Ciao, Sonia, how you gonna change India?

Tomi

Cosa vai fare colla mia India, Sonia?

There will be a new kind of chai with frothy milk on top that will be called chaiccino . It goes well with a Nutellaappam.

Men will strutt around in open shirts with a Ganesh medal hanging around their necks.

Touts will learn exciting new lingo, like tengo famiglia.

Bollywood will merge with Cinecittà and produce the definitive hodgepodge Scirocco Wedding.

Every monument in India will soon be in restauro.

Trains will continue to run on time...

Merchant

It's already happened. Bajaj scooters are made by Vespa. You can get cappuccino at the Hyderabad airport. Mumbai mobsters are called dons.

Bryan

Tata will bring out a sportscar ...
the new Tata Shakti-rossa

__________________
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(As come it will for a' that),
That Sense and Worth o'er a' the earth,
Shall bear the gree an a' that.
For a' that, an a' that,
It's coming yet for a' that,
That man to man, the world, o'er
Shall brithers be for a' that.
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albaruni

Maybe all those gropers / starers in India will finally get to say "ciao bella ti amore" or something to the girls...who will recieve their advances the way some american girls I know recieve advances from the letches in rome.....

rab

They will serve chapati calzone and masala di pomodori on street corners, Lazio vs Inter Milan and Juventus vs FC Roma will be screened on TV, Fiat will open a new factory in Chennai, the Taj Mahal will develop a lean, and Michael Caine will come to Bollywood to film a remake of the Indian Job!

SHIMLA

IR will serve only Pizzas and Pasta on the Rajdhanis and Shatabdis !

Only Bofors guns will be used to give a salute to visiting dignitaries !!

Italian will replace Hindi as the second language in schools !!

ISD calls to Rome will be charged at local call rates !!!

The new slogan will be "When in India do as the Romans do" !!!

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albaruni

Bofors is a swedish gun.

SHIMLA

True, but the connections are obvious.

guerik

Chinotto instead of Thums Up
Soccer instead of cricket (both wouldn't be too bad, actually...)
Bertolucci instead of Bachchan
Dolce and Gabbana instead of Salwar and Kameez (ok, this one is stretching it..)

volga_volga

Tomi, I feel uncomfortable asking this question when Sonia is not a member here and cannot respond.

On the other hand, may be it is to the better. Poor woman has endured her share of critique for her foreign origins when she was compaigning as the leader of the Congress party. I cannot imagine what kind of jokes they are making in India now, and how often.

And all she has wanted - at least in the beginning - was to marry the man she fell in love with. She was couragious enough to cross the enormous cultural barrier. She could have not possibly imagine that things would turn the way they have.

mala, there are books already published about Sonia, just do a search on amazon.

maree

Here's a biographical link...

http://www.soniagandhi.org/Biography.htm

As it says in the biography, Congress has already been led by foreign women twice.... Annie Beasant and Nelli Sengupta. So, it's not a new thing. It will be interesting to see what develops in the next few weeks... there are still a lot of deals to be done and who really knows who will be Prime Minister yet.

albaruni

Volga,

The Sonia Gandhi story is not a tragedy, it is a love story. At various times in the rajiv Gandhi life, sonia revealed her hand at being the significant , if low key influence that guided their lives towards peace.

She was the reason rajiv Gandhi did not, initially enter politics. Later, When Sanjay Gandhi, the younger son died, She was the reason there was a rapparochment with Indira Gandhi(who was a severe matriarch ,in the country and in her family...she NEVER forgave her younger daughter in law, menaka for what people percieve as domestic slights) , and rajiv's subsequent entry into politics.

When rajiv Gandhi was killed , The family was reputed to have money counting in the billions of dollars from all the corrupt defense deals they presided over. Sonia could have walked away. She had an excuse...and she had two children in their tweens. She had never wanted to be in politics ...or in India...until then. She stayed.

Everybody that speculates on her reasons for staying, usually get it partly wrong IMO., She has an empire in India they say...only a tile maker's expatriate existance in Italy...but this misses the intensely personal-epiphanic nature of sonia gandhi's charecter. She makes her decisions so that there may be peace surrounding her. Leaving india for switzerland would leave emotions with no closure for her.Strong emotions. real ones.In dealing with issues in India, She has been seen as somewhat weak. IMO, this is slightly far from the truth. she's not unconfrontationally escapist or somehow unwilling to look at tough problems...she JUST WANTS THE LOVE BACK...in her life and in the country.so she's morphed into the mother from a bollywood film...and the indian people (IMO) have given her a guarded mandate.

It is a mandate to a mother of rahul and priyanka gandhi,,,the fourth generation...the baby boom generation in India.

I like the indian electorate. It looks like a responsible one, aware of the weight of a billion expectations it has yet to fulfil.It's more mature than some other democracies that let their neo conservatives run wild just because they wanted some entretainment.

ashish0608

I would partly agree with you albaruni on the above..

In my views.. in the last couple of months it is the media which has failed in India or was otherwise influenced strongly by the ruling party.

They were always projecting the ruling party to win (with majority in some cases) and suddenly on 13th May when the counting begins, they wake-up to realise that the ruling party is losing all the way.

IMO had they projected a closer to real picture, the situation would have been worse for the ruling party.

The Electorate does get influenced by the media reports and which is fair.

Ashish

volga_volga

Tomi, sorry for taking this thread off topic, but i rather like the new direction

albaruni, thanks, what you said just confirms my impression of Sonia, i need to read up on it, i only read some interviews with her and tv reports when i was in india.

anyone who has lived in a country rather than their home country and managed to build a new life there deserves an applause, in the least.

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Bryan

I think the India Mike site should launch immediatly a campaign to

save our Chai Save our chapati ...
Down with cappucino down with ciabatta

Sorry Volga ...I think its amazing that a country that imposes restrictions on the actions of its women culturally can be so liberated as to vote for Sonia ...Good on them

I feel she may take India to the next stage a job started by Rao continued by Vajpayee and now Sonia can marry both the western and Indian influences into a trully forward looking govt

I may be a dreamer but hey ...LONG LIVE INDIAN DEMOCRACY
Makes me all proud to have an asscoiation with this great country

Bryan