A "really" Happy Independence Day

According to The Guardian, “India is the best place in the world to be born right now”. Somewhere else in the British press, they were busy celebrating "the arrival of a golden (Indian) age".

OK, let us come out of our anglophilistic [or, westophillistic would be more appropriate :)] mindsets (which makes us respect an Amartya sen, only when and once they have been recognized by the west). So even if we ignore what Guardian commented - we know that India is now THE HAPPENING THING, indicated by numerous things which our medias, both electronic and print, have been enlightening us about all these days preceding the independence day and beyond.

But not only that - We, I, can also feel it as an individual. Parents of most of us would perhaps had never dreamt that we would be sitting in AC offices, doing nothing [most of the time :)], earning paid vacations to Europe / US [and if u r in TCS, Uruguay / Nicaragua and may be arctic / antarctic, and may be moon too :)], (some of us) would earn so much money in a month that it took the parents a lifetime to save, would fly, would drive cars [and other than ambassadors / premier padminis / marutis :) ].

So many factors combined to give us this lifestyle, this progress, this 'giant leap in human development index' - like technological advancements (mobile and internet come immediately to mind), but these revolution in technology had thrown an opportunity to the entire world - not just India.

The reason why Indians could tap it, where as most of the rest of the developing world could not, or being more correct, politically and otherwise, why India could tap it more than the rest of the world, is - we had few people, few visionaries, which rest of the world did not. This blog entry, on 60th ID of India, is a tribute to those people.
Here they are:

Nehru

Praising him now a days is one of the most politically incorrect things in here (unfortunately). But it was his vision of what he called 'the temples of modern India', which created, among other things, the IITs, perhaps our most valuable & respected brand name in US (and the developed world) today. I need not waste time, yours and mine, commenting upon the IITs :), but let me share a conversation I had with an American colleague outside our office building (somewhere north of DC), where I was waiting for a friend and he was taking a smoking break - we started talking casually and he was curious about where I graduated from. Upon me mentioning one of the IITs*, his comment was: "O man, IITs!!! ppl who don't get admission there come here and study at MIT" - [M for Massachusetts, not for Manipal, mind u :)]

Rajiv Gandhi

His name here may be surprising to most of u. Cause almost nothing has been written about his visions (or, whatever has been written, got over shadowed by bofors / shahbano / shilanyas etc ). Anyway, i think it was 1986, when i read an interview he gave to some kids (i think on the occasion of 14th nov), for a children's hindi monthly called Parag. At that time, very few things (toffees, biscuits, summer vacations and daadi's stories) made sense, and this interview was definitely not one of them. It was not till i finished BE and joined Wipro and till terms like information revolution started appearing in the media, and grew familiar to me, and to most of India, that i recalled one of his comments from that interview.
Rajiv to kids: "aap logon ne parha ho ga ki qareeb 200 saal pahle duniya mein ek audyogik kranti aayee thhee. par ham us mein peeche rah gaye the. Dunia me ek aur kraanti aane vaali hai, 'soochna kranti', aur is baar hamein peeche nahi rahna hai."
And then he went on to mention that he was working towards bringing computer technology to India - so that this time India wont fall behind.

Apparently, it hasn't.
Thanks to him, (and i m sure many others too).

Also, he added, with things like these, he wanted to take India to 21st century ...
How prophetic words, and whatta vision ...
It is his vision that we (particularly the IT people) are living today.

Narsimha Rao / Manmoahn singh

The architects of economic liberalization that swept (and continues to seep) India (well, at least the urban middle class and beyond), off its feet, catapulted it to the forefront of world stage. Somehow, i feel this jodi was not given the credit that it deserved, neither in India, nor in the world. This jodi was to India what Deng was to china, and perhaps more - cause unlike Deng, they were working in a democracy. While Deng is universally recognized as the man who put China in the big league, this jodi is not as much recognized as it deserved to be (it is just my observation, and it may be wrong - i hope i am)

PS: Read India as "urban India" - for, unfortunately, rural India, like most of the rest of the world, could not tap this opportunity in such a big way - which should be and is a cause of concern, but let us celebrate what we have achieved, instead of feeling guilty over what we should have but not - achieved. Also, the still existing poverty in rural (and urban as well) India, and other things associated with it, are not 'because of the progress of Urban Middle class India' - it is indifferent of it. And though indifference is questionable and should be corrected, it is not objectionable - i guess.

So Happy Independence Day guys (and gals) - and salute to those who are responsible for the most of the "Happy" part of the above greeting.

Shadkam Islam
http://shadkam.islam.googlepages.com/
http://shadkamislam.blogspot.com/
http://shadkam19.blogspot.com/

* though my college became an IIT after my passing out - i took the liberty to not to bother him with all those details :)