Development and India

Having heard enough about India and China being the so called economic power houses of the future, I was looking for some tangible signs. After living in US for a year, certainly my standards of judging were on different level. And no surprises that I was disappointed. The express way between Pune and Mumbai is great but what about the pain you have to go through till you get to the express way? The outer ring road in Hyderabad is 8 lanes but what about the "inner" roads where people actually travel more frequently? And then conscience-numb traffic police were omnipresent.

Just when I had given up, I had to travel to my village to see my ailing grandfather, and my moment of truth came in the train I was travelling. It was early morning and I woke up to a loud "chai-coffee" call from the window. Even though I was travelling in a reserved compartment, to my surprise, I saw a group of people ( obviously without reservations) occupying seats. All of them were regular commuters, whom the Ticket Collector knew and took no objections for traveling in a reserved compartment.

After cursing them for few minutes for making my "reserved" life little uncomfortable,I actually started enjoying their harmonic conversation. It was a group that probably worked at bank ( I could make out from their conversation), the group was interesting as there were as many Muslims as Hindus and was a good mixture of experience and youth. Any harmonic conversation between these two communities just seemed like a movie story, as I had seen enough of animosity between these two groups since the riots of '92. What was it like before, I had no idea because my innocence never allowed me to know. But people tell me, it was no different.

The moment of truth came, when they actually started discussing about the Babri Masjid Verdict and its impact on their daily life. They were discussing the topic with the same harmony and jolly mood as they were discussing other topics. I saw a sign, a sign that probably tells we are moving forward and moving forward at a faster pace. I hope my intuition is not wrong.

They went a step ahead and started discussing about Bal Thackery's dussera speech again with same humor, harmony and jolly mood. I got off the train with a smile on my face and a incident that I could narrate to my Indian friends in US.

Thou shalt rebel

Enemy of knowledge, Desire, that is.
Profuse desire begets remorse.
They say, Desire is insatiable,
Oh mighty soul, thou shalt rebel.

Destroyer of compassion, Anger, that is.
Anger causes irreversible damage.
They say, Anger is implacable,
Oh mighty soul, thou shalt rebel.

Impediment to creativity, Fear, that is.
Fear feeds on Confidence.
They say, Fear is invincible,
oh mighty soul, thou shalt rebel.