Currently the world is debating climate change and the best way forward from here.

While the US has it's own views on what may happen and what needs to be done, Europe has established itself as more responsible.

But for a developing country like India, the question staring us in the face is, should we not learn from the mistakes of the West? Why are we going down the same road of consumerism and energy guzzling that western countries have established so many decades ago, at a time when they are looking for ways out of their mess.

In this day and age, the need of the hour is clearly to limit your needs, waste less, consume less and figure out more efficient ways of living and working.

But this is something we always did, and have unlearned in the last decade or so. Our grandparents, at least mine, would always lecture us on wastage, simplicity and irresponsible buying. It was part of the Indian philosophy that worldly goods should never take over our lives, as it's all maya, an illusion, transient in the bigger scheme of things.

Maybe it was also the result of living in pre-liberalised India, fewer goods, lesser money, only national banks, one channel, hence fewer needs.

Cut to now. Malls dot our metros, they've even reached our small towns. These shrines to consumerism are fast becoming a way of life. We're getting use to the air-conditioned shopping experience, escalators that are on 24X7, huge underground parking space that is constantly lit, store windows that are beautifully presented, without sparing a thought to the amount of electricity being consumed, the number of diesel guzzling generators that are making it possible.

International magazines, a plethora of channels that survive on advertising, all beg us to buy buy buy And usually things we don't even need. Our markets are flooded with electronic goods, gizmos and gadgets that the models on television tell us we can't live without.

Recently 34 resident associations of Gurgaon, a suburb of Delhi, went to the Supreme Court, requesting it to put a stop to the number of commercial complexes that are coming up mindlessly in that area. To save the city from complete disaster as groundwater levels have dipped dangerously, and there's already a power crisis.

Yet those in charge continue giving permission to more and more builder groups to continue doing what they do best. The residents claimed that in the last 10-15 years, some 10,000 acres of farmland in and around Gurgaon has been converted into townships of industrial, commercial and residential complexes.

Today the international price of crude oil is hovering around $133 a barrel. An analyst from Goldman Sachs, an Indian at that, has predicted it will go to $200.

In 2003-2004 when the same analyst, Arjun Narayana Murti predicted that oil prices would breach $80 a barrel when it was still in the 30s, no one took him seriously.

Murti also wrote a comprehensive paper, advising US policy makers to formulate policies which would encourage lowering the demand for petrol among the American people, who till now have never given it a second thought.

In doing so he made an example of 'gas guzzling SUVs' that are so popular in America, a status symbol of sorts, and said the use of smaller cars should be encouraged, as well as public transport.

The price of petrol is something we Indians have always been conscious of. We always ask about the mileage a car gives before buying it. But lately SUVs are becoming more common on our roads as well.

People in the West are now thinking of ways to reduce their carbon footprint- that is reducing the amount of energy they consume in their day to day living.

I'm not saying it's all pervasive but the thought is there. On the other hand affluent Indians are getting more and more seduced by the goodies available to us, and the consumerist culture it entails.

So maybe it's time for all of us to stop and think about the type of society we are becoming. While I'm not romanticising the pre-globalisation days, we can certainly adopt a more responsible way of living, using the wisdom our grandparents tried to instill in us.

And it's something we can teach our children so they won't have to learn and then unlearn a way of life that will soon become unsupportable.