Date: Wed, 16 Sep 2009 17:25:25 +0530 From: "Ashley D'silva" <ashleyivordsi...@gmail.com>
Slogans can't make India a World Power: Murthy By siliconindia news bureau Tuesday,15 September 2009, 14:17 hrs Comment(28) Bangalore: India's strive to be a world power is guided more by euphemistic slogans and the country's aim cannot be achieved with it. "Its only with real dedicated performance that India can excel," said Infosys Chairman and Chief Mentor, Narayan Murthy. Mario observes: Thanks for posting this. SiliconIndia.com is an Indian techhie site from the heart of the Silicon Valley, and Narayan Murthy is right as usual. However, in my never-humble opinion, technocrats like him will deal with this aspect of India's progress successfully and smooth its rough edges as we go. India and China are now the foundations of the new world economy on which the rest will build or re-build - or not. What really got to me was when I met an American of Goan heritage in the USA recently who was reluctant to visit India because he said it was the filthiest and most callous country towards others he had ever seen. This is a guy who came to the US from Africa and had done all his advanced studies in India. As an American of Bhayya-Goan heritage who grew up in MP and lived and worked in Jamshedpur, Mumbai and Pune, and now happily visits India from the USA annually, I had never heard anyone put it so vehemently and in quite those terms. "The filthiest and most callous country he had ever seen?" Whoa! This from an African-Goan who had most of his schooling in India? Some East African Goans I have met have shi..., ...er, lousy, attitudes and superiority complexes, but, is East Africa any cleaner or less callous than India? I have no idea, but I suspect we will soon find out. What the man was talking about was the public urinating and defecating and spitting all over the place, throwing thrash in public places while keeping their own abode spotless, massive tax cheating and corruption, and a total disregard for nature and natural resources and of others on the highways and byways. This MUST change before India can rightly claim its long-delayed place among the NICE nations of the world, for all its citizens. This is why THE CONTENTS of the Abdul Kalam letter, which seems to be lost on those determined to throw mud all over it's authenticity, was so interesting to me, and apparently to THIRTEEN separate Indian bloggers including the Home Minister of Karnataka, because it sternly lectured Indians to realize the importance of this and challenged them to work on improving their civic sense. I had never before seen any Indian leader show any recognition of this issue, which is a drum I have been beating for years now to the chagrin of some of my more jingoistic Indian friends. I hope THE CONTENTS survive and sink in to whoever read the letter in India, and they then decide to take the lesson to heart, regardless of whether others succeed in burying it under a heap of mud.
