**Reflections on India by Sean Paul Kelley**

I read the below article on the blog of  my friend The unsure ascetic  and it speaks for itself, without me adding a prelude. I feel it explains the sorry state of our country, the dirt, the pollution, the crowd, and most importantly ‘the mindset’. It seems we have been exposed to so much of negativity around us that we have started to believe that its all normal and natural, and  these sights fail to move us any further. Please read on…..

Sean Paul Kelley is a travel writer, former radio host, and before that an asset manager for a Wall Street investment bank that is still (barely) alive. He recently left a fantastic job in Singapore working for Solar Winds, a software company based out of Austin to travel around the world for a year (or two). He founded the Agonist which is still considered the top international affairs, culture and news destination for progressives. He is also the Global Correspondent for The Young Turks, on satellite radio and Air America.

If you are Indian, or of Indian descent, I must preface this post with a clear warning: you are not going to like what I have to say. My criticisms may be very hard to stomach. But consider them as the hard words and loving advice of a good friend. Someone who’s being honest with you and wants nothing from you. 

These criticisms apply to all of India except Kerala and the places I didn’t visit, except that I have a feeling it applies to all of India, except as I mentioned before, Kerala. Lastly, before anyone accuses me of Western Cultural Imperialism, let me say this: if this is what India and Indians want, then hey, who am I to tell them differently. Take what you like and leave the rest. In the end it doesn’t really matter, as I get the sense that Indians, at least many upper class Indians, don’t seem to care and the lower classes just don’t know any better, what with Indian culture being so intense and pervasive on the sub-continent. But here goes, nonetheless.

 India is a mess. It’s that simple, but it’s also quite complicated. I’ll start with what I think are India’s four major problems–the four most preventing India from becoming a developing nation–and then move to some of the ancillary ones.

First, pollution. In my opinion the filth, squalor and all around pollution indicates a marked lack of respect for India by Indians. I don’t know how cultural the filth is, but it’s really beyond anything I have ever encountered.  At times the smells, trash, refuse and excrement are like a garbage dump.

Right next door to the Taj Mahal was a pile of trash that smelled so bad, was so foul as to almost ruin the entire Taj experience. Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai to a lesser degree were so very polluted as to make me physically ill. Sinus infections, ear infection, bowels churning was an all to common experience in India. Dung, be it goat, cow or human fecal matter was common on the streets. In major tourist areas filth was everywhere, littering the sidewalks, the roadways, you name it. Toilets in the middle of the road, men urinating and defecating anywhere, in broad daylight.

Whole villages are plastic bag wastelands. Roadsides are choked by it. Air quality that can hardly be called quality. Far too much coal and far to few unleaded vehicles on the road. The measure should be how dangerous the air is for one’s health, not how good it is. People casually throw trash in the streets, on the roads. I don’t know why this is. But I can assure you that at some point this pollution will cut into India’s productivity, if it already hasn’t. The pollution will hobble India’s growth path, if that indeed is what the country wants. (Which I personally doubt, as India is far too conservative a country, in the small ‘c’ sense.)

More after the jump..

The second issue, infrastructure, can be divided into four subcategories: roads, rails and ports and the electrical grid. The electrical grid is a joke. Load shedding is all too common, everywhere in India. Wide swaths of the country spend much of the day without the electricity they actually pay for. Without regular electricity, productivity, again, falls.

The ports are a joke. Antiquated, out of date, hardly even appropriate for the mechanized world of container ports, more in line with the days of longshoremen and the like. Roads are an equal disaster. I only saw one elevated highway that would be considered decent in Thailand, much less Western Europe or America. And I covered fully two thirds of the country during my visit.

There are so few dual carriage way roads as to be laughable. There are no traffic laws to speak of, and if there are, they are rarely obeyed, much less enforced. A drive that should take an hour takes three. A drive that should take three takes nine. The buses are at least thirty years old, if not older.

Everyone in India, or who travels in India raves about the railway system. Rubbish. It’s awful. Now, when I was there in 2003 and then late 2004 it was decent. But in the last five years the traffic on the rails has grown so quickly that once again, it is threatening productivity. Waiting in line just to ask a question now takes thirty minutes. Routes are routinely sold out three and four days in advance now, leaving travelers stranded with little option except to take the decrepit and dangerous buses.

At least fifty million people use the trains a day in India. 50 million people! Not surprising that waitlists of 500 or more people are common now.

The rails are affordable and comprehensive but they are overcrowded and what with budget airlines popping up in India like Sadhus in an ashram the middle and lowers classes are left to deal with the over utilized rails and quality suffers. No one seems to give a shit.

Seriously, I just never have the impression that the Indian government really cares. Too interested in buying weapons from Russia, Israel and the US I guess.

The last major problem in India is an old problem and can be divided into two parts that’ve been two sides of the same coin since government was invented: bureaucracy and corruption.

It take triplicates to register into a hotel. To get a SIM card for one’s phone is like wading into a jungle of red-tape and photocopies one is not likely to emerge from in a good mood, much less satisfied with customer service.

Getting train tickets is a terrible ordeal, first you have to find the train number, which takes 30 minutes, then you have to fill in the form, which is far from easy, then you have to wait in line to try and make a reservation, which takes 30 minutes at least and if you made a single mistake on the form back you go to the end of the queue, or what passes for a queue in India.

The government is notoriously uninterested in the problems of the commoners, too busy fleecing the rich, or trying to get rich themselves in some way shape or form. Take the trash for example, civil rubbish collection authorities are too busy taking kickbacks from the wealthy to keep their areas clean that they don’t have the time, manpower, money or interest in doing their job.

Rural hospitals are perennially understaffed as doctors pocket the fees the government pays them, never show up at the rural hospitals and practice in the cities instead.

I could go on for quite some time about my perception of India and its problems, but in all seriousness, I don’t think anyone in India really cares. And that, to me, is the biggest problem. India is too conservative a society to want to change in any way.

Mumbai, India’s financial capital is about as filthy, polluted and poor as the worst city imaginable in Vietnam, or Indonesia–and being more polluted than Medan, in Sumatra is no easy task. The biggest rats I have ever seen were in Medan!

One would expect a certain amount of, yes, I am going to use this word, backwardness, in a country that hasn’t produced so many Nobel Laureates, nuclear physicists, imminent economists and entrepreneurs. But India has all these things and what have they brought back to India with them? Nothing.

The rich still have their servants, the lower castes are still there to do the dirty work and so the country remains in status. It’s a shame. Indians and India have many wonderful things to offer the world, but I’m far from sanguine that India will amount to much in my lifetime.

Now, have at it, call me a cultural imperialist, a spoiled child of the West and all that.  But remember, I’ve been there. I’ve done it. And I’ve seen 50 other countries on this planet and none, not even Ethiopia, have as long and gargantuan a laundry list of problems as India does.

And the bottom line is, I don’t think India really cares. Too complacent and too conservative.

 

India- A funny country

I am an Indian and I love my country to a point that I turn a critic most of the time when I have to talk about it. And my criticism is taken as antinational and self-righteous. We like to hear about us that we are a growing superpower, and an economic powerhouse, but we hate to hear that we are culturally messed, corrupt and hypocrites.We don’t take a criticism constructively. We are self centered and are least bothered of our environment. Though India is blessed with great amount of Natural bounties, we Indians have fucked it to a point that its one of the dirtiest countries in the world.What we care is to mend our own space. Perhaps, centuries of oppression, superstitions related to religion and culture, poverty etc has made us this, or the plague of over-population, but many great nations of today have had equal share of troubles in the past. Japan, Germany, Israel etc are classic examples.

Being a critic actually helps to know yourself, your country and the society better.   

1.      Our love for the male child. I know of families who have had five children in an effort to produce a male. We provide the best to him, and starve and ill treat her. We have a tradition where a girl departs the family of her birth, after her marriage and she is no more considered part of the family. Thus, noone to care for, when the parents of the girl are old and in need. Its justifiable, isnt it? Why do we have a tradition of calling a girl PARAYA after her BIDHAI? Why do we call a man-GHAR  JAMAI- If he wants to stay at the girls house after marriage?

2.      We believe that paying bribes in government offices are a norm aand the only way of getting things done; otherwise they would be taken to task and would be moved around. We cheer when we see movies like Lage Raho Munnabhai, where an old man strips when confronted with a corrupt BABU, but we consider such acts a fantasy or fiction.

3.       We have very few entrepreneurs per million people, compared to most well off nations. We believe in getting educated, and then in finding jobs. Entrepreneurs have shaped countries like America or Europe. They may be greedy and capitalistic, but they create jobs, and in turn pay back the society.  This may be seeing a change in India and we may be creating Entrepreneurs these days.

4.      We are a lot funny people- We feel wearing a lot of Gold ornaments and shiny, flashy cloths helps the world believe of our class.  We have no faith in minimalism. We believe that over feeding leads to good health. We feel that a human should work till the old age and only retire because he is unable to perform anymore. We believe it’s abnormal and bigheadedness to question the status quo.

5.      We believe, per se, in Paisa Vasool. We would travel that extra meter on a Rickshaw for the worth of every Paisa.. Or we would include the entire family and stuff them inside a Tata Sumo, instead of the intended 4-5 passenger. We crowd the Airports, Railway stations etc, by accompanying a relative on his journey.

6.      We believe that a Brahman is born different to a Kshatriya or a Shudra. We( in Kerala/Tamilnadu) believe that a Brahman has more brain power and can excel in places like Bank, finance, Maths etc. A Baniya is a born businessman and it runs in his blood.

I cant think of more, but we Indians really are a bunch of funny people. Think about it, removed from the Idealistic, Jingoistic and pseudo patriotic outlook, and you would agree to it.

India- A funny country

I am an Indian and I love my country to a point that I turn a critic most of the time when I have to talk about it. And my criticism is taken as antinational and self-righteous. We like to hear about us that we are a growing superpower, and an economic powerhouse, but we hate to hear that we are culturally messed, corrupt and hypocrites.We don’t take a criticism constructively. We are self centered and are least bothered of our environment. What we care is to mend our own space. Perhaps, centuries of oppression, superstitions related to religion and culture, poverty etc has made us this, or the plague of over-population, but many great nations of today have had equal share of troubles in the past. Japan, Germany, Israel etc are classic examples.

Being a critic actually helps to know yourself, your country and the society better.   

1.      Our love for the male child. I know of families who have had five children in an effort to produce a male. We provide the best to him, and starve and ill treat her. We have a tradition where a girl departs the family of her birth, after her marriage and she is no more considered part of the family. Thus, noone to care for, when the parents of the girl are old and in need. Its justifiable, isnt it? Why do we have a tradition of calling a girl PARAYA after her BIDHAI? Why do we call a man-GHAR  JAMAI- If he wants to stay at the girls house after marriage?

2.      We believe that paying bribes in government offices are a norm aand the only way of getting things done; otherwise they would be taken to task and would be moved around. We cheer when we see movies like Lage Raho Munnabhai, where an old man strips when confronted with a corrupt BABU, but we consider such acts a fantasy or fiction.

3.       We have very few entrepreneurs per million people, compared to most well off nations. We believe in getting educated, and then in finding jobs. Entrepreneurs have shaped countries like America or Europe. They may be greedy and capitalistic, but they create jobs, and in turn pay back the society.  This may be seeing a change in India and we may be creating Entrepreneurs these days.

4.      We are a lot funny people- We feel wearing a lot of Gold ornaments and shiny, flashy cloths helps the world believe of our class.  We have no faith in minimalism. We believe that over feeding leads to good health. We feel that a human should work till the old age and only retire because he is unable to perform anymore. We believe it’s abnormal and bigheaded to question the status quo.

5.      We believe, per se, in Paisa Vasool. We would travel that extra meter on a Rickshaw for the worth of every Paisa.. Or we would include the entire family and stuff them inside a Tata Sumo, instead of the intended 4-5 passenger. We crowd the Airports, Railway stations etc, by accompanying a relative on his journey.

6.      We believe that a Brahman is born different to a Kshatriya or a Shudra. We( in Kerala/Tamilnadu) believe that a Brahman has more brain power and can excel in places like Bank, finance, Maths etc. A Baniya is a born businessman and it runs in his blood.

I cant think of more, but we Indians really are a bunch of funny people. Think about it, removed from the Idealistic, Jingoistic and pseudo patriotic outlook, and you would agree to it.

anymore Blogging?

The wish to write has waned.

I wrote as if someone out there

was interested in my existence.

But suddenly I feel or else,

it is as though I have Exhausted my ability to feel

or have rendered myself dead.

I am in the midst of an anguish,

and the thoughts of expressing my thoughts

Leaves me exhausted.

I feel I had certain vigour or energy,

or perhaps a certain vanity in me.

That 'energy' seems to be sucked out of me

and the very thought of writing leave me weary.

it is as though

I have tired my ability to feel

or have rendered myself numb.

it started with a tingling sensation,

was not too intricate to ignore initially,

but eventually took over my body and mind

and left me gaping at the pace of my life.

It’s as if I were on an automaton.

 I ask, Why, or for whom?

Ok, Nothing of the shit I wrote above. The thing is that I have this defect of focusing only on one thing, at a time. Earlier when I started blogging, I wanted to be a great blogger, in fact the greatest, with millions of followers and millions of comments, each one of it on how brilliant my blog was or how breathtaking my posts were. Now suddenly reality has struck. I am no blogger.I am just an executive, working in a corporation, trying to earn my living, so that one day I have enough money to feel happy about(and secretly pity how poor my neighbor is).

I have loads of problems. Right now my biggest problem is that I have almost nil bank balance.(No that was a lie. I have a fixed deposit of XY lakhs, a mutual fund of  YZ lakhs and some gold worth XY lakhs( my wife’s, though I don’t want to call it a dowry, even though my wife feels I was grossly over dowry-fied).

I also have a huge wish list. I want to retire by 45, have an SUV-a Pajero( someone told me its called a Montero in India, Whatever) or a Land cruiser Prado atleast.Now talking about retirement, people around me have always made me feel I was a retard, bcoz noone retires at 45. I had earlier written something on it and people wrote-how they wished they could work till 125, or how their grandfather still works despite being 85 etc. I am sad how Indians see retirement.

In the west, people work solely so that they could retire young, before their joints ached of arthritis, before they go too sick to screw( without Viagra) on the beach, before they render themselves too weak to sail on a kayak, or take a month long train trip across Russian Siberia. An average Indian works until he is 70( 55 years + 15 years after retirement). Cant blame though, They had too many problems and commitments. Daughter’s marriage, Sons education, own house/flat, son’s career until he has a son, relatives in need of help, medical expenses for the old age etc.

I think times are changing. I think so.I see similar thoughts floating around in the minds of people around me here, at least in my friends list. I need no more than one daughter. I am thinking of vasectomy ( nasbandi in shudh Hindi-condoms are too unreliable. ((that was a joke). Why care about next generation? Thank god, I have a daughter. Daughters are much less pain-in-the-ass compared to sons. At least,I worry less that they turn out to be drunkards or drug addicts or criminals. Once my daughter is old enough to have a career and is married ( if she has a  wish to marry, I would better advice her to stay single unless she finds an appropriate man), I would fool around. I feel life is all about fooling around. We make a mess of it by taking it too seriously.

And now suddenly blogging has become boring. Sad, it doesnt pay me.I am a Greedy FUCKER.Actually, I feel its alright to be greedy. One is motivated and has a reason to live. Its dangerous to have an unmotivated ass. Wealth creation is awfully challenging but its also thrilling. Its great to see the bank balance swell. It’s the ultimate ecstasy.  Ode To all the greedy men around the world! Ciao.

.

Look at the above video. We think of Pakistan as enemy no 1, or perhaps our only enemy and they feel the same about us. I live in a country which has as many Pakistanis as there are Indians. Our foods are similar, in fact Its almost the same. Naan, Roti, Sabzi, Gosht,  Chicken, Kebab, pulao, Chawal, Dal. We wear the same-Salwar Kameez, kurta payjama, Dhoti, Sari. We have similar ceremonies. We value our family more than anything. We are jovial, lively people. Okey, We are majority Hindu and they are Muslim. But we are both the same. We are developing. We have poverty, corruption, disparity issues, inefficiency, over population. And we have terrorism.

Did 26/11 happen because of Pakistan? Does Kasab-the lone surviving terrorist caught during 26/11- represent Pakistan? Is Kashmir really such a prized possession that we cling on to it at the cost of a proxy war which has been waging since 60 years and responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths? Is Pakistan sponsoring terrorism and is India doing the same in Baluchistan?

I feel we are the same as the school girls seen in the above video. Just that we are across the border and at the other spectrum of the political propaganda framed by our rulers and politicians. We have been programmed to hate Pakistan and they India.

I feel terrorism is above nationality, religion and race. There are many more terrorist attacks in Pakistan than in India. I don’t feel Kasab represents Pakistan as much as Veerappan represents India. Pakistanis are as innocent and naïve as Indians are. I wish I could see a day when both exist as friends, perhaps like Canada and US. We have much to gain from mutual cooperation. Pakistani food is amazing, especially Biriyanis. They have a rich cultural heritage. It’s a beautiful country and only thing lacking is Stability and terrorism. And India suffers the consequence. I wish peace prevails in Pakistan, so that it reflects on India too.

As my father calls me-I am yet again rebellious, naïve, stupid and abnormal. I love Pakistan as much I love India. I, of late feel less Indian. I feel I am more a citizen of planet earth. Whats LOC or azad Kashmir? What’s Africa and South America?  We live on earth. And it’s the only planet, as far as we know, which has life. Whats religion and god? why don’t animals have religion, just because they cant think and are stupid? I wish humans were as stupid.or who really is stupid?

Should Hindi Be a National Language?

This post is based on Neha’s reply to my comment on her Blog.Please read her blog post for further Gyan.

@ ZB, why not? why one language cannot be the official language of a country? English - looking at our literacy rate in India, English is not spoken or understood by vast majority..thanks to British people, none of our languages could prosper..they used English as the official language; thus it continued..but we do have our own identity..the major problem is that we are still looking at the smaller picture..tell me, will you ever be able to take the insult of not being spoken with or guided the directions in your own country because you do not know the local language? Don't you think if one language was made official at the time of formation of Constitution; we could all have at least communicated with one-another?

I feel Hindi is not our Identity. Hindi is a modern language which has derived from Khari Boli, Persian and Sanskrit languages. It evolved during the Mughal and British era. Bhojpuri, Gujrati, Rajesthani, Haryanavi etc are much older and purer than Hindi.Devanagari Script was adopted to Standardize the language. Earlier Sanskrit had no script. In south India Sanskrit was written in Tamil.

Forcing down a Language doesn’t make it popular. In Kerala, Hindi is taught from the school level, but people hardly speak the language. If Hindi would have been made our National Language in 1965, it would bring much shame to the language 50 years down the line. It would be shameful for a National Language when half of the population don’t understand a word of it.

Believe me, if I know just Hindi( and not English) and travel the country I would face bigger problems in communicating, Where as English is much more understood by majority. In places like South India or Eastern states, there would be atleast few people who would speak English, if not the majority, but I doubt if it’s the case with Hindi.

Hindi doesn’t mean anything to me in South India.In Kerala for example, all communications are in either Malayalam or English. Hindi plays absolutely no role and its not because its not been taught there in schools.Where as Malayalam is spoken because it’s the identity of the people. Or tamil is in Tamilnadu. So is the case in Eastern States.

Being a lawyer, do you still believe that just because its made a National language of the country as per the constitution, it would be widely spoken by all Indians? Its not Practical and the makers of the constitution understood it much more than anyone else. That’s why it was never adopted.

why only Hindi - then just read the facts mentioned below..

India has two two linguistic families. The Indo-Aryan languages, 11 in number, derived from Sanskrit are spoken by nearly 75% of whom Hindi is spoken by 42% of people..The Dravidian languages spoken by 24% people prevail in Southern India of whom Telugu is spoken by largest group.

In a country with over a billion population, a mere percentage means a lot. 24 % is a lot of people, that’s over 250 million people. Learning Hindi doesn’t really help people securing a Job, does it? On the other hand, if one learns English, Spanish or French its considered an advantage.

Why is a Language which is neither an identity, or technical advantage, forced down upon people as national language?

by making Hindi an official language of the Union, who is saying that other languages will no longer be the official languages?

If you do not want to speak a language; it is alright..but does that mean you will pretend that you do not know the language at all and trouble the helpless?

we all love freedom; but declaring one language as the OFFICIAL LANGUAGE does not take away your freedom from you..the meaning of declaring this language as official does not mean you have to compulsorily converse in that language or learn strictly in that language in school…

Hindi is already an official language along with many regional languages of the country. The question is if it should be made a National Language, for which I oppose. I oppose because it doesn’t truly represent India. It represents only about 50 % of the country.

South India is drastically different from Hindi speaking part of the country. Tamil or local language is its identity. Same is the case in Bengal, Assam or Manipur.

Speaking in a language depends on the comfort level. In my case, I speak in Malayalam to majority of malayalees. I speak in Hindi with my Northee friends.

However, I speak in English with few of my malayalee friends, not because I want to show off or I feel Malayalam doesn’t have enough vocabulary. Its just that to a particular person I can only speak in a particular language. To my cousin sister Sandhya, I can only speak in English though both can speak Malayalam fluently. Hasn’t that ever happened to you?

However, I do feel Hindi should be taught in schools and Karunanidhi style opposition to any language shouldn’t be encouraged.

I feel we shouldn’t have a National language and Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil, Bengali…ETC should be equally encouraged, as much as Hindi should be.

 Jai Hind and Happy Rupublic day to all.

India-2

A comment on my post ‘India’ had me rather disturbed. How will we progress if such people think it’s “mean to Indians” when you say something that’s blatant truth. The comment went like this:

“My My...you are being so mean to all Indians here. Its a system that needs improvement, I totally agree. But who is going to take the first step. Do donation(or influence to enter)to good colleges and schools come under corruption? If you sit and say I will not do it, its not right,its your child's future you are playing with. We make tough choices everyday as it is. If everyone in India is striving to sustain themselves so be it. I think everyone everywhere does that. Nobody wakes up in the morning and says, I am going to do something for my country today.Just make sure that you don't do anything to harm it. And things will change and there is hope.

I also would like to know why u haven't given suggestions for these rats to improve!!!! The post is incomplete without them...”

I would like to tell her that it’s not the system that needs change. India has perfect SYSTEM. We are a population of over 1 billion and that’s huge population. India is also the 7 th largest country in the world. Such a big, diverse country needs time to change. But isn’t, “India needs time” a BIG EXCUSE?

We are huge, no doubt about it, but we are a federal state. That means we are divided into 28 states and 7 union territories based on linguistics and culture. And these states are further divided into districts which are further divided into taluks, tehsils, panchayats..etc, for the sole purpose of administration. A domain Panchayat is no more than few kilometers across and has a president who has representative powers. Isn’t that the greatest SYSTEM we have in place? Then what system  are we cribbing about?

Then what’s wrong with India? I strongly believe it’s the People and the people alone. We complain about the leaders, corrupt politicians, bureaucrats etc…but who elects them?

And we are a population of over 1 billion, which is over a 1000 million in exponential terms, and we just have few like Arundhati roy , Medha patkar, Mahasweta Devi, Dr. Binayak Sen who cry about the state of affairs of India. Imagine if out of 1000 million, just 1 million were to blog about the negative state of affairs in India and bring awareness. I feel it would be revolutionary.

I believe India needs strong social (writer) critics like Charles Dickens, Judith Butler or more of writers like Aravind adiga.The first time I read “The white Tiger”, I was angry at the portrayal of poverty in India. Or even the movie SlumDog millionaire did the same thing to me. But over time I have realized that these are the facts and we should stop living in a utopian state of wellbeing.

Who will take the first step in changing India? I think we all should. Perhaps, this is my first step. The first step can be writing a blog about what you see negative in India: Or bringing a corrupt practice in our society into public light. I think that’s the first step. We don’t have to join politics or jump into some Bolshevik-like revolution. In fact, such revolution has even more degraded the society as the case with USSR was. I believe we just need to change ourselves. If out of 1000 million population, just 1 million change themselves and become more aware or communicative about the problems of the society, the society would change.

Do donation(or influence to enter)to good colleges and schools come under corruption? If you sit and say I will not do it, its not right,its your child's future you are playing with.- I think that’s the greatest mistake we do. We think that that’s the way things work. We think we don’t have options and we have to go on with what’s happening. Yes, such donations are corruptions and I will not be part of it. I will not let my daughter join such college, but I will not come in her way of her future. I will look for alternatives. If no such college exists in India I will send her Abroad, Even if I have to mortgage my house for it.

And people say things are changing. Definitely things are changing, India has more international standard stadiums, Shopping malls, Business schools or 5 star hospitals, but poor have become poorer and rich have become richer. There are more cars on the road and we can see many more airports, but still half of the population is under poverty.

I also would like to know why u haven't given suggestions for these rats to improve!!!! The post is incomplete without them...” First of all the person hasn’t read the post or understood it. I had mentioned India as a ‘metaphor’ of a timeless fortress. Rats and rodents are part of a fortress, like people are to a nation.

Suggestions to Improve: No one has to jump into active social activism, and we can’t afford to do that. We have families to look after and responsibilities. We as citizens has to lead by example.

But we can still do to improve the country. We can be responsible citizens and keep our premise clean. We can take part in elections and vote for the deserving candidate. We can help by educating our children and not show prejudice to sons over daughters. We can help by investing in our country and provide employment. We can help by being entrepreneurs. We can help by being broad minded and not be part of caste-ism or classism. We can help by being religiously tolerant. We can help by investing in Govt. agencies like LIC or SBI. We can help by helping our neighbors in time of need. We can help by not crowding hospitals or public places. We can help by being clean and health conscious. We can help by knowing our culture and help preserve it(like Japanese). We can help by welcoming foreign tourists and make India more tourist friendly. We can help by not carving “I LOVE PRIYANKA CHOPRA” on public places and historical monuments. We can help by conserving energy and resources. We can help by not supporting political parties who support BANDH and HARTALS. We can help by not encouraging beggars. We can help by questioning public authorities and wrong practices.

We make tough choices everyday as it is. If everyone in India is striving to sustain themselves so be it. : Who are “WE”, not definitely the person who commented this. OK, half of India is under poverty and have to make tough choices every day, but not the rest. I think we all fall under the rest. We aren’t fighting to sustain ourselves, are we? Come-on, we are much better offs. We can make better choices.

And most importantly, do not pay bribes or DONATIONS. I remember how my uncle was forcing me to pay Rs.500 to the corporation clerk to get my marriage certificate in time for my wife’s visa. I refused and I was looked as STUPID and unrealistic. I feel 90% of Indians are like my uncle. If we bring that 90 % to less that 20%, imagine the change in India. Imagine out of 1000 million, 10 million decide to be entrepreneurs; we will have industries to match the best in the world.

The last thing we need is a Revolution. I think we just need smart, intelligent people, which we basically are.


P.S: Please read this post of kaddu for further reading. She has summed up pretty correctly. Thanks kaddu.

India

Am I less patriotic when I constantly grumble about the terrible things that I see in India? Then why does my blood boil when I see Western TV Channels(National Geographic) call India(Mumbai) “The craziest place on the planet”?

I was watching NDTV yesterday and the election results in Maharashtra. I could see VilasRao Deshmukh Sweat when asked by Srinivasan Jain about the one thing that the congress government has achieved in the last 10 years of rule.  Is ten years too short a period in History to judge a ruling government? Then what have we achieved in the last 60 years of Independence?

I somehow feel that India is headed towards an economical and political disaster. History has several examples to show that whenever the suppression and tyranny has crossed the thresholds of acceptance, there has always been a major revolution. .

I feel the poor, oppressed, indebted farmers or any citizen of this country should fight for themselves. I feel no matter how many NGO’s fight for their cause or sincere, dedicated politician come out for their cause, unless they themselves know that they are exploited, suppressed and taken for granted, there can never be a change in their position.

 But my biggest worry is that it seems we have been exposed to so much corruption, brutality, blood and murder that we have become immune and sights fail to move us further than a certain point. India is like one of those timeless fortresses, which uphold their scars and battered structures as the essence of their being. The lives that reside within such monuments-plants, birds, rodents and reptiles, turn indifferent to the surroundings as long as they are able to sustain themselves. People who live in this country are no different

Of curry bashing and a politically incorrect Indian

Last year, we had proud moments when Aravind Adiga won the booker for “The White Tiger”. I bought the book soon after, and to my horror found it to grossly whack our very persona, of that of an Indian. I felt a sense of embarrassment at being discovered. I felt like burning the book or blasting it off with Diwali leftover Fire crackers. It was highly derisive of the state of our poverty and a loud announcement of our sorry state to the world. Then came “Slumdog Millionaire” and this time it was a bigger shock. It coolly won several Oscars.

As with an average Indian, I was hurt and ashamed at the display of poverty, but it also made me ask questions. Aren’t we a snobbish society? We keep our front clean but what about our back yard? We live in a country where there are ridiculously shameless ways at which the wealth is flaunted. We also live in a country where there is disparity between a rich and poor to a level of insanity.

I am an Indian and I love my country. In fact, I love my country so much that I feel it’s close to being a romantic love. I call it a romantic love because It’s unconditional. I love the food, I have travelled length and breadth of it, I love its culture and diversity, I love its demographics and I love so many things, which would take so many words to describe that my readers would get awfully jaded.To cut a long story short, I love it as much as any other Indian. But I must admit that I love it more when India is playing in a cricket match, or India is attacked by terrorists. Recently, I have started to love my country so much more, the reason being the entire hullabaloo about us getting racially abused in a country called Australia. “Its curry bashing time in OZ land”.

We are an extremely proud nation. Our pride is so much that, if someone calls us snobs, it’s anything but an exaggeration. We think we are superior, we are intelligent and we are better than any other race on earth. The fact is, we are, but so are the whites, the blacks or the Asians. We are extremely cunning. We don’t trust people and in most cases we don’t even care about our neighbors. But we call ourselves the land of “Adhithi devo bhava”. Holy Shit!!

India is a crazy country. I mean , It’s crazy out there. I have realized it only after I have moved out of it. I was a bike enthusiast when in India and I cared and loved my Enfield Bullet machismo, as much as I love my wife now. I almost had my eyes welled up when I was departing it, but now, whenever I come on vacation, I am shit scared for my life when I think of taking it out for a ride. Look at our roads. There is absolute mayhem everywhere. Tuk-Tuk’s(autos) pass you as if they are eve teasing you and come just short of groping your wrong parts of the body. The level of smoke is so much that I hate wearing a white shirt out of fear that it may require a dry cleaning. Our drivers love the sound of Horn so much that their hands are glued to it, as if with Fevicol.

And I haven’t talked about our 50 % of the population. It’s a Thursday and it’s a weekend. I don’t want to feel depressed and screw my Fridays and Saturdays. It’s in a sorry state and we know it much more than anyone else.

We live in a Fool’s paradise when we compare ourselves with China. There is only one comparison and that’s in terms of population. Rest of the comparison is as naïve as comparing a sparrow with giant Panda, in terms of the size. We should know that China is almost twice as big as us and for that size, their population is marginally ahead of us. But for rest of the comparisons, they are a cool 50 years ahead of us. Their roads and highways are much better (in fact they are of the international standards), they have much better public education and health system.

OK, they don’t have democracy, but what’s democracy when you are starving and your children don’t have cloths to wear?

We have made our presence felt around the world. Take the case of the gulf countries. Most countries here have more than 30-40 % Indian population. We compare ourselves with China, but there are absolutely no Chinese laborers working here. Oh, I dint tell you about Indian laborers; they work in +40 Degree C temperatures for a paltry wage of less than 7 $ a day (around Rs 10 K/ month). And I don’t want to mention the cost of living in this country.

Every time I see them move around in bunches, loitering around in Bus stops or having a meal on the pavement, I cease to believe that we are a great nation.

We think we are great specimens of refined society, but I hate to say that we lack basic social sense. We rush ourselves everywhere. Every car wants to outrun the other car and ever bus the other. We don’t give way to the pedestrians and curse and horn loudly if someone comes our way.

Try crossing a road here in this country that I live. A speeding car would wait, and the driver would wave at you to cross the road, probably understanding that you are not as comfortable as him in the car. Isn’t these kind of gestures unheard of in India?

We hate to go to Indian restaurants, as my wife hates men who gape at her. We also hate because Indians make so much of clatter, as if wanting to say they care two hoots about anyone else around them. They are as yet unaware, that people go to restaurants not just to eat, but also to unwind or to have some private moments.

I feel, if we want people to treat us fairly, we need to earn their respect and not cry for it.

I feel we have no right to feel proud of ourselves. We should realize that we are one of the poorest people around and if we are getting bashed by people in some country, its not a curry bashing or a bashing of our skin colour. It’s a bashing of our sad state; it’s a bashing of our poverty.

Having said so much, I must also admit that I have started appreciating writers like Adiga, who have dared to give a picture of India the way it is, and not show an unblemished depiction, a’la Bollywood.We need to see reality as they are and not live in a false sense of well being.

Lets hope that we would have a day in our life time, when we Indians would get to be as proud of our nation, as a Japanese or a French feels for their country and rightly so.

Jai Hind.

P.S: My intention was not to hurt anyone. However, if i have done so, i seek an apology. It was unintended.