McMansions in Bangalore powered by the Indian tech boom may now be topping the $200K mark. That’s ~$600K, adjusted for buying power. According to a woman from Portland now working in Bangalore:
… we went to visit two of my colleague’s new homes that are being built… I was shocked to see the model of the contemporary home; it looked like it came straight out of San Diego, Rancho Cucamonga area. It resembled a typical Southern California cookie cutter home. I was amazed to see that here. Those homes cost [Rs.] 1 crore… I cannot wait to see this place 10 year from now.
Bangalore is aping SoCal now? I’ve got some new tunes in my woofers. Bangalifornia… knows how to party. Just hit the east side of the IIT, on a mission tryin’ to find Mr. Varun-ji. Regulators! Stand down.
The NYT had more last year:
Snigdha Dhar sat in the echoing emptiness of her new home, her husband off at work, her 7-year-old son prattling on about Pizza Hut. The weather outside was California balmy. Children rode bicycles on wide smooth streets. Construction workers toiled on more villas like hers – white paint, red roofs, green lawns – and the community center’s three pools…
According to a cousin in Bombay, this is pretty much the stereotypes of returned NRI’s in India:
Their communities are secure and closed off, immune from the water shortages and power cuts that plague this city of 6.5 million people. Their children attend private schools, often Western-flavored “international” ones.
Some of the returnees earn their keep in innovative ways:
A radiologist… he proved to Yale that he could accurately read CT scans and other images transmitted via broadband to India… he spends his days reading images for the emergency room nightshifts of about 40 American hospitals, compensating for the shortfall of nighttime radiologists in the United States, and being compensated at near-American salary levels… at least two more Indian-born radiologists are moving back from the United States to work with them.
And they volunteer in ways simultaneously arrogant and helpful:
… he began developing an “e-government” software platform that uses digital mapping to permit far more accurate property tax assessments and collection… In Bangalore, the system has already brought in hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional property tax revenue and has reduced corruption. The Delhi Municipal Corporation – the world’s second-largest municipality after Tokyo – will test it soon…Mr. Ramanathan [a former i-banker] made himself an expert in public finance, and spent two years reforming Bangalore’s chaotic financial management system, now ranked among the world’s best.
Previous post on Bangalore’s boom here.
Mediterranean architecture looks beautiful in Italy, but pretentious in Dallas. And now it is being exported to India? God help us all.
Loved the Dre filk tho.
Why does Mediterranean acrchitecture look pretentious in Dallas?? Greeks, Italians and other Mediterranean people live in Dallas. So in your opinion is the tudor style architecture only suitable for Dallas?? Why because a lot of people in Dallas have English ancestory? From your logic only architecture in the entire USA should be native american inspired.
How are they going to fly kite if the roofs aren’t flat?
TSK TSK TSK. Don’t you know? Flying kites is dangerous because of all that glass coated kite string. No more kites or babloo. VIDEO GAMES.
All the kite duels can be ‘fought’ on the PS2. Everytime you shoot down a kite, the soundtrack will scream “KAAAAAATTTTYYYYYEEEEE!!!!”
If you lived here, you would know that the only architecture you see that is mediterranean inspired is that “look at me! look at me!” mcmansion garbage that gets built over historic home sites in the M streets and on former farmlands in Plano.
What’s this slippery slope logical fallacy about the tepees?
This is a freakishly stupid thing to get in a flamewar about, so I am stopping here.
I do live in Dallas and I know that what is stupid is to have architecture that is inspired from the cold hell-hole of England into the bright sunny weather of Dallas. That is stupid. I guess you didnt notice the heat of Dallas and think the climate is similar to England.
andrea
I have not been to Dallas but I get what you are saying, well said 🙂
Flying kites is dangerous because of all that glass coated kite string.
But that was the best part!!
Yes, the razor thread was the best stuff. Good ol Uttrayan. Bloody hands, Surati made kite string, and the duels.
Kite fights make me very nostalgic.
Too bad good Indian architects are ignored: Charles Correa
Avi, you sure those were by design and not because they forgot to feed the help? 😛
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