Column

Getting away from India, even for a few days, provides a much needed respite from the obsessions that preoccupy our fair nation. Any break from the mundane is welcome, but when you are in a country like Italy, where the English-speaking universe seldom intrudes, it is a double bonus. As you sit in a streetside bistro, sipping a Pinot Grigo and taking in the world moving (in slow motion) around you, thoughts about back home fade away. Nothing about Bollywood, cricket, the nuclear deal or caste politics; no news about the crash in the BSE; add to that Italian food and style — heaven, even if short lived.

Of course the world now is a small village so that even in the remotest place you get to know about Barack Obama’s latest speech on racism or the riots in Tibet and most of all about the economic crisis that has already hit the US and is now making its way, brutally to Europe.

The collapse of Bear Sterns bank was all over the media as are the emerging problems in European financial institutions. Britain has had its Northern Rock collapse and rescue by the government, London’s financial market is in turmoil and even Ireland, the continent’s golden boy till recently, is in the doldrums. In Europe, a country, however healthy it may be on its own, is part of a larger community so inevitably there is a chain reaction that pulls down laggards and sprinters equally.

The worse is that the pain is beginning to trickle down to everyone, or, as a newspaper puts it, Wall Street’s problems are now Main Street’s problems too. Job figures may be encouraging, but the way the economies are hurting, how long will that continue?

To the visitor, these difficulties become obvious by the fact that a city like Venice, which receives over 10 million tourists a year, can almost be termed “empty”. True, this is a lull before the Easter break, but oldtimers cannot recall it being so dull.

Part of the reason is that the Americans, the biggest tourists to this country are not coming in their usual numbers. Their own economic problems and uncertainty is keeping them home - who wants to go on a holiday and return to find his job gone or his mortgage increased?

But the fall of the US dollar and the strength of the euro is another reason why the Americans find Europe simply unaffordable. And if the Americans are feeling this, one can imagine what it must be for us Indians, who were also beginning to go to Europe in significant numbers?

“Please go back and tell your countrymen and women to visit us-there are bargains to be had,” said the manager of one of the grandest hotels in Venice to me, pointing to his empty lobby. He is right-his hotel is offering an almost 60 per cent discount on the rack rate, which makes it far more affordable then any good Indian hotel. But with the euro at 63 to the rupee, everything else ends up becoming expensive. Unless one lives on bread and cheese and pizzas, a couple could end up spending 150 euros a day and that’s without the hotel; it’s worth every cent of course, but there are cheaper destinations available.

The Italians envy India its economic growth and laugh when any Indian mentions the emerging economic problems in this country. “How can you complain about 7-8 percent growth and that too for such a big economy,” they ask. True enough - are we complaining too much, one wonders?

And so, in that uplifted frame of mind, one heads back to India. The mood continues when one sees a refurbished airport and speedier processes (for the record, Italian airports can be quite chaotic, something that soon makes the Indian feel at home).

But of course, it cannot last, because the newspapers are full of stories about rising prices and falling stock indices. “Things are quite bad and it could get worse,” the pundits assure you. All the usual buzzwords — decoupling, globalisation, sub-prime loans, are in the air, just in case you thought the problems of middle America will leave you alone. “If growth slows down this year too, we could see job losses,” intones an erudite friend over the phone, with all the confidence of a soothsayer. “Forget handsome increments — April is the cruellest month,” he adds cryptically.

This is scary. At least the immediate worries of Europe did not hurt me — I was just a visitor. This is for real. Was it a mistake to come back so soon? Perhaps one could have stayed back, continued in that bubble for some more time. Pain is easier to cope with when the wine is so good.

Email:sidharth01@dnaindia.net