'Mera Bharat Mahan' we proudly proclaim only until we set our foot on Uncle Sam's land. The Land of Opportunities beckons us with open arms and slowly but surely our love for India melts and probably vanishes in its embrace.
Every month hundreds of Indians like myself travel to the United States to amass wealth or to pursue a career or to do both. The beautiful cars, the roads, the buildings, the way of life and the standard of living entices us and our lifestyle undergoes a sea of change. Pizzas and burgers replace chapattis and rice as the staple diet. The collection of clothing from Fashion Street or National Market makes way for a new range of branded clothes and shoes. The style of clothing now represents a way of 'revealing' or expressing our newly discovered freedom. We also start to notice the influence of the American accent in the way we speak English. The usage of words like 'kewl','yup','nope','dude' etc is more common. Not a single day goes by without a comparison between the ways of life in America and India. Everything from the quality of milk we drink, to the colour of the eggs we eat, to the cars we drive, to the roads we drive on, to the vegetables we buy and to the house we live in has to be compared with the same in India. This country has so much to offer that everything back home becomes pale and inferior in comparison. In the course of time we get so accustomed to this standard of living that the plans of returning home seem far and distant.
What disturbs me the most about many of us Indians is the way we treat our own country when we are no longer residing in it. We tend to look down upon everything our country has to offer. Resting on our laurels we pass comments on the direction in which India is heading instead of doing something about it. We ridicule our infrastructure , our governments, and our people for what they are as if we were never a part of them. Frankly our opinion is immaterial. India is a great country and it will continue to prosper regardless of our presence. Come on!! Nobody is forcing us to defend the borders and become a martyr, the least we could do as Indians is to show some respect for our motherland.
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8 comments:
Good wrk..hav always knwn how patriotic u r.. nice tribute..India ia a gr8 country..does it matter what others think? with the kind of culture, heritage & knowledge that she has she can only look forward.its our loss if we dont respect her for her greatness.looking forward to ur nxt blog.
spoken like the aadya i know. an 'aadarsh' indian huh? but the 1st para took me by surprise. i was thinkin 'not aadya too, pls!!' :)
hey! wht's the matter? not bloggin anymore? heard u r in bgm. goa still is very close by, u know. :)
I agree to wat u said..
"Mutthu kodowlu bandare
tutthu hakidavalanna maribardu"
India will progress with/without NRIs (Non Reliable Indians). But however one sad thing that perturbs me is our apathy towards things happening around us - be it politics, infrastructure woes, the growing divide between urban and rural development, digital divide etc..
Enough has already been said and written. So we should go ahead abd show that WE CARE.
Only then can development of India be justified. Fly-overs and posh malls, girls with low raise jeans, younger generations with beer bellies do not represent growth of a country.
Hey Aadarsh
The First two para took me by surprise. Felt a bit relaxed to read the last para. Anyways a nice one. In my opinion each and every one of us should feel responsible for the state our country is in.
Thinking what difference is it going to make if I Alone be proper is the first thought we should get rid of and start being proper(In all things like following trafic rules , not paying extra , not bribing ...list is long)... Lets practice first and stop cribbing ...Let us show that WE CARE and we can bring about a change !!!
“HEAVEN help India !” or “India ka kutch nahin ho sakta !” - this is the end result of almost all of the discussions of so called young generation !
I feel just comparing it with US may not be perfect but we have another asian power which has shown us that "When there is a will , there is a way
China introduced market reforms in the late 1980s; only a third of the economy is now directly state-controlled. Since joining the World Trade Organisation in 2001, China has rapidly become a global economic force, exporting more than the United States, creating a commodity-market boom and turning into the world's third-largest car market.
But not all of China is booming: rural areas have lagged behind. And growth has not been without hiccups. In certain professions a lack of skills has led to labour shortages. Pollution is rife, and health care strains rural resources. The banking industry has been the target of recent reforms, but bad loans are on the rise, while the capital market remains underdeveloped. But they have strong political will to change their country.
They are on move !!!
The data below itself speaks itself
2000 2001 2002 2003
GDP per head ($ at PPP) 3,980 4,340 4,720 5,180
GDP (% real change pa) 8.00 7.50 8.00 9.10
Government consumption (% of GDP) 13.08 13.39 13.20 12.90
Budget balance (% of GDP) -3.62 -2.97 -2.96 -2.50
Consumer prices (% change pa; av) 0.35 0.73 -0.77 1.17
Public debt (% of GDP) 30.40 30.60 31.10 29.60
Labour costs per hour (USD) 0.59 0.69 0.80 0.92
Recorded unemployment (%) 8.20 9.30 9.75 10.10
Current-account balance/GDP 1.90 1.48 2.80 2.20
Foreign-exchange reserves (mUS$) 168,278 215,605 291,128 401,036
India’s economy is still largely agricultural.Its percentage of world GDP is tiny compared with that of China, its neighbour and rival. Excessive regulation, left over from years as a socialist economy, is largely to blame. While India has seen an increase in foreign direct investment since beginning to open its economy in the early 1990s, especially in services, its poorest states, hampered by corruption, have been unable to benefit. Where there is growth, such as Mumbai,Bangalore infrastructure is straining: the country faces an electricity shortage. But why it is not fixed ?
B'coz we don't have political will and here i don't mean to just blame our politicians or parties ...........
we choose them to be like this and then gossip about china , brazil and US etc
How many of us have , sincerely tried to vote after studying the candidate's profile ?
Ever thought of joining politics to improve it ?
Ever thought of choosing career with less pay but great help to nation
Ever thought of choosing to fight than to bribe public office to get work done
there is a political party launched by IITians - http://www.lokparitran.org/ with plans to fight elections in chennai ( on the lines of "rang de basanti" - but launched before movie). But how many of us know this ?
We need to create a strong political Will if we want some change.So do your bit to improve the political system. Fight against corruption atleast in one case in this year.Share thoughts and convince people in wider forums.Use "Right to Information act" atleast once to make it even strong.Participate against social evils.Sponsor an orphan child for education
there is hell lot of scope where we can contribute.
Time has come - if we need gains , we need to invest also
More you invest ,more you gain !!!
Hmmm ... I am quite surprised by this post:). Well I have been in the US for alsmost 4 yrs now ... so I think I can write about how I feel about India now. While I was in India, I used to always blame India's population, corruption, filthy roads etc etc ... I have never been patriotic or anything.
I always felt developed countries like US (for our context here) is the Heaven on earth.
Hmmm ... is that true about US? I now respect India more than I ever did before, since I have understood the fact that 'The grass on the other side always looks Green' ... Reasons ... or rather US problems ...
IRAQ war, no adequate medical facilities to all, the food stuff we eat here ... haa haa totally injected with God knows what hormones!, cars they drive in US? hehe ... giving not even 15 miles a gallon ... only leading to increased global warming ...
Mera Bharat is still Mahan :):).
Hey Adarsh.... I liked the article, very well written, above all its speaks truth.. Yeah may be respect is the only thing we can give to our Motherland right now..
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