Random thoughts...
Well, here I am. Back from a self induced haitus.This one kind of branched out from a trip to India, sustained itself on the return to madness here and then kept rolling due to the most potent of all vices - sheer laziness.
So, India is now a player huh? One of the big boys. Well, while I am sure it feels good to the 300 million middle class, and even better to the 2 million Indians in the US, I'm not so sure how the 800 million poor feel. Admitted that India is rising, but we need to sustain this growth. And growth is not just in terms of urban malls, cars and six lane highways, but growth in terms of improving the standard of living of the poor and increasing the quality of life for the millions who are still in need of the basic necessities of life. As long as we don't get swept off our feet by all this attention, things do look good.
What can WE do to help the real Indian, who is still not sure where his next meal is coming from. What can one do to help the child, who doesn't know if he will ever go to school? What can we do to help the woman who has to travel kilometers under the hot sun to gather dirty water for her family?
For starters, we can all talk about it. Really, who the (bleep) cares what film Trisha is acting in next? Where are our priorities? How many of us run to movie portals as soon as we hook up to the internet? Let's find and visit websites and resources that discuss issues such as rural poverty, child education, columns on India's problems and so on. I agree it is not realistic to think in terms of huge goals like the eradication of poverty or the achievement of full fledged literacy. Those are issues that need attention and focus on a larger scale. But what we tend to conveniently forget is that the beginnings of all great things are small occurences, that are started by people like you and me. Find a charity or an organization that resonates with your beliefs and thoughts. Follow them, understand them, study what they do. Spread the word about them to your friends. And finally, when you feel strong enough, go volunteer with them. Trust me, if you help feed a kid for one day, you will have made a difference.
Moving on to lighter issues - while I was in India, I had a great time catching up with most of the gang in Bangalore. We safely saw off 2005, and also made sure that everyone reached home safely from Club Cabana, but that's another post. Seriously, this club scene in Bangalore is something else. Somehow frenching seems out of place in Bangalore - maybe its just me. I'll have pics up soon.
I also had some fascinating discussions with some industry people in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Delhi. I met with them to discuss my thesis, and ended up having some real illuminating discussions regarding attitudes of technology professionals in the West and in South Asia. More on that later.
Just touching base folks, I'll be around.
Ram
So, India is now a player huh? One of the big boys. Well, while I am sure it feels good to the 300 million middle class, and even better to the 2 million Indians in the US, I'm not so sure how the 800 million poor feel. Admitted that India is rising, but we need to sustain this growth. And growth is not just in terms of urban malls, cars and six lane highways, but growth in terms of improving the standard of living of the poor and increasing the quality of life for the millions who are still in need of the basic necessities of life. As long as we don't get swept off our feet by all this attention, things do look good.
What can WE do to help the real Indian, who is still not sure where his next meal is coming from. What can one do to help the child, who doesn't know if he will ever go to school? What can we do to help the woman who has to travel kilometers under the hot sun to gather dirty water for her family?
For starters, we can all talk about it. Really, who the (bleep) cares what film Trisha is acting in next? Where are our priorities? How many of us run to movie portals as soon as we hook up to the internet? Let's find and visit websites and resources that discuss issues such as rural poverty, child education, columns on India's problems and so on. I agree it is not realistic to think in terms of huge goals like the eradication of poverty or the achievement of full fledged literacy. Those are issues that need attention and focus on a larger scale. But what we tend to conveniently forget is that the beginnings of all great things are small occurences, that are started by people like you and me. Find a charity or an organization that resonates with your beliefs and thoughts. Follow them, understand them, study what they do. Spread the word about them to your friends. And finally, when you feel strong enough, go volunteer with them. Trust me, if you help feed a kid for one day, you will have made a difference.
Moving on to lighter issues - while I was in India, I had a great time catching up with most of the gang in Bangalore. We safely saw off 2005, and also made sure that everyone reached home safely from Club Cabana, but that's another post. Seriously, this club scene in Bangalore is something else. Somehow frenching seems out of place in Bangalore - maybe its just me. I'll have pics up soon.
I also had some fascinating discussions with some industry people in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Delhi. I met with them to discuss my thesis, and ended up having some real illuminating discussions regarding attitudes of technology professionals in the West and in South Asia. More on that later.
Just touching base folks, I'll be around.
Ram
posted by Ram at
Sunday, March 05, 2006
1 Comments:
Good one da! I would be very much interested to know what the industry people (back home) think about the attitude of Software Professionals in the US as well as south India.
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Unknown, at 5:53 PM
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