Five point some views!!!

My friend Bharathi wrote an excellent post - ‘The Indian dream’ a few days back. I request you to read it first for a better understanding of what's going to follow.


Bharathi's remarks on the political leaders and on our country are pretty intellectual but i kind of disagree with some of them. The aberrations in our opinions are not only restricted to the points of ‘corruption’ or ‘whom to blame for country’s situation’ but they also extend to the more subtle points like ’IST’ and ‘Whether Indians do their job whole heartedly or not’.


I have got so many thoughts running through my mind right now, so, instead of messing them up I will like to write them down into 5 points.So, here I go:




1) Comparison with the UK:


Let me start with this – First of all I don’t think that comparing a developing nation with a developed nation is a wise thing to do. This is because the differences between them are vast and often the root causes of these differences are never addressed.


The question of political corruption, the question of infrastructure, the question of good behavior, all of these have one common answer to them – ‘Money’. Developed nations have enough money to keep their citizens happy and the developing nations don’t. And I don’t need to reveal where they got all that money from J. Even the poorest there would be richer than his counterpart living in a developing nation. The problems that make a developing nation ‘developing’ can hardly be found in a developed nation. So one should not fixate his thinking on why this happens here only and not in the developed countries. You need to think deep to answer this. There is no comparison. The two categories of nations are at different levels all together. It’s like comparing a cat with a mouse and thinking when the mouse will actually be able to walk abreast with the cat. 

But yah, what we can do is that we can compare two rats together. Like two giant rats ‘India’ and ‘China’. Then we can figure out what these two are good at and what we should learn from them in order to achieve our goal of becoming ‘Developed’. That will be a better comparision in many ways. This is because it’s more likely that the two developing nations face similar problems. Thus, by learning how one of them finds a way out of the issues, one can help the other nation in pragmatically solving the similar issues. Our objective is to become better in our own ways. All the developed nations on their path of development were actually competing with each other and that’s how they became developed :). Same trend we should follow.




2) Our political leaders:


Bharathi in his post said that our leaders are no different than us –


‘I feel politicians and corrupt officials are not born straight from sky. They indeed originate within us. They reflect the culture and practices of our entire nation. When we are pointing fingers at corrupt politicians, can we tell that our common people are free of guilt?’


Absolutely true Bharathi. Neither do the politicians come from the sky nor is the common man free of guilt. But leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Valabhbhai Patel, Jawahar lal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastry (and the list of great leaders go on..) also existed with us. Leaders are those who make people follow them, who are considered as idols, who are respected and loved. They are not the ones who follow what a common man does. They are those who bring reforms. They are not the ones who leave their nation and society as it is. Common man needs someone to lead him. A common man’s thinking can be changed by his leader. Leader has to be influential rather than being a dumb listener. Just like Raja Ram Mohan Roy who went against the Indian society and culture to abolish ‘Sati’ system, a political leader’s role is to improve the society by bringing reforms and not to merely accept the society from where he has come from. So, I don’t think that a leader should reflect the culture and practices of the entire nation. If our society is wrong then leaders can only correct them. The sad part is that in India the kind of people who volunteer in elections are not actually made up of leader’s material but are merely representatives of people who don’t even know them. Do you think we have any strong leaders now?




3) We don’t mind litter the space when we are out of our home:


I can understand that this happens due to two reasons-

a) India is still highly uneducated.
b) India doesn’t have appropriate infrastructure.


There is a difference between literacy and education. You can earn well, you can speak well if you are literate but literacy doesn’t guarantee ‘good behaviour’. Sometimes in Delhi I feel that richies are less educated than the middle and lower class. I guess our education system has failed to provide proper education to not only to the children of poor but also of wealthy people.


The other point is that those who are educated and understand that keeping places clean is their fundamental duty, actually land up littering a place cause they can’t find proper arrangement for that. I can hardly see dustbins on the roadsides and public conveniences are rare species too. How can you imagine someone controlling his pee for more than an hour in a search for a public toilet?? How can you imagine people walking miles on the roadside in search of dustbins that never exist??




4) Job inefficiency:

That’s a very important point that you picked up Bharathi. But if you dig deep into the reasons as to why most of the Indians are not that job efficient then you will find that – ‘Indians are not usually happy with their jobs’. Not because it’s paying them less but because they are least interested in the kind of jobs that they do. Now why will someone take a job which will not interest him much? The answer is ‘Family’ and ‘Society’. Indians are wild social animals. And our culture defines our duties; Duties like taking responsibilities of your family, earn some name and respect in the society. You don’t always have a freedom of pursuing what you want to.


I am working in IT industry (no surprise there) and I can see that 70% of people in IT don’t actually like what they are doing. They are doing it just because jobs are in IT sector and nowhere else. They are killing their interests for the sake of money. How do you expect someone to work efficiently with something that he doesn't like doing. People who took biology in their PUC land up becoming an engineer due to their parents' pressure. And no wonder the same logic applies in the govt. sector. The main reason of inefficiency there is that people jump into the govt. offices regardless of the job profile as they are offered permanent jobs. That means tension free life.

Thus I feel that IST is also a product of our job inefficiency. Those who do the things that interest them never actually get late in finishing it. But for others it’s always Indian Stretchable Time.




5) ‘What you can give to the UK’:

As of now what you can give to the UK are the condolences and sympathies from the Indians, directed towards their cricket team :). After all their largest past time colony or what I should say ‘Slave’ is currently the ‘King’ of the game that they invented centuries ago. What else can you give to them??? Just kiddin’ :p.


Well this was a long post. I think I have made my views really clear. Feel free to disagree :).

The Curious Case of Our Nation!! (Reiterated)

I don’t have to go across the globe to write about a curious case. I just need to look into my nation.

The population of Indians in Britain makes British feel so out of place. The prejudice we showed to our neighbors made them remember ‘India’ as a synonym for ‘hate’.

Such has been our unity in the past that we were ruled by almost every might in this world. Such is the case with terrorism in our country that hardly anything has been done.

Such is the craze for Cricket that players are treated as kings as well as waste. The condition of other sports makes them so out of taste.

Such are the IT engineers here that most of them don't even know C. And still India is the number 1 preference for all the IT companies.

Fuming faces when a Muslim girl is on the Tennis Court is what we get to see. The same faces grin when a Muslim actress wears two piece bikini in a movie.

Such are the filmfare awards here that the best of the actors actually boycott them!! Such is the adulation for some that people actually worship them.

Such is the literate society here who spends tons of money donating to the ignorant priests. The plight of a needy is that he can never rest in peace.

Such are the people here who despite of knowing the truth, elect the culprits of ‘Gujrat riots’. Still they don’t agree that they are religiously biased.

The world thinks that India is changing and so do we, but what remains the same are the slums in Mumbai.

India’s 8% annual growth is just an irony. Power cuts in major cities are the sights to see.

Culture, cast , religion are said to be the things that every Indian boasts about. But the tiny box thinking of ours has left us with hate and nothing to be proud of.

Even a nursery going kid in Australia now knows who Indians are. We call them racist, forgetting who we actually are.

The only hope left now is our new generation. But our ignorance still keeps me in suspicion.

I know many may argue that this is not what India is all about, may be yah, but can’t you see the ‘Dance of hypocrisy in the world’s largest democracy’?? That’s what I wanted to bring out.

The Perception

Oh it feels so good!! My quiescent coefficient has been reset. After being dormant for about 2 weeks, I am back and active on my blog. I wasn’t on a self-induced hibernation but was at my new hometown, Jaipur. My family moved to a new house and this kept me away from my beloved blogging world. Packed computer, no broadband, well I didn’t have much options. But now I am back in Bangalore so resuscitation wouldn’t be a bad idea at all, isn’t it?

Ok but before I start I have to admit something. I have fallen in love with Sandy’s blog – ‘The Village Idiot’. Well it really sets me thinking. It’s like the more I read it, the more I get besotted to it. And this infatuation has been very well endorsed by the mountains of similar thoughts that transcend through my mind. The impact is such that his post –‘The divine question’ has now urged me to write something on the same line. I feel that ‘The concept of right or wrong’ can be elucidated with an even broader exegesis (in fact a confusing exegesis) of ‘Perception’.

Let’s take an example of the two arch rivals. If you are an Indian then I bet you know whom I am talking about. Of course, it’s gotta be India and Pakistan. In 1947, the Great Britain (as one stand-out comedian said- “The only country that puts an adjective before its name, so why not call it ‘The Fucking awesome Britain’???”) concluded its honeymoon (which was an orgy full of continuous ‘Rapes’ of India’s affluence and harmony) in the subcontinent that lasted for some 300yrs. Of course there were some unintentional rapists mixed with the Englishmen in the longest orgy in the world’s history, most of which were Indian maharajas who were later left hapless by their naivety in understanding the sly Britishers. Also, the brainy Englishmen made full use of a diversified India with their ‘Divide and Rule’ policy to exploit our resources. But when it came to let go everything, the magnanimous British administration as a goodwill gesture before leaving, gifted us (oops, to the world) Pakistan. Now unlike many people I don’t believe in hating Pakistan. Yah, I know I am being sacrilegious. But a saga of empathy drove me to this anti-belief.

Pakistan since its existence has been paranoid of being eaten up by its very own neighbour, India. This has been the base of all the problems b/w the two countries. Since the 60yrs of existence, its perception about India hasn’t changed. The cynic army of Pakistan has always viewed India as a sniper ready to take pot-shots on her ass. “India is our first and foremost enemy”, their army believes. But why?? Cause according to them, Indian majority i.e Hindus hate Muslims (the seed of hatred planted by Britishers during their rule). The few now and then communal riots in India induce reverberations across the border deepening the hatred between the two countries. Secondly, they think that like China, India also dreams of being a super power and to show its dominance in the region, it may abash Pakistan commercially or may also invade her to grow its influence. India is more threatening than China because the hate that spawned during the partition in 1947 is still very much alive in people’s heart. So, if you ask 1000 Pakistanis about their view on India, then 995 of them will admit that they take India as a threat and only 0.5% of them would be sacrilegious like me. Hence, the Pakistani army in the very interest of securing her country designed a policy for countering the illusive Indian threat. Insurgency in Kashmir and support to radicals like Maoist in the east is a part of their foreign doctrine. The aim is to disintegrate India into smaller and weak states, thereby, eliminating any threat to Pakistan’s survival. ’ Smaller and divided India is also in the benefit of China’; it’s a typical Chinese communist party’s perception. They think it’s good for their nation’s supremacy in the region.

So, my question is that if your country is paranoid about such a threat from any of your neighbours then what will you do?? After all we all are living to live. We want to survive. Well we will do exactly the same things that Pakistan does to India (believe me, I am right). Thus we should understand that Pakistan is doing the right thing in the quest of saving its sovereignty. Pakistan’s perception is right.

Now if you ask me about India’s perception about Pakistan, then I will keep it short. I don’t know why a nation so small, so trivial is busy in keeping my nation busy with all the unwanted stuff. I don’t know why it is always scared of us when we have never attacked them first. Communal rights in my country are my problem, not Pakistan’s, so why it has to always interfere. The more number of Muslims die every day in Iraq bombings and Northern African civil wars, so why is it only concerned with the few unfortunates in my country? Majority of Muslims in India are better off than from any other part of the world. Well all I think is that Pakistan is just a paranoid nation and I am right (yah believe me, I am right).

You see, it’s impossible to figure out who is absolutely right in the two points of views presented above. The reason lies in our Physics books. It’s the ‘Theory of relativity’ again. Deciding on what is right or wrong is a subjective matter, it is relative. What’s wrong for some is right for others and vice-versa. The same people for some are the ‘Mujaheedins’ (the strugglers) and ‘terrorists’ to others. Those who like metal genre can’t appreciate classical sitars for guitars and vice-versa again though both are pieces of art. Those who like Shahrukh khan cannot accept Aamir Khan as the king of bollywood and vice versa though both are excellent entertainers.

Sandy wrote that when two incompatible custom-tailored value systems collide, there are conflicts. And he is right. Well India and Pakistan themselves are such custom-tailored value systems, and unfortunately the geographies of the two make the collision between the two inevitable. We will never agree with Pakistani perception and they will never agree with us.

Sandy's conclusion that ‘Might is always Right’ is also very apt. Perceptions that have perpetuated through the generations for past 60 yrs. in the two quarrelling neighbourhoods have been continuously nurtured by their governments and armies. It’s they who have kept them prevailing. The news, the media, the government (the powerhouse of information), has kept this distrust between the two countries prevailing through their dubious propagandas. And that’s why we believe that what we think is right and what they believe is wrong. No doubt Sandy got everything correct on this topic :).

Now before I sign off, I will like to reiterate - “There is nothing called absolutely right or absolutely wrong. It’s all relativity, it’s all perception”.

And this is what I perceive and I know I am rightJ.

The Curious Case of Our Nation!!

I don’t have to go across the globe to write about a curious case. I just need to look into my nation.

The population of Indians in Britain makes British feel so out of place. The prejudice we showed to our neighbors made them remember ‘India’ as a synonym for ‘hate’.

Such has been our unity in the past that we were ruled by almost every might in this world. Such is the case with terrorism in our country that hardly anything has been done.

Such is the craze for Cricket that players are treated as kings as well as waste. The condition of other sports makes them so out of taste.

Such are the IT engineers here that most of them don't even know C. And still India is the number 1 preference for all the IT companies.

Uproar when a Muslim girl is on Tennis Court is what we get to see. The same faces grin when a Muslim actress wears two piece bikini in a movie.

Such are the filmfare awards here that the best of the actors actually boycott them!! Such is the adulation for some that people actually worship them.

Such is the literate society here who spends tons of money donating to the ignorant priests. The plight of a needy is that he can never rest in peace.

Such are the people here who despite of knowing the truth, elect the culprits of ‘Gujrat riots’. Still they don’t agree that they are religiously biased.

The world thinks that India is changing and so do we, but what remains the same are the slums in Mumbai.

India’s 8% annual growth is just an irony. Power cuts in major cities are the sights to see.

Culture, cast , religion are said to be the things that every Indian boasts about. But the tiny box thinking of our's has left us with hate and nothing to be proud of.

Even a nursery going kid in Australia now knows who Indians are. We call them racist, forgetting who we actually are.

The only hope left now is our new generation. But our ignorance still keeps me in suspicion.

I know many may argue that this is not what India is all about, may be yah, but can’t you see the ‘Dance of hypocrisy in the world’s largest democracy’?? That’s what I wanted to bring out.