Friday, October 2, 2009

The Indian Dream

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 3; the third edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

Happy to be back in blog-a-ton ! And what a ironic topic when I'm away from the country.
Before proceeding to pen down my thoughts, I would like to display a picture that caught my eye,

This is from google.com & thats India to the rest of the world !

I was sitting in my window seat on my flight journey to the US , engrossed in my novel when I noticed muscular guy with huge tatoos all over his hand.

"Man,thats frightening" even as I couldnt just think these words,
he said "Hi" & sat next to me.
"Whew.. big time lady " that was me grumbling.

My flight took off and I put my own headphones to watch "The Proposal" - a romantic comedy movie starring Sandra Bullock .
"Which country are you from" he said.
"India" came my reply. I knew he was an American & didnt reciprocate.
"Thats great. I'm just back from India" he said.
This interested me & now I wanted to know more.(True Indian huh ? )

And here goes our conversation
"Cool..so what did u do in India"
"I worked on a project for my college in Kolkata"
"Oh.. what kind of project?"
"Okay its an NGO which takes care of the needy & as part of the program we donated some computers & helped the people in a remote village in Kolkata.."
"Thats great...how long did you stay?"
"I stayed nearly for 6 weeks and now back to my home"

He then explained to me about his work & his Indain experience including his eating rasogolas which is irrelevant to the topic here so that goes in a separate post later !

(Are you saying that I have still not come to the topic?
Dont curse me guys.. I am on my way :-) )




Now think about this.
Here I am a software engineer working for an MNC based in US, on a long leave, going to join my husband who is also a software engineer, also working for the same MNC !

And here is this guy, back from India, been to remote places which I know most of us have never been. Did a really good deed & planning to do more again.

I was really a bit ashamed to hear this. I dont know if many of you feel the same.

But we Indians write code for programs to run all over the world.
We have many unknown swiz bank accounts hidden smartly.
We have many NRIs in the richest people's list.

Yet people from other countries feed us.
Are we already not in a position to feed ourselves?

And thats exactly what my Indian dream is - Diversity.

If we are diversified and the difference that we have here between the slum and the Bungalow diminishes at least to a reasonable level, we would have automatically taken care of all the thorns on our way to success.

And on that final day, people from our country would be travelling around the globe to help the poor & needy.
Hope to see those stepping stones soon.

You see things; and you say, "Why?" But I dream things that never were; and I say, "Why not?" -George Bernard Shaw
Jai Hind !

The fellow Blog-a-Tonics who took part in this Blog-a-Ton and links to their respective posts can be checked here. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

44 comments:

Anonymous said...

true..our country is a diverse country - not just in terms of wealth but even culture/religion/language.. a nice post!

Nανєєη said...

I endorse your thought ... well chosen pic ..."Rich land of poor people"...nicely pointed out.

Gomathy S said...

@evanescentthoughts
Thanks.. yes unity in diversity !

Gomathy S said...

@☥ ѕωαмι ηανєєη
Thanks buddy...

Siddhesh Kabe said...

those are some very thought provoking thoughts...

I have written the post on similar lines also.

MADHU RAO | (INDImag.COM) said...

@Daisy,
Thanks for stopping by and commenting. Appreciate the same.

A nice post.

I swear I have been in your seat, literally, a bunch of times when a foreigner seems to know more about India or does more for the impoverished in India than an average Indian would..

I think it is shameful. Hope we begin to change that ...

Anonymous said...

Diversity is the key and uniqueness of the country very right ...

Narendra said...

first of all i loved the pic...
second of all i wrote a long comment and isnt appearing(happpening the third time)

i wrote inmy last comment that i am really impressed by your take on the topic...reminds me of the movie swades..

good going..
if this doesnt appear ..well then ill mail u the comment :P

joking..

http://frozenwell.wordpress.com
(sorry for adding the url here..ur openId option is not working here..and the NAME/URL option is disabled...poor I wat more can i do :P )

Unknown said...

hey a very enlightening post...

We have to be employers instead of being employees to US based companies. An american coming to help a poor village in kolkata..but we are going to america for coding.. very weird and have to think a lot about it indeed..

Mustaf said...

It's a wondeful thought no doubt. Some time I wonder what we learned in our school that the beauty of India is its "unity in diversity" is actually causing all the problems for us. We have so many religion and clashes among them, so many languages which breed regionalism, and of course the difference between rich and the poor..will these differences be ever diminished :(

Chetan Maheshwari said...

yes, its quite shameful for us, that we instead of being capable are not heling the country
nice post
all the best

Vipul Grover said...

Hey Daisy Blue, welcome back:)
Good to read the perspective of an NRI aftr writing a post, half of which is directd towrds thm :)
U agree, I agree, lets bring the change :)

Gomathy S said...

@Sid 'Ravan' Kabe
WIll surely check them Sid

Gomathy S said...

@Madhu
Thanks for dropping by

Gomathy S said...

@dmanji
Thanks

Gomathy S said...

@Narendra
Thanks for all the pain to comment in my blog :P
I dont know whats the problem... thanks for the link.. will check it !

Gomathy S said...

@Mustaf/@Shankar
Yes hope we be the change

Gomathy S said...

@VIpul
Yes all talking blah blah is actually not the one we want

Miss_Nobody said...

Bring on the baton of change.Really liked it!Thanks for visitng!

Anonymous said...

one of the striking features of this post was the positivism it reflected throughout....
the difference between rich and poor should mitigate...

Nasrajan said...

True..

Still, there are changes coming. For example, the way MNC's like infosys run their charity wing with such rigor.. Software Engineers are no more those dolls inside air conditioned glass boxes, who doesn't bother about outside.

Let us hope those thing will make India a better place, along with chipping in what we can... :-)

Anonymous said...

Great way of putting your point

Madman said...

If you travel around the country the faces, language and culture changes dramatically. You can say India is little world. But if diversity was your dream then i cant understand how connected with that conversation with the American.

Shruti said...

Hi Daisy blue!
""my Indian dream is - Diversity.""
Heightening of the country through the elimination of these diversities!! Beautiful aspect!

Harsha Chittar said...

great post, makes one think.
Nice pics :)

Soin said...

whne you say why not. it sound more optimistic..but actually its pesimistic..free

pawan said...

Daisy Blue,
This was one important point missed out b everyone including me. We should help our own people instead of waiting for others to help.
Rich land but poor men is the apt conclusion to which one can come after reading your post!

Cheers!

Prashansa said...

One good dream! I have worked with an NGo and have seen forein students coming for their projects and working here. I have also seen many Indian students working for the same with greater intensity.I think we are working hard to change our mother land as well but not apreciated as much!

Shilpa Garg said...

Cool! An Indian Dream from the point of view of an NRI!!
A very thoughtful post! :)

Bharathi said...

nice honest post. All the best.

djd said...

a great though and a really touching post

Santosh said...

That what each of us think but the big question remains "while we are serving the world, what are we doing to serve our country or what can we do"

ARJuna said...

The personal touch adds a unique hue to your already brilliant post.
I also liked the way you include the Google-Gandhi pic...I was glad to know that atleast someone took note and published the pic and didn't just look at it smile and forget (which I did...guilty!!!)
ANyways keep it up.

Lakshmi Rajan said...

I would differ from the viewpoint.

Why generalize "We" , there are lots of "we"s working for the society, there are lots of "we" working for the downtroddenm, there are lots of "we" who made NGO's to serve nation...

Though am not a one who live abroad writing programme, I don't think anyone needs to be ashamed of it. One can always contribute to motherland by contributing for your village school monetarily or buying infrastructure, when you visit make a point to do something in return...

If there is a will, there is a way.

- Lakshmi Rajan

www.gingerchai.com

Pankaja said...

wow that was really thought provoking.......RICH LANDS POOR PPL...its very true why do we need to wait for other nations to feed us? Good luck!

Gomathy S said...

@Miss_Nobody
Most welcome

@RSV
That motivates me :)

@Nasrajan
Sure such a change is ought to come

@scratchyoursoul
Thanks

@vEnKy
The conversation made me realise the differences in our country.. & how we still hear about the poor & not make much effort

@Shruthi
:)

Gomathy S said...

@ Harsha Chittar
I'm happy that it makes people think!

@Soin
I dont think a simple "not" makes it pessimistic :)

@pawan
Thats good to know !

@pra
Yes even I have seen many people working towards it.. but if you take the population into account the percentage is less

@Bharathi,@Shilpa
Thanks

Gomathy S said...

@djd
Happy to help !

@Arjuna
Hey I like that atleast someone appreciated by google pic ! & dont regret , the fact that you smiled tells it all.

@Mr
Thats exactly what I insisted !

@Pankaja
Good luck to you too!

Gomathy S said...

@Santosh
I missed your comment... hope we get answers soon

PurpleHeart said...

Just got back from the break and yours is the only blog I feel like visiting for the day ! Yea, it's really a matter of shame. There's more to just going hysterical over A R Rahman's Vande Mataram. You need to know your country - at least try to - to be able to love or respect it. Who needs rappers? We need more of balanced souls !!!

PurpleHeart said...

By the ways, welcome back home away from home..:)havin fun?

Scribbler :) said...

hmm, thought provoking indeed. Sometimes I really am amazed at the pointlessness of what most of us do for a living (am in IT too). I mean, technology can really take us far...but it can't feed the hungry.What a shame that there are more people dedicated to enhancing technology than there are trying to prevent death by starvation.

Gomathy S said...

@purpleheart
Good to see you again !

@scribbler
Yes true..

Lisa said...

Hi Daisy Blue, firstly your salad makes me smile :)

Secondly, I find your writings interesting.