are we there yet? part 2
the global india.....
I had just met up with a friend who in his role as the 'Engineer' ( not the code coolie) has been globetrotting with his backpack. No, i dont mean sight seeing, but I mean working. Yes his base is in India, but he has been working on projects in Germany and the US for the past six months. There are almost thousands of such indian professionals world wide, working on projects ranging from technology to engineering. Each of them get their chance on the Maid of the Mist, and Mom's home cooked meal all in a space of 6 months. Thank Infy and the gang for this, thank the govt for its non interference. So in a space of a decade, the world seems to need india more than india needing the world ( referring to times when Teresa and the City of joy were india's claim to fame) So where do we go from here?
What happens when you have an implosion within india with the media feedin you all sorts of unnecessary information and at the same time you have an explosion of happenings when you become a part of this global india?
Which value system do you take refuge in?
I remember the times when i watched NDTV or any other news channel in india. The amount of news that happened all over the world, some guy got arrested in Male for whippin a horse. Some kid bursta a balloon in skool. This might be information, but it makes u lose focus on whats important. And suddenly im in the land of the free, where the news is as ridiculous, with kittens and ducks crossing the road.
But there is a choice. You choose what is news for u. So its ure effort that plays an important role.
The clash of the values....
I feel we as a homogenous Indian population are really pushin hard to cross all boundaries that were once just home to a privileged few. We know one in three ppl in the world is Chinese, Indians would be a close 5th. This was always the case, but now its more blatant. We see Indians everywhere. From Europe to America to fiji, we have them all over the world. But thats a generation that grew up in a closed india. so you see the values of the old and the new face each other for survival.
but whats happenin in our backyard? things in urban india are movin so fast, ppl who leave the place for a yr or 2 get caught in their own set of memories of the place. movin fast is ok, but where are we movin? Movin far beyond what we have ever expected. I even get the feeling, kids in india should be called confused desis. whats holdin this generation back, is at atleast the presence of an old value system, but imagine once this is gone whats gonna happen? An implosion of values? It just looks like a time bomb ticking away.
But as everything else in India, I am prtty sure this wont move fast, just bcos the inertia will pull everyone back. So when we hear about the moral police and their stories, its just a reaction of society to somethin like a bad rash. A rash is only when its small, what if the rash is the norm?
What sort of reaction do we expect?
This is all exciting stuff, but the question that should have popped up is where do we all fit in the scheme of things ?
Will we be able to get our act in place, or do we want to break out of the old once and for all?
Do we remain silent spectators or is it not our problem?
or do we act when we reach there?
so... Are we there yet?
2 Comments:
"But as everything else in India, I am prtty sure this wont move fast, just bcos the inertia will pull everyone back. "
What kind of inertia are we talking here about???
Shiva,
Nice piece. I guess you are one of those folks who thinks about the problems of our country and humanity at large perhaps.
First things first. What do you mean by code coolie? To be candid, yes there are lots of desis taking up contract jobs and surviving with pure bullshit, but there are also people doing some very good work in programming. Why do you choose to see only the negative?
Secondly, history suggests we were a very open culture sexually and otherwise (I am assuming this is the undercurrent about what you talk as changing moral values). So, it is not something new and promiscuity is far more commom than you might think in my opinion.
By the way, I am Natarajan from UofH. Good writing.
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