A Hope and a prayer

It was a walk like the many I had taken before. Small congested roads with shops selling different kinds of merchandise lined up on either side. After every few meters, the row of shops would be breached by a narrow alley which would in most cases be deserted. Hordes of people meandered on the footpath stopping ever so often to avoid someone or to have a second glance at something that had caught their fancy. There was the eager salesman enticing the passers-by to his eatery or to his shop selling an original fake of a popular logo. The small roads carried a heavy bumper to bumper traffic which was not very unusual even for a weekend. With twilight nearing, the street lights and the neon hoardings were also taking effect. A heavy unseasonal downpour seemed to add to the chaos as the open umbrellas were another reason for people to break their stride.

This scene could be reminiscent of any street in the old parts of an Indian city and so it may come as a surprise that I was actually walking down one of the streets of Kowloon in Hong Kong. The rain had caught me by surprise as I was totally unprepared for it and had to scurry for cover as it gained momentum. The mall that I was heading to could now be seen across the road. From this distance, I could see a crowd of people at the entrance making their way in. The sight made me flinch for a brief moment but the unrelenting rains left me with no option but to follow the crowd. I heaved a sigh of relief as I stepped into the mall although the sudden drop in temperature made me shiver.

As I paused to gather myself, my eyes fell on something which amazed me.  The floor inside the mall was spotlessly clean with not a hint of water on it. I could not believe it. It was just impossible considering the heavy rains outside and the hordes of people walking into the mall every minute. I looked around in disbelief and my eyes fell on a contraption near the entrance which I had earlier mistaken to be a dustbin. Every person walking into the mall was thrusting their umbrellas into the device and lo and behold, the umbrella would get a plastic cover. This prevented the drenched umbrella from wetting the floor thereby keeping it dry. Wow, that was ingenious. I stood there admiring the contraption until my wet clothes started making me feel cold. I quickly headed to the coffee shop on the ground floor.

As I sipped the piping hot Cappuccino, my mind went back to the last 20 minutes of the small journey from my hotel to the mall. Everything about it was so typical of any Indian city but something was just not right….or should I say different. It took a just few shots of the caffeine for my brain to come up with the answer. There was heavy traffic on the road but no sound of blaring horns. Vehicles lined up one behind the other with not one of them attempting to get ahead. The footpath was filled with people but there was not even a hint of waste on it. Dustbins were available after every few meters and people were actually throwing their trash in it. The roads were narrow with just enough room for 1 row of vehicles in either direction but no one was crossing them even when the traffic was moving at a snail’s pace. Everyone was walking to the next zebra crossing to get to the other side of the road. And finally, the contraption inside the mall. It was not the device itself that was amazing but the fact that every person entering the mall was actually using it without someone directing them to do it. To an Indian who has lived the best part of 40 plus years in a few urban cities of India, all this seemed very strange.

After a few hours of window shopping, I walked back to my hotel and relived the different but now familiar surroundings. Back in my hotel room, as I was documenting my travelogue, another thought came to my mind. Isn’t this how it was always meant to be? Why was I surprised that things were as it should be rather than the converse being true? 

Having traveled to a few countries in the world, I see a lot of positives in Indians which should ideally have made us a super power in all respects. The reality however is that we are still trying to convince the world that we are a developed country. Our adaptability, higher levels of IQ and supreme levels of endurance should have made us a dominant force in the world but we are far from being that even in Asia. We can keep blaming the Government for many years of bad governance but who makes up a government. The root cause of our problem is ‘I’. Every action that we take is focused on benefits for the ‘I’ while ignoring the rest or ‘them’.   If ‘I’ hold a position of power to take action on something, 'I' don’t do it until 'I' get an extra benefit from ‘them’. ‘I’ use a facility provided to me without taking cognizance of ‘them’ who also have an equal right on it.  ‘I’ bend rules according to my convenience if 'I' have the wherewithal even if it means inconvenience to ‘them’. ‘I’ look at my lifetime and forget the ‘them’ who will be the future generation.

We can keep arguing that we are a populous country with a large percentage of illiterates and a history of poor governance.  To some extent this is true. Well, Hong Kong has a population of 7.2 million with a density of 7000 persons per square kilometer. In comparison, Mumbai’s population is 18.4 million with a density of 27000 persons per square kilometer. However, the fastest growing city in India, namely Bangalore has a population of 10.4 million with 4300 persons per square kilometer. These 2 cities are supposed to be India’s commercial hubs but things are no different here than in any other part of the country. A more densely populated country than ours namely China has managed to develop world class cities. An economically backward country like Sri Lanka is doing much better in the discipline quotient and so do many parts of Eastern Europe and Latin America. Nationalists may argue that things are not very different in many parts of Africa and in some of our neighboring countries but is that the barometer of our development?

We pride ourselves on our superior intelligence but out of the 835 individual Nobel Prize winners, we have only 11 Indians. Even more disappointing is the fact that only 5 of these winners were actually living in India when they were awarded. If we extend this argument to other such academic criteria like the Booker prize, ranking of educational institutions, number of patents etc. we are way behind even the developing economies of the world. Our heart swells with pride when a Kailash Satyarthi wins the Nobel Prize but how many of us knew his name before the award was announced. He had already received 12 awards and honours from various countries including US, Germany, Netherlands and Spain during the last 20 years but none from India. On the other hand a Vidya Balan gets a Padmashree for having acted in a few films and being termed as a celebrity. We pride ourselves by saying that a majority of the software developers at Microsoft and Apple are Indians. This is definitely helping India in terms of the dollars that they will earn and bring to India but that is pittance in comparison to the huge profits that these Corporations make from the IP’s created by these same developers. Same is the case with NASA where more than 50% of scientists are Indians. Have we ever stopped to do something about the reasons why these brains go out of our country?

What am I leading to? It is our narcissistic attitude that is preventing us from becoming a leading country in the world. The fixation with the ‘I’. ‘I’, which could mean any Indian, am fixated about my religion, my language and my caste which has little or no relevance to the growth of the country. ‘I’ am more concerned about the next elections rather than doing something now that 'I' have received a mandate from the people. Hence, ‘I’ keep my vote bank engaged with useless rhetoric about religion and caste and delay taking important decisions. ‘I’ am only concerned about my wealth and hence allow learning institutes and even Universities to proliferate without any regard for the standard of education they deliver. These sub-standard institutes churn out below par engineers, doctors and civil servants. Are we expecting them to turn this country around? ‘I’ am concerned with filling my coffers and increasing the deposits in my Swiss bank and care two hoots about the needs of the ordinary farmer. ‘I’ can invest billions to send a space craft to Mars but a small percentage of that investment could have helped in creating a comprehensive irrigation system and food policy which would have saved many a farmers’ life. ‘I’ am more concerned about my life and my comfort and head off to foreign shores as soon as I complete some basic education rather than struggle through the bureaucracy in this country. At a micro level, the same fixation with a ‘I’ makes me blow the horn, jump traffic lights, bribe my way out of trouble, throw litter all over and use every public space available as a toilet.

The sound of the morning alarm interrupt my thoughts. I lazily get out of bed and open the blinds. The sun is rising in the distance in all its glory. Maybe it was a symbolic conclusion to the stream of thoughts that had been going through my head while I was asleep. I fold my hands in prayer and a hope that I will live to see the day when this great country of people with such high IQ levels does not need a PM to make an announcement on Republic day that we need to keep our surroundings clean. He would rather talk about our achievements than urging people to build more toilets and importantly use them for answering nature’s call. These, I prayed, would have become a part of our life.