Progress .. etc.

Yesterday my brother met a small accident on his motor bike.
As if he needed an excuse, and this was the trigger point, he ditched his bike (his main problem was kick starting it and the bike had grown unreliable over time too) and went to the show room to buy
a switch start scooter (Activa).

Went along with him, and saw the same dealership that was there 25 years ago too in this small city.

He paid the cash and rode the scooter home, all within 2 hours.

We went to buy a bajaj scooter, exactly from the same dealership, for our (would be) borther-in-law just 1 month before my elder sisters marriage 23 years ago.

And that time, it took us the entire month to get the scooter. Bajaj was importing some parts for the scooter and a portion of scooter price was being collected in US Dollar.

23 years ago, in this town very few people knew how to acquire US Dollar. We did not even have pass ports to go to a bank and exchange currencies legally.

It was a who tangled process of going through middle men in small infamous gullies of the city to get the money in USD. The process of paying the money, right amount in right currency and waiting for a month to get the "Humara bajaj" to be gifted to my bro-in-law on the day of marriage.

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Today India exports a large chunk of motor parts to the rest of the world. And one can even buy a Ferrari in Indian currency.

The Times are A changing :)