India - Myriad Mysteries Unraveled

chillibreeze writer — Sankaran Subramanian

Need an editable PowerPoint map of India

India - a myriad mix of color and culture. A mystifying country with a billion people, a million languages, and an equal number of castes and sub-castes. This is the country of the Holy Ganges whose purity and sanctity is believed to have the potential to give something that everyone man yearns for: salvation. But it is the same Ganges which is used as a dumping yard by many to dissolve the remains of the departed.

India, too, is like the Ganges. Here is where all leading multinational corporate bigwigs want to own a piece of land. American companies rely heavily on the talented and educated manpower in India, especially in the IT industry. Here is where companies like Toyota, Wal-Mart and Pepsi are competing with one another to gain market space.

Ironically, here is also where we have business scams at an unimaginable scale. 2G, Adarsh, and Commonwealth to mention a few. The value of the money laundered is a figure that is totally inconceivable to a normal human mind. Despite so many impurities, how does the Ganges still maintain its sanctity and status? Despite so many impurities, how does India continue to remain the world's largest democracy and one of the leading economies?

If we have a look into in a typical local train compartment in city like Mumbai or Chennai, chances are very high that we can spot person belonging to each of the below mentioned breeds: A corporate professional, a middle class salaried man, a daily wages labourer, a beggar who has no idea whether or not he will be having his next meal. The spectrum is so vast. How do all seem to co-exist in the same domain of time and space?

Exploring further down, we can see that the basic element of a country is a citizen. To unravel the mystic nature of the country we must understand the nature of the citizen first. A typical Indian citizen's life would go thus:

At the age of five or six, he is admitted in a school. There he is taught (or rather forced to listen) various subjects like Math, history, science, and geography. When he reaches the age of 16 or 17, the real fun begins. S/he faces the first challenge in life - “board examinations”. He manages to somehow get a decent score. The next part is the college admission part. If s/he friend conveys to his parents that he wishes to study English literature or archaeology, he is chided as though he has committed a crime. He is droned at for hours at end by his parents’ friends, neighbours, and relatives to go for engineering or medicine. And ultimately he is forced to study something which he does not like. His freedom is taken away and he is pushed to live in a world which he never liked and never will. But somehow our friend adjusts and pulls along for four or five years. Then begins the job searching phase. In a society where the number of applicants the number of jobs is similar to the number of leaves in a banyan tree and a rose plant, he goes out and tries to search for job. There again, he is not free to follow his own will and wish. The same old relatives, neighbors come again for droning out their lectures.

He wishes to buy a new house. But he refuses to pay bribe at the registrar’s office. He is looked upon as though he himself were a criminal. He wants to follow the rules in a traffic signal. But even when the red light is on, the fellow behind him honks the horn and urges him to move on. He is chided and labeled as a fool. At no point of time he is allowed to follow his mind. What is the result for following the rules and being true? Why is the country so?

In every single nook and corner of the country, we have fixed our vision to a very narrow limit like a horse. That’s being “institutionalized”. Anything out the ordinary comes as shock to us and we refuse to accept change. Anyone trying to be honest is treated as a blasphemer.But still there are some exceptions. Some people who are a step ahead of the typical Indian citizen and take pains to broaden the line of sight. The strength of those exceptional people is on the rise. And that is exactly the reason why the country is prospering in spite of so many differences/impurities.

The need of the hour is broadening of vision. We need to throw away older perceptions and acknowledge the newer ones. We need appreciate people who take pains to change the country and need to be a part of the same. And that shall make the dream of Former president Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam a reality. India, a developed nation by 2020.

“Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action---Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.” – Rabindranth Tagore’s Gitanjali.

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Chillibreeze's disclaimer: This is a contributed article and was published on Chillibreeze in May, 2011. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the views of Chillibreeze as a company. Chillibreeze has a strict anti-plagiarism policy. Please contact us to report any copyright issues related to this article. The relevance of the facts and figures cited (if any) could change after a period of time.

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—About our writer:

Sankaran Subramanian is a B.Tech graduate. He is currently working as a software engineer in India's largest IT services provider Tata consultancy services Ltd. He is interested in travel writing and reviewing burning social issues. He is also interested in writing poems. He enjoys reading fiction and war related thrillers, going for long drives and listening music. He is currently based in Chennai.

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