Asian Parable through Indian lens

Right now, the world is definitely getting scared of the “Dragon and Tiger” hence it is the perfect time to explore the vast countries through different perceptive. Companies could understand the different dynamics of its people and markets to better structure its strategy. Exploring these countries would be like muddling through the largest river filled with silt that eventually ends in ferocious Ocean. Chinese are as complicated as their language; their culture is as intriguing as Mandarin’s script. I admire something about China that India will find it very difficult to build in the next decades to come for which it to develop socially and economically. That something is being “Chinese”. It’s the only largest country on the earth which has similar culture, understand the same language across the length and breadth of the country. People take immense pride in being Chinese to defend their language, culture and cuisine. On the other hand, India is the only country on the planet that is very diverse with so many languages, many religions, cuisines, etc.

 

Although India and China has been in logger heads over the border issue for several years, there are quite a lot of cultural similarities between India and China. It was India which exported the Buddhist religion and principles to China. Although currently India is majority Hindu, Buddhist values are still alive, for instance the India’s national flag bores the symbol of “Asoka Chakra” that describes 24 principles of human life. Some common values of Chinese and Indian people are respecting elders, parents, and teachers and placing high premium on education. Relationships in both countries are very personal and strong, people tend to compromise something to keep the relationship. Chinese people tend to respect “erudition” because it is also one of the principles of Confucianism likewise Indians. Hence education system in China and India is more or less the same. There is a humungous focus on rote learning to excel in some of the most gruelling entrance examinations.  The creativity in Chinese and Indian system has been suppressed for sometime but it is being revitalised by the influence of American soft power. We can’t presume everything to be similar in Chinese and Indian culture.

Chinese cuisine is completely different from Indian cuisine; almost all the Chinese like to eat meat and fish but most of the Indians are vegetarians. One of the most striking differences is in governance, Indian system is democratic but Chinese chose to be communist with a single party rule. Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen says in his book “The Argumentative Indian” only democracy in India is the natural way to govern because of immense plurality in the society but in the case of Chinese they tend to accept the rule of concentrated elites with market based economy.  This fundamental difference in governance can be witnessed among majority Chinese being “collective” and Indians being “consensual” respectively. There are subtle differences in terms of nationalism, language pride and openness to foreign cultures. Historians agree that India is always a land of immigrants hence anything foreign looks superior to Indians that’s also the consequences of “Colonial Hangover”. China was never totally under foreign rule, so there is a pride of being Chinese hence they may not very much open to foreign culture and language. Chinese tend to place larger premium on creating wealth that’s why wishing prosperity takes over wishing happy New Year on Chinese New Year. In general, Indians might be placing higher premium on happiness over wealth but it is certainly changing in the society that is purely creating wealth through entrepreneurship. These cultural differences are creating totally different dynamism in Chinese and Indian economy.

China and India used to be one of the largest and richest economies in the world before the advent of colonialism.  History might repeat itself if these Asian giants once start to download those necessary applications that west has installed in the past. Those applications are modern science, the rule of law and private property rights, modern medicine, the consumer society and the work ethics. In all of those applications, Chinese and Indians tend to differ in the way they are downloading and also in the way they are implementing it. In terms of installing modern science, Chinese are much faster than Indians; they have built fabulous infrastructure and great universities for research. Although India has one of the greatest elite universities that are on par with ivy leagues, majority of Indian citizens still lack the basic literacy skills. It is the failure of Indian democracy that is rotten with inefficiency but Chinese got those priorities right by educating 94% of its masses. So, future is bleak for Indian economy that has the youngest demographics in the world if it fails to educate its young population then the demographic dividend would turn into demographic disaster.

 Indian system will prevail in the long term in installing “rule of law” because the institutions are accountable to the people but China will face challenges in the future to implement fair system. India is still classified as high risk for diseases by CIA for travellers but China is not that reflects the installation of modern medicine and its implementation. India has a long way to go forward in terms of achieving high health standard. Chinese and Indian consumers are becoming as dynamic as any developed western consumers hence both countries are already reaping the benefits of this downloaded application. Although the work ethics in both countries are respected but the productivity level is one of the lowest. It is one of the reasons of their products is being considered inferior to western brands. It is definitely going to change in the near future once majority of their people start to plug and play with the globalized world.

 As an optimist, the next generation of growth, newer ideas and businesses would definitely germinate from “East” mainly from China and India since they are starting to install those essential applications. The suggestion of cooperation between these two resurgent civilizations could sound preposterous but it is indeed essential for peaceful and prosperous Asian continent. The cooperation between these two Asian giants is very integral to the 21^st century and humanity on the whole because the history has never seen so many people moving from poverty to prosperity.  This massive migration of people to prosperity would create large scale economic opportunities to companies and countries to tap. Subsequently, this so called wealth amassing also creates the superficial ethical standard of “greed is good”.

Although China and India has different political system but they have the same problem of intolerant levels of corruption in public distribution system, land reforms, and business regulation and in any kind of administrative red tapes. In China, state owned companies are creating wealth and also mess by not allowing other companies to become competitive. In general, foreigners could assume that the entire nation is run by the bureaucrats not by entrepreneurs. On the other hand in India, both private and public sector is involving in rampant corruption. Entrepreneurs are the only ones who are milking the benefits of economic boom and there is no trickle-down effect to the bottom of the pyramid. As a matter of fact, both countries particularly India has a long way to go before it becomes as competitive as Europe or USA.  World particularly the developed world of Europe and USA has something to offer to China and India and also get something in return.  

Europe could leverage the growth of China and India to keep its society prosperous. It is not a zero sum game moreover increasing prosperity would definitely create opportunities for trade across the border. The Companies could continue to build capacities in these countries to sell their products. They can also recruit some Asians in the management to inject differences in the ideas. Companies would indeed find it harder to do business in both China and India although it has huge market. In China for instance, companies would be much wary of intellectual property loses. In India, it would be frustrated by the red tapes in the bureaucracy. Hence understanding the observations of similarities, differences and needs of these two countries would definitely give a better scope for refined business strategy. This can be purportedly achieved through very diverse work culture that companies has beginning to launch.

For India to be Super power

I have some thought process on what India and Indians have to do if India wants to be super power. Most of the thoughts are Utopian, humorous and some are non sense. There are as following

0. Eradicate Poverty

1. Abolish religion

2. Abolish casteism

3. Eliminate gender inequalities and inequities

4. Educate everyone

5. Don't reproduce (most people should not do it because India has alarming population growth)

6. Move towards open society

7. Free thinking should be embraced

8. Wealth should be redistributed

9. Legalize and regulate every taboos that society think it is...

10. Make English a mandatory language

11. Provide subsidized Healthcare

12. Abolish arrange marriage system too ( Will reduce dowry incidents)

13. Embrace interbreeding ( will improve the IQ of ordinary Indian people)

14. Implement compulsory sex education from primary schools

15. Penalize traffic offenders

16. Abolish nepotism in Indian politics

17. Criminalize racism and casteism

18. Abolish single sex education and embrace coeducation

19. Embrace consumerism and abort socialist policies

20. Make female education a fundamental right

21. Provide full employment opportunities

22. Modernize infrastructure

23. People should become polite

24. Selfishness should become normal

25. Individuality should be embraced

26. Pollution should be curtailed



 List goes on.. Commentators are kindly advised to include their list..

M F Hussain - The Greatest PAIN-ter of India???

“The Picasso of India” says one. “Pride of India” says Nirupama Rao. Now, is he truly what they describe him to be, i wonder.

Yes, he’s a painter, i agree. And Yes, he’s the best India has produced. No doubt.

Let me just ask you one question. If he had been born a non-Muslim and had he attempted to do the painting of a certain religious figure of Islam, how would the Muslim world have reacted?

The issue here is not about religious tolerance or sensitivity. Soutik Biswas of BBC writes (here)

“The story of Husain is one of the saddest of post-Independence India. It is a story of how the country's most famous painter has been hounded out while the state looked on.”

The issue at the core of his plight is his creativity. My point is Mr. Hussain being such a gifted painter that he is, why was he not creative enough to express his creativity in other ways than to paint Hindu Gods and Goddess in that way. Just because there are sensual and sexually explicit sculptures at places like Khajuraho, does not mean Hindu’s are open to it. Its akin to stripping a woman naked just because she lets her husband do it.

The problem with artists is that they take their Freedom of expression for granted. Mr. Hussain is 93 today and has lived through the most painful periods of our history - the partition, Indo-Pak wars etc. What has he done for the country with his creativity? I have not heard of any of his paintings that portray religious harmony. Certainly the media has not highlighted any of it - The Hindu included.

Certainly Hussain could have used his talent to good use. Not in the way he has.

Do you think he deserves all the accolade he’s getting? I certainly don’t.

I cant but wonder what would have happened to him had he used his creativity & played arnd with his own religion. Remember Salman Rushdie?

Clearly, Mr. Hussain is a smart man that he chose to play with the sentiments of Hindus who are tolerant and who even praise your work towards the twilight of your life.

My anger is not towards Hussain - rather the government and its censorship board for doing little to uphold the sanctity of India’ major religion.

poli(many) ticks(blood sucking)

disclaimer: if you support DMK, or if you are a Vijay fan, or if you are in favor of telengana, this post is not for you.

"the CM of tamil nadu donates sarees and dhotis". soon, he would also start to donate underwear that has been made exclusively for the individual's size soon. Plans are on the anvil to hire a number of tailors from all across the city to take the measurements. There are also plans, that the CM is going to launch a scheme to donate free tata nanos to all people who live below the poverty line since that is exactly what they need, according to some senior researchers in the ILMCG(I love my CM group). wait, they are all above poverty line now. The CM also has offered to consider a cabinet proposal to take people to the moon when the bill for extraordinarily foolish spending is passed in the legislature. We asked the tramp on the road side for a reaction, he says: "I have a degree in BE, i have 5 years of experience in Operating systems, somebody, please give me a job, my government has ruined me with taxes...PLEASE *sobs uncontrollably, and starts to convulse*

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the finance minister has come out with a statement on the drastic reduction in the rates of inflation the last few days. figures show that the inflation rate has come down from 17.009812 to 17.009811 %, a whopping 0.00001,(or does it have another zero?). the news was greeted with cheer all across the country, as it was well received by the people living on the streets, in the slums and the workers who have been laid off. there are also reports that there is going to be a massive bust of the finance minister to be installed in the new delhi junction. It would provide a beautiful aesthetic component to the railway station which is otherwise world class in facilities-leaking toilets, improper flushes, open defecation, broken water dispensers. the bust would provide the well needed relief for the eyes, while all the other parts of the body start to rot.

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kalaignar TV has plans to broadcast latest mega hit movie vettaikaran for pongal. when asked for reasons, the officials cited the enormous hilarity of the movie, and how this is a movie that would prove to be much more comical than any of the previous movies of its ilk. the movie has Dr.(suppressing a chuckle) Vijay, and some other insignificant people.

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I am going to win next time, says actor vijaykanth. participating in the national tournament for middle aged rich but not so rich and famous but not famous enough to win politicians, after losing the "how can you cheat the people best" to a better candidate who displayed incredible knack as a poltician, vijaykanth was quoted as saying that he would definitely win the contest next time. there was also Chandrasekhar from the TDP who won "how can you destroy the national integrity" contest with his amusing antics on the road.

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i wish i could stay away from politics, but once in a while, i hear news items like this: "DG of police charged with molesting his maid". He has two kids, makes a lot of money, and oh, he has a wife too.yes, she is pretty, that is why he wanted to sleep with his maid. please, grow some brains, or just do us all a favor and retire to tibet, or the hindukush mountains, where there are less human species you can bother.

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What should be taught in Schools and Colleges?

After all these years of studying in Singapore, what I realise is that the education system has to change drastically to meet contemporary knowledge based economy.

Starting from secondary school education, our education system focus a lot on learning from the book. Every little thing taught in our schools here are focused on getting students to perform well at the O' level. I was so worried about getting good grades that I forgot to enjoy my life and learning life skills.

Even in JCs, loads and loads of information are thrown at us and we just simply study without even understanding why we are studying.

Even now as a University student, I certainly know that given any subject, I will score well. But, what’s the point? What is the need to emphasis on grades when no one cares about it at the end of the day when you apply for a job or even when you have secured a job.

I would suggest that our education system needs to change such that we allow students to expose themselves to different aspects of life. I would prefer yoga classes in secondary schools. I would force every student to develop some skills in arts. Currently only students whose parents are interested in getting their children to all these extra circular activities enrol them in such lessons. What about others? This is where our education system has to step in.

Our schools should aim to develop critical skills and analytical skills among students. I would say this is certainly lacking currently. The most importantly they should get rid of the “students listening to teachers' lessons” practice. Instead, they should hire three teachers for each lesson to guide students to do independent learning, which is a life skill essential to become successful.

And most importantly, during secondary and Junior College, the education system should be such that the University is just a continuation of their education instead of something totally new, which is the case at present.

I believe there are loads of space for improvement in our education system and I sincerely feel that the ministry should step in quickly and alter the system to be more practical and useful.

Some in pain but others inJoy

It is been a while that I have actually penned down a full fledged blog entry. Since I am on vacation now, doing nothing my itching hands really want to get some work done. So the hot topic now in India is Nationalism. I was chatting with  a friend from NIT Trichy, he told me that it is good for Chennai and Bangalore because Hyderabad is in turmoil. He implicitly meant Hyderabad's political crisis will bring in more investments to Chennai and Bangalore. He might be right to point that out because FIIs (Foreign Direct Investments) or local investments will come to a region which is politically stable. Hyderabad is in chaos mainly due to the greed and political motivation of a few politicians and businessmen.


I read an article on FT click here, which exposed the corporate interest in not bifurcating Andhra Pradesh. Since, I don't know much about the grievances of Telangana  people, so I don't buy the idea of separation too. But I am certainly against the corporate interest in Hyderabad. Apparently, state is not bifurcated based on inequities in society but based on the inequities in the contracts awarded to a few businessmen. It is very evident, state of Andhra, is moving to puppets of Oligarchs. FT also exposed the rise of Oligarchs in India as whole. Especially, southern states are home to nepotism in the politics and patriarchal business structure.

After reading all these articles, I doubt whether India is a democratic nation. I don't think, we will ever see a politician like Barack Obama or Martin Luther King or Mahatma Gandhi from India. Meritocracy in India is totally eroded and everything is completely controlled by money. I don't know where this power struggle in Andhra will lead to. Colleges and Schools are closed indefinitely in Andhra especially in Telangana region, will undoubtedly have an impact on students' performance. Investors' confidence in Andhra will deplete which will definitely result in moving investments out of Andhra to neighboring states might result. To stop all this chaos, Centre should expedite the process of referendum on Telangana issues and should make a clear decision on it.

Changing times

The world has changed a lot before my eyes. When I was young, I never thought I will be going out of Cuddalore to study and work. At Cuddalore, I was a normal kid playing kittipul, cricket, thief games and all the fun of playing on the riverside. The world to me was extremely small with all the playful stuff. I was never heard of competition. The school was even more fun because there wasn’t much rigorous competition in studies.But it was 10th standard public examination which changed my fate.

Now, I study at NTU, Singapore. I go back to Cuddalore, my friends say I still remember the same Tamil I used to speak to them. But to my eyes, there are so much of change happened in Cuddalore. I don't see young people playing traditional games like kittipul, Koli, thief games and all other games. They have totally forgotten those games and sports, moved to video games and computer games. Internet penetration is also high in villages in Tamil Nadu. It is really good to see a lot of young children using internet jargons at young age. I get to use computer only at 10th standard but I am still privileged compared to millions of Indians.

There is obviously nothing to lament but something is irking me because we tend to move totally from our traditional values. Cuddalore used to have a lot of medieval monuments but those are destroyed to construct new buildings. We are not preserving our ancient culture or monuments to show the young generations how the old generations have suffered and eke out for living. If we do that, there will be enough inspiration for young people to act that will overcome the complacency. It is good to see India changing at the fastest rate.

The big giant elephant's renaissance?

"there are foundation stones for a hospital at three different places, by three differernt political parties before three different elections..."-arvind adiga, the white tiger

"india is no more a country than the equator is..."-winston churchill

the number of times people tirelessly talk about cleaning this country(india), when it is implicit that it is herculean, worse, it could be sisyphean. i will explain this clever phrase. sisyphus was given the task of rolling a stone up a steep hill, and the gods made sure that every time the stone reached the top, it would roll back down. vicious, isnt it? to think the gods did it!

to observe morality is to attain mastery over our minds and passions. so doing, we know ourselves. if that definition be correct, then india as so many writers have shown, has nothing to learn from anybody else.-(hind swaraj- m k gandhi)

it costs us a lot to keep gandhiji in poverty-sarojini naidu

there are always theories that our democracy is but a flawed experiment, with high moral grounds but flimsy real life schemes. and there is the back to socialism cult followers, anti-american, anti-globalist, anti-rich, and anti-up yours. and there are the corporate megalomaniacs, completely soaked in money and greed, trying to suck up more and more energy out of more and more people, increasing the miseries more and more, and taking this cycle to its next ugly level, more and more...

i am reminded of the pure form of river ganga, when i am reminded of india. the ganga of premchand's protagonist, who goes to a foreign nation, but on coming back, he witnesses all the pitfalls of the country, but finds solace in the river. is that plausible? the river is dirty as a b-grade movie, and he finds comfort? misunderstood point: he comes back to values, his roots, a place where he can be himself, and can walk with his head high among his own. but does he not find discrimination? yes, because he is a part of it! if you are the cancer, how can you diagnose right?

but what do many people do? shout and scream for india! the lines between patriotism and jingoism is very thin-as is the difference between madness and sanity; mathematics and understanding; love and obsession; poetry and poverty(!). the reason why people get attached to a nation is because they are strongly anchored to it by a form of identification-that they belong to something. when it is taken away, what are we then?

"Muslims said the Hindus had planned and started the killing. According to the Hindus, the Muslims were to blame. The fact is, both sides killed. Both shot and stabbed and speared and clubbed. Both tortured. Both raped”-khushwant singh, train to pakistan

i am not sure if there is any other country in this planet that can claim diversity in such grandiose scale. not even america! we can be good hosts, but there are some stray incidents. the mughals, were the most understanding of plurality until aurangazeb, the hindus were proud of their ever-evolving religion until hindutva(savarkar?), the english were good and able administrators until general dyer...i am always torn by grief and anger when i read about partition stories. khushwant singh's "train to pakistan" is an excellent book on fiction in this regard.

i was agreeably impressed with pakistan's moderation in blasting only six, the smallest whole number greater than five-amartya sen.

india' nuclear arsenal is growing, or i should say, our nuclear plant building capacity is growing. is it good? in my opinion, given that the monsoons fail frequently, it would be a great alternative source of power which would help the farmer focus more on dry-land farming and drip irrigation instead of having to worry about his electricity bills. subsidising electricity when it is surplus is a good idea towards realising food security and preventing malnourishment, but the implementation of such a policy has inherent drawbacks-farmers can misuse it, the usual redtapism associated with a project from the bureacracy. if only the latter would vanish!

what good can come out of writing stupid blogs and discussions on forums? what is the reason for public discussion? ah,now we come to the beauty of arguments. how india has always encouraged this tradition to grow and thrive! how we understand the various view points and sum them up to do something worthwhile!

i only wish india would do well to to the poorest of the poor, those in dire need of food-instead of stocking up food grains irrationally for a buffer, it would make sense to create a system to help the people by distributing them.(again, not socialism, merely empathy.)

i would like to modify gandhiji's talisman:

when you want to know what the poorest indian lives like(the closest to it), stop eating for two days, and scamper around for food with some spare change in the pocket on the third day. and that will melt all the ralph lauren designs in the heart...

lets hope that india alleviates(atleast tries to!) the miseries of the poor and the incapacitated.

The denouement!

"indian students can not only hold their own against their european rivals europe on the latter's ground, but can beat them hollow..."-jamsetji tata

Jai hind!

Are Indians lazy?

I was chatting with my Indian friend over a lunch, suddenly he asked me, "Do you think we are lazy?" I said, I don't know the correct answer for this accidental question. He told me, he thinks we are generally lazy compared to other hardworking races in Asia. I said to him, may be man your right. So after returning from lunch, I gave a little thought to that crazy stereotypical question. Is he really right? Flipping through some facts, it seems Indians do less physical work than others and we are more prone to type 2 diabetes. These results were published in BBC health section.


If we look at studies which requires us to have lot more will power than anything else, we don't lag behind others. But certainly don't slog continuously than other Asians in general. Though there are some total nerds in India but those people utterly don't do exercise and tend to be overweight. I knew lot of my friends back in chennai play video games for straight eight to nine hours but if we ask them to sit and study or do some sports they flunk it (not in studies though). So what might have caused us to have such an attitude.

I think our family structure might have contributed to some extent where only one parent (especially father) tend to work and others sit and relax. Our social structure doesn't permit adolescents to do part time jobs or other works. But contemporary young people are health conscious and also have power to drive so this attitude may change very soon. There are spoil sport like video games and computer games might hinder the change of attitude. Any thoughts to this?

Tamils hate North Indians? No, Not all!

My north Indian friends in NTU, keep on asking me ,why tamils hate North Indians. I refute them by saying there is no notion of hatred among tamils. It is a general idea of north indians that tamilians don't want to learn Hindi and they hate Hindi like how french people hate English. But it is not true, majority of south indians especially tamils these days really want to learn hindi. Apparently, it is Tamil Nadu which has highest number of privately registered hindi programs according to "The Hindu". But why there is uneasy between tamils and north indians.

Actually tamils envy the assertive nature of north indians, their socialable culture. Obviously not to hide, most tamil guys want to have north indian girl friends. But the fact, they often don't succeed because north indian guys are aggressive enough to even lure south indian girls. This has actually lead to jealousy and common dislike among young tamils. Sometimes sadly though tamils guys work their ass off to achieve spendidly superub things but still they couldn't compete with normal hindiwala guys when it comes to getting girl friends. So this has automatically lead to envy feelings.

Another important fact why is there an envy feeling is related to the entertainment industry. Tamil movies are so freaking conservative compared to Bollywood movies. Usually successful tamil movies are about village boy chasing for rich girl or emotional family problems or unsuccessful urbanities. But hindi movies on the other hand shows so much of skin and grandeur on the celluloid this has also to lead to jealousy among tamilians for opportunity deprivation. Lastly, it is the fair skin which we all want to have but unfortunately God has cursed as with dark skin so tamil only envy north indians, not hate them. Secretly we want to be like you.