Reading Between the Lines - 37 - Colossal symbol of Indhian ego

The Hindu, 23-05-2011: Tata clarifies his remark

P's C: Ratan Tata seems to have recanted his honest observation on Mukesh Ambani's billion dollar Sindhi signature barn. The Antillia, a 27-storey masterpiece of tasteless and purposeless ostentation which houses all five of Mukesh's family, rises with sophisticated self-respect from the centre of a well-laid out Mumbai slum.

The Tata PR team has announced that Ratan's statement on the person living in there should be concerned about what he sees around him is reportedly out of context, while the slum next door to this iconic expression of an idiotic ego makes it perfectly contextual.

But so what if there are slum-dwellers next door? The Ambani children are also poor in their lack of experience and opportunity to learn form humble beginnings. They have to make do with 400,000 sq.ft. of living space, while slum children nearby have the chance to thrive in 100 sq.ft. shanties. With the peculiar difficulty of having been born into such enormous riches, their children will never be able to tap into the wealth of struggle and desperation that is so generously distributed to the impoverished of India. And being sheltered in this tower that is as breathtaking as a buffalo and which could well have been the handiwork of an inebriated lego-block assembler, these children will be cruelly deprived of such epiphanic moments like leaking roofs and clogged drains. The 600 servants will prevent them from understanding even basic, everyday experiences like how hands can be used to pick food from the plate and ease it into the mouth. Such is their fate.

However, the family is making extensive efforts to be in touch with the reality that is shared by 70% of the country. Although Ambani never made it to the fund-raising discussion that the world's richest philanthropists Gates and Buffet participated in during their trip to India (he was watching cricket at that point in time) his wife is taking active interest in philanthrophy and taking very positive steps in this direction.

Like, did you know that the Abmanis have ONE full school that is running as a charity? Also, for Nita, the world is her oyster when it comes to philanthrophy. She once said, "Look at Africa. There are huge belts of people who live on less than $1 a day... Every one of us is responsible for all of humanity."

She prefers reaching India through Africa. Although there seems to be no connection here, all media-hungry Hollywood celebrities make the desperate move of adopting a child from Africa. Anyway, with such a great start, Nita will finally reach India a few generations from now, and with that the Ambanis would have contributed immensely to propagate, no sorry, mitigate the economic woes of their country.

Yes, they are actually Indian citizens.