Indian flexibility

Right after my first blog-entry I talked to the Indian friend of a friend of a friend in order to meet for a drink before I was supposed to catch a train to the north. After a few drinks at a very classy place with my friend making me the generous offer to go out to 3 different come-togethers and stay at the house of her family I decided to dump the train-ticket and stay for one more day in Delhi and get a glimpse in to the high society sub culture.
The contrast, from walking on overcrowded, muddy streets with this undefinable organic smell mixed with strong pollution, to a clean and air-conditioned private car with a personal driver could not have been bigger. I switched between those two worlds without warning and had a hard time believing that both coexisted at the same time and at such a little distance from each other.
The first event was a private party among successful business-men at a private house. I had very interesting conversations and left with the impression, that more and more people dedicate their efforts on making money for it´s own sake rather than actually creating something which would be actually of use. According to what I was told, India has a strongly growing economy thanks to a huge and very young population (demographic pyramid), cheap labor and a quite unregulated market. People who are successful in India are normally incredibly successful due to the huge market.
The driver then brought us to a recently built shopping mall containing a high class gay club. I had a great time observing the crowd posing in their fancy design looks and trying to sell themselves as a dream come true for any person who would have the chance to get near them. In this a bit relaxed atmosphere with almost all people interpreting a role I started wandering about who was supposed be the audience ;)
The third place was the poshest place I have set a foot into so far. Just in order to enter the parking lot of this hotel we had to pass a security check-point searching for bombs in the car. At the entrance of the club I was asked to pay 3000 Rupees (50 euro) for entrance, as my friend unfortunately could not reach the owner of the club. I was not willing to spend the budget for maybe a week of back-pack-traveling in India just to enter one club, so we were about to leave, when the owner got back to my friend and let us in. When we crossed the front yard of the club seeing several Ferraris, Lamborginis and Bentleys, I somehow understood, why the people at the entrance treated us as inferior… Our value as persons had been reduced to the price of our clothes. As we left, the average IQ of this place must have dropped considerably ;)