Character of a nation
The other day I was having conversation with couple of my friends over brunch about one of my co-workers sister who is of Russian-american origin was in Bangalore on one of her training trips.

She was narrating her experience about contrast in the lifestyle of people in India. On one hand you have towering buildings, beautiful malls, sprawling office complexes, luxury 5 star hotels and then you have dirty roads, littered garbage, poor street children begging for money, half naked men in dhotis ( I assume these were poor uneducated village folks trying to make a living in a big Indian city), pollution, dust.

The conversation slowly veered towards how uncomfortable she felt because suddenly she felt everyone was staring at her on road she was walking on. Well for one she is a curiousity factor in India, a white woman in a BROWN land. I guess what she was unable to fathom was why was everyone staring at her when she is no Hollywood/Bollywood starlet!! People dont stare at you up and down in the US and scan you like a piece of document. Looking is different from staring.

As a result the conversation finally headed towards differences in the life and living conditions in the US and India. Now I just said India is a third world country and even a place like Mumbai has a long way too go. Maybe I have a cynical approach to looking at life.

BAM!!! I am accussed of being unpatriotic and UN-INDIAN. My friends insist that things are happening in India and take a look at all big companies are setting shop in India. I will not deny that fact. But who is is putting all that money in the bowl. US and Europe. Yes they still control the wealth of this world. They can always pull out and go to the next cheapest shop.India and China is viewed as nothing but cheap labor markets. The Atlantic Slave trade that began in the mid 16th century until 1860s involved transporting cheap labor from Africa to work on plantations in the American continents. The only difference is now we have work being done in India and China for almost 1/5th of the costs. The treatment meted out to my co-workers from India is similar too. They get a 41 USD daily allowance for all meals + availing free hotel transport + Motel 6 or Holiday Inn accomodation. Whereas I and my american counterparts get to stay in nicer hotels, 75 USD meal allowance + rental car or transport charges. Now dont we all work for the same company and doesnt every company believe in advertising equal-opportunity employment. The fact of the matter is, this is exploitation. India still has to go a long way to go before it can be considered as an equal partner in any relationship.

I am happy India is awakening economically after 50 years spent experimenting with socialist ideas. But the economic gap in India is always going to be large with wealth concentrated in a small percentage of population while the majority suffer. That small percentage which is a few millions is a large number but a small percentage when compared to India's burgeoning population.The Bollywood glamour, cricket players, rich execs is not the real India, just as Hollywood, pop culture, sex and fornication is not real US either.The real India still lies in the villages and the slums of big indian cities. Thats what I see decides the character of the nation - the "core" people.

When an outsider steps into our international airports, it looks no different from an airport in a third world country in Africa. Thats the first sign of India's real progress.
Similarly take a look at the road systems - the artery of the nation - very poor quality with constant resurfacing after every monsoon. What does that tell you, cheating contractors and local governments. You dont see that in developed world where they have both snow and rain.I have to say I found it amusing when many flyovers projects were started or completed in Bombay, you would see full page ads in newspapers highlighting building of yet another flyover. For godsake, its not an engineering marvel.

Look at the railways, there is always one major accident every year because concept of public life safety is very poor. Sames goes for high number of road accidents. India is probably the only country where you see a traffic police manning a traffic light!!

For getting everything done for approval of new construction to registration of a new business, you need to grease the hands off local authorities. Yes this mostly happens in third world countries, where corruption is bottom up, until developed nations where the corruption is mostly at the top. Corruption is the way of life and people seem to accept that.

Let us just take a look at cleanliness habits, In India your house is nice and clean but do you care how your surrounding is. The garbage is overflowing and littered on the streets. People spit on the streets, throw things around. I am not talking about poor uneducated people, general people behavior.

Lets dig a little bit into our national politics, when LK Advani ran for elections against Rajesh Khanna, Advani barely maanged to win the Gandhinagar seat by 1500 votes. Now LK Advani is a national leader and has done lot for the country and he understands social and national issues, but it was a reality check for Advani.Govinda manages to win elections against Ram Nayak.Amitabh Bacchhan has to do his Rang Barse sequence or utter a few dialogues from his super hit movies at a political rally to get votes for the Samajwadi Party. I have nothing against bollywood, I love those stars but people do not see the difference between an entertainer and a politician who works for the people. You just need to judge the people by the elected officials they elect.

Look at our national monuments, how many of them are in outstanding state compared to ancient castles you see in Europe. I know there are few good ones in State of Rajasthan or Mysore Palace in Karnataka. But those are exceptions and handful to count.

Indians have always been exceptional individuals but we fall apart as team players because of one-upmanship.

Not everything is bad in India. My intention is never to berate my fellow country men and women but put forward my opinion that if someone says India is Shining....Well no, its only flickering and you need to look deeper and address the issues to move ahead in the 21st century. You dont judge the character of the nation by the glamour, IT engineers, cellphones, cricket players but to judge the country as a whole.