India Shining????

Shocked to see this title being penned by me??????

Well, go on reading, you'll realize.

21st century will see India as the real superpower.

It's Indian brainpower that's running global IT industry.

Delhi and Mumbai will soon be on a par with the likes of London and New York.

Sound familiar???

Well, above mentioned are the statements that are always used as curtains to reality.

Golden curtains. Showing you big dreams.

Someone has rightly (though sarcastically) said, "If you keep dreaming, when will you pursue it?"

Few days back, I was surfing internet to see where India stands. Before I go on analyzing, you may like to bookmark  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_countries

When I saw global rankings in terms of nominal GDP, India seems to have fared well, at least respectable, something you may expect out of a 1 billion populated, 60 odd years old country. It stands in top 15.

Exports are also good, foreign debt is also not unmanageable, much less than many developed countries including USA, UK and many other hotshots.

This gives me a kind of picture that India is shining.

A self made country....... with hostile neighbors............ you can't expect more.

But later I checked the lists of countries based on Human Development Index (HDI), percentage of people below poverty line, percentage of people malnourished etc etc.

I was gloomed to see India shining in the list of countries with highest no. of malnourished people.

It's true, even today many Indians don't have basic human amenities. No water, no electricity, no school, no hospital... that's the description of Indian village.

India's metros are getting richer and richer and crowded too. Most of great global MNCs are either present in India, or are eyeing to be in India. All the global brands are available in India, and that probably makes it a cynosure.

Wait, did anyone look at the villages?

It's height of ill governance that world's richest men/women belong to India (it's mEn/womEn, there are plenty other than Ambanis), and millions of Indians are still suffering every night from the uncertainty of earning the livelihood for the next day.

Decentralization of wealth is of utmost importance. There are many bottlenecks in the system, government just needs to take care of the bottlenecks, the wealth in the country is more than sufficient to feed every Indian.

ISRO is planning mission to moon, and we also have people who let their family members die, because they don't have money to take them to a better hospital in city, leave alone moon.

In terms of HDI (which, I feel is the most effective measure for a country's wealth), India is ranked 134 among 182 studied. This is dangerous, this is awful, I'd rather like it to be awakening.

Millioners are becoming billioners, and poor is getting poorer.

As once claimed by Rajiv Gandhi, not more than 10% of the total allotted aid reaches the real beneficiaries. It vanishes in the supply chain, to grease the joints of the chain - the so called Sarkari babus. Their pockets are getting heavier and the poor's stomach is getting lighter day by day.

If this devastation is not stopped, it will create an unbridgeable separation between the rich and the poor, resulting in social discrimination getting more severe, or in the worst case; civil war.

This can be prevented only by bringing all the Indians on the same platform, by providing equal opportunities to everyone, by realizing the effective implementation of all the government policies, and last but not the least, by curbing corruption.

Remember, if you pay a bribe of 100Rs to a traffic police constable, you are encouraging corruption, you are corroding the country, and digging the grave of national harmony.

This is not funny.

A country's action is nothing but the people's collective actions. What you do on a smaller scale does reflect on a bigger scale. If as an individual, you are not corrupt, you're a boon to the nation, and we need millions of such boons. When there's noone to offer bribe, who will there be to receive???

Give it a thought, and make your small but proud contribution by making a resolve of never to encourage corruption and to empower the nation.

Happy Republic Day

Happy Republic Day.

This is not yet another day like Valentine's Day, Friendship Day etc etc. This probably means a little more than that.

I was very enthusiastic at 7:50am when I left for flag hoisting ceremony held at IIT Madras, but disappointment and despair filled my heart as enthusiasm gave out looking at the attendance of less than 40 out of more than 400 professors and less than 100 out of more than 5000 students. It seems IIT judges India's nerves very well. The organizers were so confident about PATRIOTIC(!!!!) Indians' nature, that they brought not more than 200 chairs; and to prove them right, though sad, IITians didn't turn up for the celebration. (At least don't ask me celebration of what)

Not just IIT, even telecom service providers are also well versed with our Indianness. (Does it really exist???) Rates of sms and calls will touch the skyline on Valentine's Day, Friendship Day, Diwali, Eid, Christmas and bla bla bla, but on Republic Day or Independence Day, there's no need for any hike in the rates, as this probably doesn't even mean to the mass as a festival.

Ever heard anyone saying, I'll buy something on the Independence Day or Republic Day??? The superstitios lot of the Hindu population will buy new things on Diwali, Dushera etc, because those days are claimed to be auspicious, then what is this day? Isn't it a festival? To me, it is. I'm blogging about every possible social issue ranging from reservation to patriotism to casteism to religion to politics. How can I do so? I'm writing against the prime minister too. How do I get this freedom? This courage?

Republic Day gives me that courage. It gives me space to breathe. It allows me to assert. It gives me freedom of speech and freedom of expression. It humanizes me and makes my life livable. Thus it is probably the biggest festival for me, and I feel, should be for every Indian.

There had been some nice experiences seeing an auto driver carrying the national flag with the auto. Illiterate he may be according to Indian census, but I would call him a laureate. At least he knows the significance of the day in a crowd full of so called IITians, so called future of India, for whom Republic Day is nothing but yet another holiday, a day to rest peacefully after the four days' hangover of Saarang (annual cultural fest of IIT Madras held between 22 to 25 Jan) or a day to go on trips or movies.

I am not juvenile to say that only he/she who comes to flag hoisting is patriotic, and not others. If you're doing some constructive work for the well being of the fellow countrymen and human race as a whole, it would be better not to halt and continue; but sleeping peacefully in the room or just roaming around is certainly not something I can appreciate.

It feels disgusting when I have to remind someone of the flag hoisting ceremony.

Looking at the tricolour waving in air and reciting the national anthem is not our duty, it's our right. It's a celebration, it's a reminder of being Indian.

But with the present scenario, it even feels in vain to blog about this. It's really going to be an exhausting task to revive the feeling of being Indian in the Indians, but to achieve something, you must begin.

And this was my humble beginning. I hope you would introspect and make your integrity even stronger and dedication towards the nation versatile.

Happy Republic Day...

Perseverance

It was 7:20pm today evening, and I was on my way to Media Resource Centre, IIT Madras, to attend a lecture specially organized by Vivekananda Study Circle, a group of IITM students.

The speaker was Sarath Babu. A person from poor background, brought up in slums of Chennai, making it to BITS Pilani and IIM Ahmedabad; and a successful CEO, heading foodking, successfully at 29 years of age.

The above statement is more than capable to awe you about the greatness of this person, I'd rather use the word fighter.

It was 7:25, I reached the venue, and saw the man himself getting down from his car, very simple, noble; and above all punctual. Unlike many so called celebrated speakers preferring to make a pseudo style statement by arriving 20 to 25 minutes late, this man was ready on the venue, five minutes early. Seeing the lecture hall empty, he was made to wait for 15 minutes; something really shameful on the organizers' part.

Here starts the wonderful tale.

He shared his life story, the struggles, the hurdles in his path, but he had his mind focused.

Despite living in a hut, in the lack of basic amenities, he was always the ranker.

He earned money by book binding, so that he could pay his fees for 11th standard.

He joined BITS Pilani, did BTech in Chemical Engg, worked in Polaris for three years, cracked the toughest cookie in the country, IIM-A. This really is inspiring, but not rib-tickling.

The rib-tickling part comes now.

It's needless to say that IIM-A graduate will be welcome by any firm in the world, so was the case with Mr Sarath Babu; but he preferred going the less traveled way.

He turned entrepreneur, in hunt of his dream, with a meagre 2,000Rs capital, (I didn't miss any zero, it really was two thousand), not more than three years ago from now; and today he is heading a firm of more than 7Cr Rs turnover!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Being an entrepreneur must be the dream of so many, but the reason I am writing about Mr Sarath Babu, is that he chose this with a view to creating employment opportunities, and not wealth.

His statement keeps taking round in my mind.

"Through a job offered to me by IIM-A placements, my family could have been well-off, but by being an entrepreneur, and by employing 250 people, today 250 families are earning their livelihood through me."

Surprises are yet to end. He contested in 2009 Parliamentary election as an independent candidate from South Chennai.

Aspiring to be education minister one day, he has a long way to go, but looking at his perseverance, it will not surprise me, if I see him in the cabinet in a decade.

Look at the Sarath Babu now, and look at the Sarath Babu two decades back.

A transformation from a son of an Idli seller living in slums to a potential minister and a successful CEO.

If this tansformation is possible, perseverance can do anything and everything, all you need to have is a dream, and never say die spirit.

His life story looks like a fairy tale, could really be a role model for the current generation, and at least for me.

Hats off to you Sarath Babu...