petrol

Loose Stuff

The Indian economy and success.

Viewpoints vary, depending on who you ask. The pinstripe types will speak with elan. Of ‘value’. ‘Intellectual capital’. ‘Knowledge Economy’. ‘Cost Arbitrage.’ ‘Burgeoning middle class.’ ‘Consumption’. ‘GDP’. Etc !

These are words that rings well from a TV . Quite obviously, beyond the common man. For the common man, is usually listening to all of this, taking a break from all the TV ads. Those TV ads, asking him to buy cars and computers. Through service fee free bank loans. Recommended by actors who don’t age and cricketers who are ‘old’ at 30 !

No. What churns the Indian economy is not all that English. The engine of success resides in its bottles. PET bottles

Dont you think so ? Walk around India. Anywhere. Any part. East. North. South. West. People living in small cities tucked away in quiet corners where the Prime Minister flies over when there is a cyclone and the big cities that make much noise about small things. Walk anywhere. Ubiquitous by their presence are the PET bottles !

The small stores and the big stores. Brisk business is enabled by PET bottles. Usually holding toffees. buiscuits. Assorted eats. Chewing gums. Pencils. Stationary. All stored in PET bottles.

‘Loose’ items. Sold in ones and twos. Satiating a penchant for buying ‘loose’ stuff. Perhaps we are loose people. You know, people that prefer to buy in loose. In ones and twos. With the population http://healthsavy.com/product/lipitor/ that is growing at a pace that outpaces everything from condom manufacturing to computer chip obsolecence, with delectably embarrasing ease, ‘loose’ is a way of life, for us !

Think of this too. We are indeed loose people that can operate in the grey, and be as comfortable. The great Indian head shake that goes in all directions has been mocked loosely enough. But ‘Loose’ has many meanings. In excess of 20 variations. That must make it comfortable for the average Indian mind !

So, here is the grand treatise. The ability to break anything down into smaller pieces yet, see the pieces as part of a larger whole. To divide yet integrate. That comes principally from the PET bottle ! What say ?

PET bottles are indeed a part of mainstream living. An indelible mark of our households too. Storing everything from sugar to salt. And spices in all sizes. Loose chocolates. Loose biscuits. Loose bread. Loose butter. And so on. Everything loosely stored with a tight lid.

But ‘Loose Petrol’ was something that spun the mind silly, at the Petrol station.

In the morning today! The cops don’t want ‘loose petrol’ to be sold. Well. They must know. They deal with a whole lot of loose characters and have some loose canons in their ranks as well.

In recent times whenever ‘big’ English waffles through the air, on the Indian economy and its resilience etc, the PET bottle has stayed tightly in context !