets. Now there's the frazzled party planner to hire, invitations with calligraphy to buy, elephant and camel rides to plan, a sports or cartoon theme to pick out, and a moon bounce to choose.
Indian banks, which have long offered low-interest loans for weddings, now offer similar deals for birthday parties. And in a country of 1.1 billion people, where 32 percent of the population is younger than 15, party planners say the birthday industry might one day rival the wedding industry, which brings in $11 billion a year.
The parties are often more for the parents than for the children, a way for them to show their generosity -- and that they can afford to treat their friends, relatives and business partners to a lavish night out, in a country where social status is often linked to wealth.
At Taisa's bash, her father, a real estate mogul, shook hands and slapped the backs of relatives and business associates while a moon bounce was set up next to a merry-go-round. A tattoo artist -- the tattoos were temporary -- stood by, and a crew of chefs prepared more than 20 trays of Thai, Indian and Italian fare for a late-night dinner.
"We're proud parents. We want to celebrate in a big way," said Gagan Arora, 27. His wife, Shivali Arora, 24, with a tumble of freshly blow-dried curls and a pearl-stitched pink gown, cooed: "Some families in India have this kind of money now, so why not celebrate?"
During winter months, parties can include rides on elephants, ponies or camels, rock climbing, go-karting and miniature train rides. Puppet shows and magicians are year-round attractions.
Similar to bar mitzvah or bat mitzvah parties in the Jewish faith, Indian birthday parties usually feature elaborate themes -- typically the child's favorite hobby, superhero or cartoon -- emblazoned on napkins and cakes and carved into ice sculptures. (Harry Potter and Spiderman were huge this year, along with Barbie, a regular.)
Parents frequently compare invitations, regarding them as a kind of indicator of how fancy or plain the festivities will be. Also key is the all-important "return gift," or party favor, which tends to add a significant amount to an already steep bill.
"If you have money in this country, anything is possible," said Gupta, the party planner. "It's the best country in the world to be rich. But it's also the worst country in the world to be poor."
Indeed, India is a place of confounding contrasts. According to the United Nations, 42 percent of India's children are malnourished, a higher rate than in most African countries. Children are a fixture on bustling city streets, their hands outstretched for spare rupees.
Not far from the Arora birthday party at the Daffodils Hotel in New Delhi, barefoot girls just a few years older than Taisa performed cartwheels and twisted themselves into pretzel-like shapes as they begged for rupees, often tapping on car windows. "Hungry," they cried.
Indians themselves are not unaware of the contrast.
"In India, it's the fat kid in the city with excess and the skinny kid in the village living on prayers and grain crops, and it's a huge disparity," Anuj Nyyar, 26, who runs a DJ and party planning business for children's birthdays, said with a sigh. "But if anything, these birthday parties will keep getting bigger. People who have made it want to spend, and they are paying through the nose for these parties. Both realities exist in India, and we can't really judge parents for wanting to enjoy their wealth."
Some parents are rejecting the bigger parties as too materialistic and too far from old-fashioned birthday celebrations, and instead host a traditional lunch of kheer or rice porridge and maybe a cake.
"I'm no one to criticize people who can spend that kind of money on their kids. But I just feel it's a bit too much and too early. I don't think it's always the kind of fun a child, under say 8 or 9, is looking for," said Sushma Jain, 28, a primary school teacher in East Delhi, who has a 2-year-old. "If people have the money these days, maybe it's better to save in your child's name for the future."
Such frugality seems to be more the exception than the rule. Some parents say they feel intense party pressure from their children, who talk about whose bash had the best party favors (an iPod Mini per child is seen as the gold standard) and most impressive entertainment (it's not a real party without a merry-go-round). Others say the parties are simply fun and a way to enjoy the fruits of their hard work.
"With economic success has also come shocking lack of time for the urban Indian family to spend together," said Arpana Handa, 32, the sister-in-law of Taisa's mother. "The birthday party is another way of giving us this in our busy, modern lives."
© 2007 The Washington Post Company
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