India's well-heeled wanabees buy into lifestyle obsession

India's well-heeled wanabees buy into lifestyle obsession

The blighted poor may still roam the seething streets of India - but an all-out obsession with "lifestyle" has a cash-rich new generation flocking into spas, Western-style restaurants and cinemas.

Plush hotels have shed a staid tradition and, imitating foreign trends, opened up Asian fusion and European cuisines, health centres, free-booze executive clubs and happy-hour nighclub bars.

And it all falls under the buzz word sweeping the country of Mahatma Gandhi's simple, self-reliant principles...Lifestyle.

The media reflect and fuel the rush to copy and adapt Western habits through acres of newsprint and hours of television dedicated to the new god.

Jumping on the bandwagon, India's Bennet and Coleman media group launched the latest lifestyle channel called Zoom last week.

"The channel will tap into the lifestyle and aspirations of the global Indian and look at how celebrities live, work and party," said Arun Arora, president of the Times Group.

Viewers will get a peep into celebrity parties and yes, their envied lifestyle - big cars, movie stars and all the trappings of over-developed consumerism.

"Zoom is the first in a bouquet of lifestyle and entertainment channels planned by the company," added Arora, whose media group already runs private FM radio networks.

India had hoped 101 new FM stations would be on air by 2003 end but so far 25 stations are up and running. The more popular stations have disc jockeys inviting listeners to call in and talk about their sexual experiences on air.

For Neeraja Mathur, a psychology professor in Delhi University, conservative Indian values have been overwhelmed by the powerful influence of radio and television.

"Ten years ago, there was staid State-run broadcaster Doordarshan bombarding us with farm news no one wanted to hear - now there are over 50 private channels," said Mathur.

"This has had a tremendous impact on young people. The media has helped to promote a more 'bindaas' - free-spirited - lifestyle but it does have shades of overt consumerism," she noted.

The shop-till-you-drop philosophy has found plenty of adepts in the land of ascetic contemplation.

Last week, New Delhi lifted a decades-old ban on late-night shopping, allowing the 14 million population to join much of the rest of the nation in self-indulgent sweeps of the malls sprouting around the capital.

Shops have been allowed to stay open for an extra four hours until 11:00 pm. Closing time in restaurants and bars is also set to be extended if the bureaucrats judge late-night shopping a success.

City Transport and Power Minister Harun Yusuf promised late-night bus services and adequate electricity supplies to keep the tills ringing.

Not that the patrons of the capital's two-dozen five-star hotels travel by bus. They throng with long lines of chauffeur-driven cars.

The hotels also report long waits to join health clubs which boast all the latest fitness equipment, saunas and jacuzzis to pamper the swelling ranks of young executives with bulging pay packets.

"We had to refuse membership to a lot of people this year to remain exclusive," said a manager at the Maurya Sheraton, who did not want his name used.

"We are planning to increase our 250,000 rupee (US$5,435) annual membership fee," he said, adding that the hotel's Ghungroo, Delhi's oldest disco, was to be given a makeover too.

Fitness has also become a must for the MTV generation, part of a trendy and even sexy way of living.

"A lot of Indians now wear Western wear. It is easier to hide flab in the folds of a saree than in a micro-mini," said Jasmine Arethna, who roped in French fitness expert Pascale Roux to start Spa Zieta in Delhi.

"We reshape women's bodies," she claimed.

"Help Indian women get rid of cellulite, get rid of bumpy skin and tone up so that they can feel good while partying. And, believe me, some of them party with a vengeance."

India has 61,000 millionaires, according to a world wealth report released in June this year by US brokerage firm Merrill Lynch and Co, and nearly all of them have at least one house in Delhi.

However, such lifestyles remain a distant dream for the average Indian who earns just US$1.6 a day.

Interesting info, don't often have time to sit and read off the internet, Hey wouldn't it be great if everyone on this earth put all their money into a big pot and shared it out equaly or better still abolish money altogether and shared everything anyway.

It would be great cheryl but deep down i can see it wont work. Myabe one day it will who knows.