A different India

I am at CP (Connaught Place) , almost the centre of the city.
The only difference from the obvious is that this is not Delhi. This is Aurangabad.
I believe that this is an India which i was an integral part of some years ago.
I had my paani puri and bhel, strolled around CP.
Remnants of a rather laidback life, as seen in the Hyderabad of a decade (s) ago, abound. A more worthwhile comparison would be with the Jamalpur of the 1990s, or the Asansol / Burdwan of the early 2000s.

Slowly, the clock begins to move on a fast forward. Someone says this is the fastest growing city in India. In a couple of hours, i am informed that this is the places cars like Audi, Skoda and Volkswagen are manufactured. Some more helpful folks inform me that Aurangabad was in the news some time ago for placing single largest order for Mercedes Benz cars in a single transaction in India — 150 Mercedes Benz cars worth INR 65 crore (USD 13 Million). Without a local Mercedes-Benz showroom and encountering indifferent Mercedes-Benz dealers in the nearest cities of Pune and Bombay, a group of successful citizens pooled their orders and negotiated a record agreement with the firm - directly.
Dinner is at a restaurant called 'Flame n Grill' in a mall called Prozone; a huge mall with the usual suspects.
My host informs me that there is nothing better than a betel leaf (Pan in India) to top up the food with. We drive over to the Tara Pan Centre, in a locality called OsmanPura. The shop specializes in Pans of different kinds, and evolved from a tyre puncture shop by the same name, Tara, in the early 1970s. The shop offers all varieties of Pans, starting from the Kohinoor Pan to the HOneymoon pan to other kinds of flavours like chocolate. Prices can vary too; from Rs 3000 (USD 60) per pan to Rs 10 (USD 0.2). The top two varieties, the Kohinoor and the Honeymoon, are believed to have aphrodasiac properties. The shop is an iconic landmark, to the extent that a local management college even has a case study on it. 'An overview of the management practices at Tara pan Center', by Wisdome institure of management studies, is the title of the case study. It is also available on the internet.

Bharat and India come to life. And in a manner that is Wow !
The tradition of the Pan. Bharat.
The commercialization of education in an MBA course. India.
India does a case study on Bharat.
I'm lovin it.
Viva, Aur-Rang-Abad (town with more colours) !