I just finished “An Extraordinary Life - Manohar Parrikar” by Sadguru Patil and Mayabhushan Nagvenkar. This post is not about the book. I may offer an assessment at a later time. For now, a one-sentence summary will suffice: a shallow account of a shallow man.
What triggers this note is the following passage from the biography, one that illuminates a facet of the modern Indian mindset. Almost certainly the authors did not mean it to. https://www.parrikar.org/misc/ITI-IIT.jpg I have never understood the Indian apathy, bordering on disdain, for those who work with their hands. Whether it is the plumber, the mason, the mechanic, or the welder, the practitioners of these trades rank low in the Indian imagination. In my childhood I knew a couple of boys who were exceptional at building things. They were tinkerers, fashioning something useful and surprising out of everyday objects. In a different geography their talents would have flowered and they would have gone on to lead productive lives. But in India and Goa, they had one tragic shortcoming - they were at the bottom of their class at school. For that reason they were targets of derision and made to feel worthless, their confidence gutted. I remember the pejorative word “bhoto” used to refer to those who fared badly in school. The great inventors in America, Britain, and France have always been tinkerers at heart. Aimless play has attended every great invention. But in India the only thing that counts is “scoring marks” in worthless examinations. The “ITI” guy doing an honest day’s work is looked down on and the “Eye-Eye-Tee” cockalorum venerated. The disproportionate adulation reserved for the IITian is puzzling, especially when there is no evidence that it is merited. Can you think of even ONE item you use in your daily life, from the time you rise until you retire at night, that can be credited to any Indian, IITian or otherwise? Your technological world would be no different with or without the IITian, not even by a smidgeon. Contrast that to tiny Hungary that gave us a John von Neumann, to cite just one example. That you can read this right now has something to do with von Neumann. When I worked at a satellite manufacturing company in Silicon Valley, I would often drop by the workshop and see the techs (the American equivalent of India’s ITI products) who worked the metal. All working class whites, the very group reviled and spit upon today by the vile Left, whose forefathers built what is today’s America. Their level of workmanship was astounding. You sensed the pride in their work, and the culture didn’t penalize them because they preferred to master a trade instead of acquiring a fancy degree at Stanford. They were machinists because they wanted to be, not because they were condemned to that line of work. Of one thing I am certain - 10 of these techs would be more useful to India than a 1000 preening IIT or engineering college peacocks. The low regard accorded the “ITI” trained worker is why Indians have to live with shoddy workmanship both inside and outside their home. Look around you - the Indian fit & finish screams Third World. r