Posted on: 02-03-04 12:12:05
HELLO! 
I am very new to the forum as compared to you seniors but when it comes to India we have grown up in..I think I feel the same.These are my views..... no statistics at hand and neither an effort to give a mucky picture of India, just some obsevations.
Yes India is progressing...INDIA SHINING.... and the middle class is making the most of the changes as the pace is incredible, but as the saying goes
\\\"DIYE KE NEECHE ANDHERA\\\" so also is true with India Shining...The middle and working class is in a euphoric state and getting the most light from the shining, of course on the strength of education and plethora of opportunities available to them cheaply ...basically in the cities.... the wave of modernisation and liberalisation have caught them in a \\\"NASHAA
. When we visit for a short time we feel taken in by the whirlpool of progress and when we read THE TIMES OF INDIA we feel proud that the times in India are surely changing!! When we read the page three items about the WHO'S WHO- DOING WHAT AND WHAT...we smile with satisfaction that yes India has ARRIVED. When we drive on those flyovers over the jam packed streets, we get enthralled because some years ago all this was unimaginable...when we see the SCODA's and the HYUNDAI's and the earning youth in a flurry of activities and entertaining and the way they spend without a crease on their forehead...when we see the middleclass being able to travel abroad on vacations every year...when we see the middle class being able to afford memberships to ELITE CLUBS.... when we read interviews of these neo-rich ..Of how one goes to the club and exercises with non other than the BIG B next to him on the treadmill.... we nod with satisfaction that yes at last our beloved INDIA has seen the light of the day!! When we attend those ultra lavish marriages, during our visits, which are an insult to our culture if they do not last for minimum 7 days of celebrations, frankly we put blinkers on our eyes and get carried into the UTOPIAN LAND of the PLENTY. We feel that now we need not feel the pinch, that our conscience need not feel burdened by those images of the hungry and homeless. We, who are away from our country, now need not feel the guilt of not being able to do anything for our country…. and we smile
But in those same cities...if we visit any of the suburbs in the metros, just walk along the footpaths which are footpaths no more but a symbol of a new class...anyone can suggest a name?? There is filth and dirt and hunger and seems as if not a ray of the Shine has reached there and would be ages before it does. Some change is definitely felt by this class too and so they are involved in drugs, prostitution and many anti-social activities...this is where the maximum number of AIDS orphans live and this is where the child is trained to beg and steal...the owners of these gangs are millionaires!! Child labour is an industry The villages in the interior regions of our India is where the shine should reach if India truly wants to empower its people. There is so much poverty, so much illiteracy, such unhygienic and pathetic conditions of living where a glass of water is so murky that for me and you it would be a sure fire path to next life,where politicians are the KINGS and the ignorant and ‘laachar’population, their puppets... Definitely now it does not matter how one gets rich...PAISA HAI TO BUS.... NO PHIKAR...INDIA IS GETTING RICH MAN!!
INDIA will truly shine when that child, caught in the vortex of adult greed can come out of the muck and get a decent education, retain his innocence and chart a respectful life...and..then we need not start any donation drives ....untill then .....WE HAVE NO TIME TO STAND AND STARE AND ITS MILES TO GO BEFORE WE CAN EVEN SIGH and SAY, YES INDIA IS TRULY SHINING
-----------------------------------------------------------------
GREYMATTER IS WHAT REALLY MATTERS!!
Dear GreyCells,
I congratulate you on your excellent post. Very thoughtful. However, my personal opinion on the subject is a little different. Ever heard of the term "The American Dream" ? This is a very general term that is used to describe a massive phenomenon that started in the United States in the Railroad era when a small group of people suddenly started becoming rich through the economic boom flooding through the country. Over the years, other people began to notice the better lifestyle that this small group was enjoying and suddenly everyone wanted to own a house, own a car and work lesser hours for more money. Enter - The Modern America, where everybody is trying to constantly better their lifestyles, to attain a higher social status, to fulfill the "American Dream".
In every village in India, in every home, in every generation there is a person who wants to get out of the daily rut of poverty. This person works hard to get an education, moves to the city and joins the millions striving to live a better life. This person becomes the role model, the inspiration for an entire village and pretty soon, others start trying to follow his lead. Enter - The Modern India.
I agree that the change is slow, but it is coming nevertheless. It may take a while but the change will come. This initial euphoria will settle with time and the maturity that India lacks now shall slowly be ingrained.
It is this maturity that will solve the problems India faces today. No amount of Preaching or Politics can really help. Mahatma Gandhi once said "We must be the Change that we want to see." Yet for us to become the change, we must first begin to realize what this change is all about.
100 mein se 99 Be-Iman
lekin ek ne sikhaya apne bachon ko Iman
Isliye mera Bharat Mahan
Jai Hind!
DT
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Microsoft - Which end of the stick do you want today?
Greycells,
Very nice post!
I agree with you on the poors living in the cities. For villages, I defer you strongly.
Villages are not dirty as you described. They are beautiful. Most of the villagers earn enoguh to feed their family (but not enough to go to vacation to other countries, or even Kullu-Manali, but is that important?), educate their children (FREE education from our Governments playing big role here). Not all of their kids, but many of them succeeds in going to urban areas nearby and live urban life.
I don't seen anything wrong with villagers, they are the most peaceful and joyful people.
Why I am saying this? I myself coming from rural area.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
A Proud Indian Canadian
Are You a Role Model back home in your village Garvo 
DT
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Microsoft - Which end of the stick do you want today?
Unfortunately not 
It is a tradition to have 2-3 students going to engineering and 1-2 to medical every year from the village since long time. There should be many people around the world.
I know one expanded family from my village having 6 doctors (2 in USA), 6 engineers (1 in USA), 1 homeopathists, 1 bank manager, 1 micro-biologists among all cousins!
Modern Villages!
-----------------------------------------------------------------
A Proud Indian Canadian
Grey,
Like you I too am affected when I see those children begging under the shadow of mind-boggling affluence...especially in the cities. I am sure that India has the resources to eradicate this inequality and lessen the gap between the haves and the havenots. I think its a matter of political will and awareness or lack of the same. This awareness has to be driven by the common man...the middle class. That itself is a huge task. It can only come with maturity as DT wrote. For how long can people live with the fact that they see children living in filth and want, every day as they ride their new vehicles? A child whose only fault was to be born to economically deprived parents. How long can they ignore that childs poverty? How long before people realise that inorder to be a truly developed country, children cannot continue to be exploited like they are in the metros? That each child, even if born to the most backward economic group, has the chance to advance to another group...like in the developed world?
How many of us in the western world have ignored any 4-5 yr old child who came upto us and asked us for help? When we go back to India dont we do it on a regular basis in our cities? Dont we ignore that child as if it did not exist? Its like a child there is less valuable or important that one here. The one there is ragged, dirty and begging...however, he/she is still a child? Is it not? How come that we as a society have hardened ourselves to that reality? How then can we say India is 'shining'?
This incident happened in the Suburb of Bandra, bombay a cpl of years ago. I was with my then 4 yrs old daughter and a 5-6 yr old girl came begging(with a 2 yr old infant in her arms) to me. I looked at my daughter(who had a then 1 yr old brother herself) and since it was the first time she saw a child begging, she did not know what to make of it and was looking at me for my reaction. I shamefully chose to do what I used to do before I left for Canada. I ignored that child. I was afraid that my daughter and me would be mobbed if I did not. I guess I was protecting her. However, I certainly did not set a good example for my daughter. I passed on what I had learned to my daughter as well. I can say that India is 'Shining' only when I do not have to go through that experience again.
I am the first one to admit that I did not have to courage to stay back and be a part of that awareness. I dont think I have the courage to go back and change things now, either. I guess I care,* but not enough*. Like most people around me I too am more bothered about myself and my family. I am happy that I do not have to go through those experiences here and fool myself into thinking that I am far removed from that beggar child reality.
I admire the people who stay back and try to change things. There may be a select few who do that. I obviously, am not one of them. Its much easier to run away as most of us have.
I agree with DT that Change is coming. If not for anything else but for the fact that one has to have hope.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Recommended Services- Servicedomino.com
http://www.servicedomino.com
Hey Jake,
I agree with you. I too respect people who stay back in India trying to change things, when it is so easy to run away. My pet peeve are those Desis who in parties and other gatherings, make it a point to denounce India for Poverty, Dirt and other such stereotypes. My usual response to such drivel is this " India's Problems are very complex. A person who doesn't live there, has done nothing to solve these problems and does not plan to do so in the near future, has no right to complaint about the same!" It is these Phirangee Waanabe Desis that promote the CNN and BBC version of "Poverty & Famine Stricken India" in the western world.
DT
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Microsoft - Which end of the stick do you want today?
