Sunday, September 07, 2003

What Plagues our country :
yesterday was watching a debate on ndtv's Big fight program abt the north south divide ... it was intresting to see Ajit Singh defending the prestige of the north ( if any has left for the Bimaru States particularly UP and Bihar) The other two speakers were a social scientist from Bangalore and one of my fav journalist Swami Aiyar .....As expected while The gentelman from bangalore put forward his points very assertively ...Mr Ajit singh was busy recollecting the gr8 history and earlier prosperity of the two states ....Its really a problem with the people in the north that rather than thinking abt the present and the future they always feel happy at the past achivements ...I remember when I was in college in Alld whenever a newspaper article used to be there on something to Do with Allahabad university they used to always put a line in the article "Allahabad university was once known as oxford of the east" ....Arre yaar where r u standing now .,..u r nowhere in the top universities in india leave alone the world ....thats what matters....
The state of my birth-state UP really makes me sad .....I think apart from the politicians ofcourse ppl also have to be blamed for this ...Bihar is ofcourse worst ....as long as these two states remain laggards....the country can't move forward at a pace which we want ...further this growing rift between the southern and northern states is giving rise to social problems which might have serious implications in the future ,....The Migration of cream of the talent from these states to the other states is going to provide only some money in remittences to these States ...but that is only short term phenomanan , overtime ppl will move themselves ...giving rise to further chaos.......can we do something abt it ...?? I don't know ....sitting here in chennai I saw the political events unfolding in UP very closely ...one more "jod-tod ki sarkar" ...which will last for how many days .. is anybdy's guess.....
My recent visit to UP in july really opened my eyes as to how much the state has lagged behind...there was no power for most of the day even in the cities ....let alone the villages ...I visited a "Jan-pehcchan" ke uncle who is working in the District-Magistrate office there ...he had a nice duplex flat but the same problem no electricity ....So he had an inverter and a genset too to charge the inverter :-) ....and look at the mindset of the ppl they still thnk of themselves as the "Most Developed and prosperous State of india" : I'll just Narrate an incident at his home ... We were discussing his children's education over tea ...and topic came to private tutions , In UP they are rampant ...one private tution for every subject...its a herd mantality ....I told him that i have not come across anyone taking 'tutions' in chennai except coaching for competitive exams , pat came the reply from his wife "auntiji" who was till then sitting silent in the conversation . " lekin chennai main to logon ke paas itna paisa bhi nahi hai na ( In chennai ppl don't have that muc money to afford tutions " ...eeeeeeeeeeeehhhh i was like what to say and what to tell them .....u have not visited south anytime just have some old miscnceptions which u made in the 60's and still carrying them .....misconceptions abt ur state and misconceptions abt South ....When will INDIA and INDIANS change ?????

Thursday, September 04, 2003

Mobile Democracy :

The Telecom services have expanded at a phenomanal growth rate in our country ..so was the article i was reading in one of the business magazines ...suddenly the autowallah parked the auto to the side of the road ...As I am now quite Experienced with the chennai autowallahs , I guessed immediately that this guy would have seen a pessenger and now want me to share the auto with someone....
Hey but I was totally surprised and taken back when I realised that the auto wallah had got a call on his mobile .....This was truely unbelievable for me ....
It really felt good....