This one goes out for the 'city-bred-pseudos'
“We are the next superpower…..”
If I had a rupee every time someone said that, I would have several Mittals washing my army of Maybachs with mineral water. We Indians have used our new found growth as a shield; whenever we lack valid arguments in those all so prevalent ‘how-my-country-can-beat-up-your-country’ debates. The most common contenders in these tournaments are of course India and the USA.
The new young, hip and vibrant India seems to be sending out a ‘dare all’ message. We openly proclaim our ambition to become a superpower by 2020. Our missile man – turned President has even written a book on it. Well, there’s nothing wrong in being ambitious. But a serious ‘reality check’ is due. And before we dismiss America as a land of fat couch potatoes with easy money and who need counselling to relieve shopping stress; we need to think again.
“Those American kids are so dumb. My 10 year old Bunty can solve problems from an 8th standard American mathematics book.” That is not a problem. The problem is that this is all an average Bunty can do. Although Mommy does send him to classical Hindustani music classes, but that is only because she hopes that someday he’ll become the next Indian Idol. So what if he likes painting more? There is no Indian Idol for talent in painting. The point I am trying to make here is that we always want our kids to follow well-oiled tracks of proven career choices. What? Your daughter wants to become a sculptor? Where’s the money in that? We need to realize that a career is not chosen on the basis of how much money one gets or the associated ‘glam factor’. It is about what you really like and what you think you are good at. Because if you like something then you inherently give it your best shot. Then money is a natural progression. The 10th standard American kid might not be as sharp as our Bunty when it comes to solving maths problems but he does have knowledge about different world religions, Greek or Egyptian mythology, Russian or French revolution or even pottery for that matter. Because his curriculum straight till his 10th standard included these subjects. Also these subjects weren’t thrust upon him. He had the weapon of choice. In India, we repeat the Indian Independence struggle thrice as a part of history in 10 years of school curriculum. Moral of the story: give all areas of education, equal importance. “Those American schools are so bad, kids carry guns and shoot each other!” In India, kids carry camera phones to school to ‘shoot’ their classmates doing the ‘ahem’ stuff. (read DPS) So, yeah our kids don’t carry guns and kill each other but they aren’t Tibetan monks either. And at the rate at which we are going, that day is not far when we’d have little mujahideens running around with pistols.
We take pride in proclaiming that the IITs are the best engineering colleges in the world. Probably not even the brightest of Americans teenagers would clear the IIT-JEE exam. (our Bunty did; in flying colours). But we shouldn’t forget that in spite of this, some of the greatest inventions in the last century (read microprocessor, the Internet, etc.) have come from America. Now how did they manage that without having an IIT? Some food for thought, aint it? “
Bangalore: a la San Hose. The next IT boomtown of the world. Yes, we call ourselves the IT superpower already. Look Uncle Sam, we have Infosys. Well, try asking any random person on the road, what does Infosys do? “They do something related to computer, software is it? Doesn’t matter, sounds hi-tech enough for me.” To put it simply they write software for various ‘Fortune 500’ companies. They do take pride in highlighting their esteemed clientele, which are mostly American companies. Step in, problem number two. We need to stop being satisfied with being a service-oriented economy. We need pioneering companies that develop products like no other in the world. Just developing high end software or attending to abusive calls won’t do. But what about our Tatas and Birlas? Aren’t the big enough? Reliance industries is worth Rs. 96,000 crores. I say that’s pennies. Check this out – the value of IBM’s market liquidity is more than India’s GDP. The point here is that we should refrain from patting our own backs as yet because we still have a long way to go. And yes not just by providing back end support to IBM. But by making our own IBM.
Come 2008, Mumbai will be getting a sea-link which will be the only one of its kind in this part of the world. Isn’t that cool? The capital city of a state gets a flamboyant and expensive arm candy for transport (read Rs. 1600 crores) when it already has a near perfect bus and train system. In the meantime, the rest of the state reels under 4-9 hours of power cuts everyday. The total transmission and theft loss of the MSEB (Maharashtra State Electricity Board) is somewhere around 30% whereas that for the Californian power grid (which is much larger than MSEB) is around 0.03%. Guess the much needed power generating stations can wait but not the sea-link. Problem number three – we need to get our priorities right. When the US talks about building the world’s tallest building, they are rest assured that there won’t be a single power cut. Our reply? Let’s top theirs by building our own tallest building in Noida. Need I say more?
The last and probably the biggest hurdle is our massive ego problem. We have this denial syndrome. We just won’t accept that we are wrong. Just because we fought off the British and achieved independence 58 years ago doesn’t make each and everyone of us, a Gandhi-avatar. I pay my taxes, I vote which means I can jump the red signal. Wait before you do that, keep a 50 rupee note handy, in case the big-bellied cop catches you. This is so convenient, because he rarely takes the trouble of stopping you. Too much hassle you see. Now in the land of Uncle Sam, the cop would probably chase you down and arrest you for this and you would probably end up having your licence suspended. Jeez, why take so much trouble when a mutual agreement over a 50 rupee note could make both parties happy. It happens only in India. (And probably in Surinam)
The pseudo-modernists, pseudo-secularists, God they get on my nerves. Some Software Engineer sitting in the plush living room of the 18th storey pent-house in Bangalore, has opinions about a right wing fundamentalists organisation and how its ruining the secular thread of India. I am no right-wing fundamentalists, (for the record, I am a centrist) but come on. Why deliver your opinions that are solely based on what NDTV reports or what Barkha Dutt thinks. (Don’t even get me started on Aaj-Tak) He probably spent most of his thinking power on some dumb ass software that he writes all day for some American company who probably thought it was to easy and time-consuming to do that in-house. These very fundamentalists parties are extremely vital to maintain a ‘communal balance’ in the country. Otherwise within a few years the text books would say that Prophet Muhammad killed the evil Rama and saved the world from the infidels. On this topic, I could write another article.
At this rate, I see Ivory Coast and Tunisia becoming superpowers before we do. We need to think a little less about what we achieved so far and do much more that is much needed. If we are to become the next superpower, we first need to change our own attitudes towards the country. You and me.
If I had a rupee every time someone said that, I would have several Mittals washing my army of Maybachs with mineral water. We Indians have used our new found growth as a shield; whenever we lack valid arguments in those all so prevalent ‘how-my-country-can-beat-up-your-country’ debates. The most common contenders in these tournaments are of course India and the USA.
The new young, hip and vibrant India seems to be sending out a ‘dare all’ message. We openly proclaim our ambition to become a superpower by 2020. Our missile man – turned President has even written a book on it. Well, there’s nothing wrong in being ambitious. But a serious ‘reality check’ is due. And before we dismiss America as a land of fat couch potatoes with easy money and who need counselling to relieve shopping stress; we need to think again.
“Those American kids are so dumb. My 10 year old Bunty can solve problems from an 8th standard American mathematics book.” That is not a problem. The problem is that this is all an average Bunty can do. Although Mommy does send him to classical Hindustani music classes, but that is only because she hopes that someday he’ll become the next Indian Idol. So what if he likes painting more? There is no Indian Idol for talent in painting. The point I am trying to make here is that we always want our kids to follow well-oiled tracks of proven career choices. What? Your daughter wants to become a sculptor? Where’s the money in that? We need to realize that a career is not chosen on the basis of how much money one gets or the associated ‘glam factor’. It is about what you really like and what you think you are good at. Because if you like something then you inherently give it your best shot. Then money is a natural progression. The 10th standard American kid might not be as sharp as our Bunty when it comes to solving maths problems but he does have knowledge about different world religions, Greek or Egyptian mythology, Russian or French revolution or even pottery for that matter. Because his curriculum straight till his 10th standard included these subjects. Also these subjects weren’t thrust upon him. He had the weapon of choice. In India, we repeat the Indian Independence struggle thrice as a part of history in 10 years of school curriculum. Moral of the story: give all areas of education, equal importance. “Those American schools are so bad, kids carry guns and shoot each other!” In India, kids carry camera phones to school to ‘shoot’ their classmates doing the ‘ahem’ stuff. (read DPS) So, yeah our kids don’t carry guns and kill each other but they aren’t Tibetan monks either. And at the rate at which we are going, that day is not far when we’d have little mujahideens running around with pistols.
We take pride in proclaiming that the IITs are the best engineering colleges in the world. Probably not even the brightest of Americans teenagers would clear the IIT-JEE exam. (our Bunty did; in flying colours). But we shouldn’t forget that in spite of this, some of the greatest inventions in the last century (read microprocessor, the Internet, etc.) have come from America. Now how did they manage that without having an IIT? Some food for thought, aint it? “
Bangalore: a la San Hose. The next IT boomtown of the world. Yes, we call ourselves the IT superpower already. Look Uncle Sam, we have Infosys. Well, try asking any random person on the road, what does Infosys do? “They do something related to computer, software is it? Doesn’t matter, sounds hi-tech enough for me.” To put it simply they write software for various ‘Fortune 500’ companies. They do take pride in highlighting their esteemed clientele, which are mostly American companies. Step in, problem number two. We need to stop being satisfied with being a service-oriented economy. We need pioneering companies that develop products like no other in the world. Just developing high end software or attending to abusive calls won’t do. But what about our Tatas and Birlas? Aren’t the big enough? Reliance industries is worth Rs. 96,000 crores. I say that’s pennies. Check this out – the value of IBM’s market liquidity is more than India’s GDP. The point here is that we should refrain from patting our own backs as yet because we still have a long way to go. And yes not just by providing back end support to IBM. But by making our own IBM.
Come 2008, Mumbai will be getting a sea-link which will be the only one of its kind in this part of the world. Isn’t that cool? The capital city of a state gets a flamboyant and expensive arm candy for transport (read Rs. 1600 crores) when it already has a near perfect bus and train system. In the meantime, the rest of the state reels under 4-9 hours of power cuts everyday. The total transmission and theft loss of the MSEB (Maharashtra State Electricity Board) is somewhere around 30% whereas that for the Californian power grid (which is much larger than MSEB) is around 0.03%. Guess the much needed power generating stations can wait but not the sea-link. Problem number three – we need to get our priorities right. When the US talks about building the world’s tallest building, they are rest assured that there won’t be a single power cut. Our reply? Let’s top theirs by building our own tallest building in Noida. Need I say more?
The last and probably the biggest hurdle is our massive ego problem. We have this denial syndrome. We just won’t accept that we are wrong. Just because we fought off the British and achieved independence 58 years ago doesn’t make each and everyone of us, a Gandhi-avatar. I pay my taxes, I vote which means I can jump the red signal. Wait before you do that, keep a 50 rupee note handy, in case the big-bellied cop catches you. This is so convenient, because he rarely takes the trouble of stopping you. Too much hassle you see. Now in the land of Uncle Sam, the cop would probably chase you down and arrest you for this and you would probably end up having your licence suspended. Jeez, why take so much trouble when a mutual agreement over a 50 rupee note could make both parties happy. It happens only in India. (And probably in Surinam)
The pseudo-modernists, pseudo-secularists, God they get on my nerves. Some Software Engineer sitting in the plush living room of the 18th storey pent-house in Bangalore, has opinions about a right wing fundamentalists organisation and how its ruining the secular thread of India. I am no right-wing fundamentalists, (for the record, I am a centrist) but come on. Why deliver your opinions that are solely based on what NDTV reports or what Barkha Dutt thinks. (Don’t even get me started on Aaj-Tak) He probably spent most of his thinking power on some dumb ass software that he writes all day for some American company who probably thought it was to easy and time-consuming to do that in-house. These very fundamentalists parties are extremely vital to maintain a ‘communal balance’ in the country. Otherwise within a few years the text books would say that Prophet Muhammad killed the evil Rama and saved the world from the infidels. On this topic, I could write another article.
At this rate, I see Ivory Coast and Tunisia becoming superpowers before we do. We need to think a little less about what we achieved so far and do much more that is much needed. If we are to become the next superpower, we first need to change our own attitudes towards the country. You and me.
posted by Akshay at 11:27 pm
2 Comments:
hey, u changed ur template kya ? change back dude, earlier one was better...
Brilliant!
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