India Vs Bharat

The Asian Tiger, India awakening...are few of the phrases I have read so many times in national and international business magazines and heard on prominent news channels . How many times I have listened to discussions on India's strengths of high-quality, low-cost human capital and her greatest constraints — a serious infrastructure deficiency and lagging foreign direct investment. Since the reforms of the early 1990s, India has progessed like anything on the macro-economic front and while India still suffers by comparison with China, it is in better shape with respect to its banking system, active capital markets, and a new generation of indigenous world-class companies and english speaking entrepreneurs and employees.
However what puzzles me is our complete ignorance of the concept of greater Bharat where everything is still the way it was. Illiteracy, poverty, starvation, malnutrition, lack of edible water are some of the lows that still persists amongst the highs of being a nuclear power nation with vast reserves of foreign currency. Dowry system, wife beating, killing of female foetus are signs of the fact that economic development and progress have failed to tame the feudal mentality of a greater chunk of the population; that IT and IT enabled services, that biogenetics and hi end research, that nukes and stealth submarines have not yet produced the dream country. We are 60 years into our independence, and theres definitely a long way to go to make Bharat happening.

Life @ Fort Smith Ver 2.0

Yesterday I completed one year of my job assignment at this god-forsaken place called Fort Smith; survived successfully the 'real' american apprehensiveness for brown skin and outsourcing which are characteristic features of most 'red' states of southern USA. However all is not bad; learned a lot on the job about handling people and processes, met a few people over the year who are actually progessive thinkers inspite of owning gass guzzling trucks, swearing by Walmart and their love for country music and boots, came in touch with women from different strata of the society (read very poor to aristrocratic) working at casinoes, malls, offices, insurance agencies, hospitals, car dealerships, bars and no-where (many of them share the same bliss of being 'single' for similar reasons: lack of exposure to outside world or overdose of exposure leading to adultery or the inherent southern spirit of not being able to reason to simple compromises in life). All these people, experiences made me more attuned to the truth behind the veil of so called american way of life (in small cities) and appreciate more the values that matter.
The lives of people here at Fort Smith or for that matter any small city in mid south west is so different from the lives of people at NYC, Chicago, LA, Atlanta, Sanfransisco, Dallas, Seattle. Lack of economic opportunities, absence of quality education, delayed exposure to world economy, excessive adherence to easy life.....all slow down the growth of such cities where most young kids look up only to the US army or the Walmart for the next job. Its a pity that corporate America is not coming up with new ventures to get this young, bright minds into action. This reminds me that we Indians, inspite of being from a third world country with very limited resources have actually come a long way within 60 years of our independence, taking advantage of the globalization of the economy. I think the middle class value-based bringing up, the hunger for doing something more than just surviving the daily rigmarole, and openmindedness enabled us where we are today. And I believe that only a few young educated people from these small US cities, who have the guts to be different and ability to adapt to changing demands of the economy can brighten the name of their hometowns sometime in the future.