Not a hardscrabble any more

Other day I was talking to Adi, one of my American team mate, and she told me that she is planning to put some money in the stocks of Indian companies. This may seem like a normal conversation to most of you, but for me, being a conscious Indian myself, it meant more. Not long ago, may be in early 90s, India was not considered even near to be a big player on opera of world politics. Though, I was not very mature to understand the politics at that time but I was bright enough to notice some patterns. Soviets were on a decline and being a close friend of USSR, India was bound to take some toll. On the other side Pakistan, a known rival of India, was expected to do well thanks to their close proximity to USA. And then there was China, who do not need any recognition and who did not like to see India grow. These factors made India to be weakest in south Asia. But there are only external factors.

Internal situation was no better. Political scene was very unstable. We had seen many government changes in a very short span in late 80s. Infrastructure was as bad as one might think of, good roads were absent and electricity was barely enough to light your houses when night falls. To fetch water people had to cover few miles. Not many jobs to offer to young graduates. Also, for astonishment of most, I don't consider the social infrastructure of India as a strong one. There are moral and values, all right. We respect our elders, all right. We don't have many divorces, all right. But frankly these factors have very little to offer towards the economy and growth of the nation. The way I see the social infrastructure of India, we have corruption deep down in the roots of bureaucracy. Crime graph was showing an uptrend and at least I used to feel unsafe - especially after incident of 6th December.

If you consider all these, the situation was nothing but admonishing. Future looked bleak and smart people were expected to fly out of the country to safe places such as USA or UK. And yes, we faced brain drains. We saw brilliant minds groomed through the infrastructure and money of India only to see them absconding the nation when time came to deliver. I don't blame them for the reasons I explained above. It was only a smart thing to do and you bet - there were smart.

How glad am I when I see our achievements in past ten years with all the adversities. We are growing by every year and more international recognition is being offered. I would say at last - I am proud to be an Indin.