Searching my life as an Indian for the most significant event, I finally pick this: The primary school that I went to in Bangalore was one that poor children went to. I was sent to it because my father was insistent that Tamil be my medium of education and this was the nearest school that had it.
Not every child had text books. The teacher always had two copies. The mode of instruction was simple: either the teacher read out the lessons loud or had one of the students stand up and do so. Often it was my turn.
Today more than 60 years later I can hear myself belt out, “India is a country of 300 million people”. The teacher went on to explain proudly what a big nation we were.
I have lived to see that population nearly quadruple. That is the compellingly significant context of my whole life as an Indian. Throughout this life, I have heard numerous voices -including mine- that held forth on the evils of colonialism, perfidy of politicians, irresponsibility of the breeding classes, the rapacious merchants, the horror of civic services and most of all, the corruption of everyone else around the speaker.
Every Indian has a diagnosis and a prescription for the nation.
When I was young and in my twenties, I spent a decade traveling the world as a merchant navy man. My shipmates were more or less my own age. We were greatly influenced by visits to ‘advanced’ countries. We were filled with shame by the contrast that India offered. We spent many hours discussing solutions. We were full of certainty, anger, confidence and passion: banish caste, educate everyone, industrialise rapidly, bring on dictatorship, sterilise people, create jobs, hang the corrupt, ban cricket and many other fixes were advocated with certainty.
I offered my own share of solutions too. But somehow India’s problems just seemed to get worse. Nobody was implementing any of these brilliant ideas. Strange!
An environment in which the population grows like a slow flood, lulls you into thinking it was a manageable situation. You tend to believe you can stay afloat till the flood recedes, as someday it surely must.
That ‘someday’ has neither arrived nor ever will. India is a land forever in a flux. Historians cannot find a sequence, sociologists any profile, political scientist any evolution, nor the theologian any religion. India is the graveyard of certainties. You can forever walk around the throbbing mass and have your every conjecture confounded.
In these pages, I assert the right to propound my own views and theories- in the best Indian tradition
Not every child had text books. The teacher always had two copies. The mode of instruction was simple: either the teacher read out the lessons loud or had one of the students stand up and do so. Often it was my turn.
Today more than 60 years later I can hear myself belt out, “India is a country of 300 million people”. The teacher went on to explain proudly what a big nation we were.
I have lived to see that population nearly quadruple. That is the compellingly significant context of my whole life as an Indian. Throughout this life, I have heard numerous voices -including mine- that held forth on the evils of colonialism, perfidy of politicians, irresponsibility of the breeding classes, the rapacious merchants, the horror of civic services and most of all, the corruption of everyone else around the speaker.
Every Indian has a diagnosis and a prescription for the nation.
When I was young and in my twenties, I spent a decade traveling the world as a merchant navy man. My shipmates were more or less my own age. We were greatly influenced by visits to ‘advanced’ countries. We were filled with shame by the contrast that India offered. We spent many hours discussing solutions. We were full of certainty, anger, confidence and passion: banish caste, educate everyone, industrialise rapidly, bring on dictatorship, sterilise people, create jobs, hang the corrupt, ban cricket and many other fixes were advocated with certainty.
I offered my own share of solutions too. But somehow India’s problems just seemed to get worse. Nobody was implementing any of these brilliant ideas. Strange!
An environment in which the population grows like a slow flood, lulls you into thinking it was a manageable situation. You tend to believe you can stay afloat till the flood recedes, as someday it surely must.
That ‘someday’ has neither arrived nor ever will. India is a land forever in a flux. Historians cannot find a sequence, sociologists any profile, political scientist any evolution, nor the theologian any religion. India is the graveyard of certainties. You can forever walk around the throbbing mass and have your every conjecture confounded.
In these pages, I assert the right to propound my own views and theories- in the best Indian tradition
I loved your perspective of life. Thank you for writing this. It was my pleasure to read and savor, after all, my life though still in its 40s has all the markings of your musings, and its a blessing to hear the song from others life.
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