A mere geographica expression ?!!

Yeah ! WE ARE LIKE THAT ONLY !

When one thinks about India , there is no more the image of the snake charmers or the Mystic sages , The India of today is a super Power in it s own terms, a nation of over a hundred billion people,growing at the rate of 1.6 percent , adding an Australia to it s booty annually! A nation which by 2030 will have 18% of the world s population –pooh . Now that s some number to reckon with, But are we only about sheer size and magnitude? Or do we possess something innate that makes us stand out and shout our identity in the shrinking world?

India is a unique land, very unique –right from it s make up in terms of the hundereds of accents spoken here to the plethora of God s we worship,everything about us is unique and trademarked as Indian! Be it the sudden high paced Hindu growth rate or launch of the world s most economical moon project-we are a class apart .We are most unpredictable and as they say-IT HAPPENS ONLY IN INDIA!! .

So from the consumer s perspective ,we are a huge force –a tremendously massive body of aspiring people –with aspirations come desires and with desires sometimes rise a sinister motive – A motive of survival is the name of the game and people go to any extent to climb the wrungs of the ladder as the man booker price winner –Arvind Adiga has very succinctly put forth in his book. This instinct of survival in itself is a strong fabric of our nation, this ardent urge to raise above the rest ,to prove a point to the world is what drives and motivates the 300 million people living in abject poverty to fight the challenges of life and create something that leaves behind a legacy.One more thing about us Indians is that we are among the most optimistic race on earth –so optimistic that even when we have a population of three times the size of Nigeria living at BPL conditions, Even when we are ranked poorly in corruption ratings, although we still have just a small fraction of the world s GDP(1.2%) we are still proud of the fact that we are a miracle generation- a coutry with over 40% of the population below 21 years of age, who will steer the ship to glory a country with a well established Silicon valley.

We are believers , we are thrivers . The delicate fabric of our nation is entrusted upon and revolves around one word- Truth – “SATYAMEVA JAYATHE” , but this could be so misleading in India ,as India as Winston Churchill once said :

“India is but a mere geographical entity , it is only as unified as the equator!”There is no single truth in India – One person s truth may be another s fantacy and yet another s dream or Nightmare. India is a country of as many truths as there are people, to each Indian exists a different India –One India is that of an elite club of people who play golf and dine with wine.. Yet another India watches Cricket and shares a beer – Another India has to fill it s hungry stomach with tap water and play gullidanda on the puddle streets.

Not only are we unique , we are also CRAZY – yes we are crazy because , what may be the observed pattern in the rest of the world may be just impossible here,and what may be a head breaker elsewhere happens with damn obviousness here!!

I was awestruck when I came across an article which said that India has more color TV s than Toilets and more cell phones than bank accounts –Man we truly are a crazy race.

It s only here in India that a day after a bomb blast in one of the most crowded rail junctions , life again gets back to normalcy. It is only here in India that inspite of Mac Donalds and Pizza huts the local hawker gets his share to survive and flourish.

We sure are eccentric.

SATYAM- Jayatey ?

The Paradox called Truth

“SATYAMEVA JAYATHEY”- two words on which the whole of our constitution, our Economy , our Social fabric proudly rests– These two words are more than mere expressions of our strong faith in truth ,in it s manifestations and in it’s deapth.As a nation we truly believe that truth triumphs , and yes it does, be it the Mahabharatha or a Bollywood Movie, the Dharma always reins over the Adharma!!. I have no qualms in our faith in the Universal triumph of the truth , But Ironically and Paradoxically, in a country such as India, where we have over 260 million Gods to show us the path to the true salvation, A place where each language speaks a different truth the very word truth has a million meanings and a ten million manifestations.

What is truth to one India makes no sense to another part of it . As Winston Churchill once put it , “India is a mere geographical expression , it is no more united than the equator”. What is “Satyam” to many may be a scoundrel company fudging the balance sheets and bribing world bank !

Picture this:

A business tycoon who has invested crores in the liquor sees the golden liquid as his dreams to possess a Porsche Carrera, elsewhere in youthful exhuberance, a rich man’s son finds in it the truth to satisfy his carnal desires. The same liquid magically seems to let a tired accountant relieve his nerves after a hard day of work while a group of college students hang out and in the liquid find the means to celebrations..but in one of the dark corners of India , the same liquor turs a night mare to a family of street dwellers whose only 12 year old son is run down by a drunk rich guy in the prosche cayenne and yet elsewhere there is the same liquor which makes a violent monster to erupt out of a otherwise loving husband who insults and beats his wife in the modest hutment..

What is one man’s pleasure is another’s woe.

Truth is anything but absolute- Nothing is perhaps, and Einstein is the actual representation of the world when he talks about the relativity.

Truth is relative- It is Relative to the situation,relative to the place, relative to the person and most of all relative to wealth possessed which is so widely spread in India.

So whom are we fooling when we say that miragical two words which seems to be teaching us to lead our lives??

So what is the truth ? Is sincerity the virtue , or is being truthful itself the virtue?

What happens when a father of two starving children , from a family where most of the times the dinner is plain water that the mother fetches from a nearby almost drying pond finds a 50 Rupee note left behind by a potbellied tax evading ,cunning business man?

What should he do with it > return it thinking that truthfulness will feed his family of Karma will tae care of itself or buy his starving poor sons who are on the verge of collapsing,who have not smelled food in three days some food?where does he haver a strnger bound of duty – towards saving two beautiful lives that he brought into the world or in “Satyameva Jayathey”-this is how relative truth actually is- feeding his children is the ultimate truth in his life- the truth is that if he does not compromise by taking the money, he would be responsible for the death of two innocent lives. If he returns the money to the fat moron who trades in black ,he will be solely accountable for strangling his kids to death.

So Truth in India is very relative- It is a paradox.

We live in a nation where there are more color TVs than toilets and more cell phones than Bank accounts! What the rest of the world finds as indispensable, we forgo them with considerable ease.