The Ashoka
PageThe Ashoka
PageThis page is for discovering India, the possibility. It has taken me a lifetime to begin to sort through the morass that exists on India's surface and see the glimmer. India is free and Indians are not. I leave it to your inquiry to see the ways that we are not, an inquiry that may unconceal India and who you are in that matter. Feel free to share your thoughts with me. This page will grow with them...
India
In their gentle ways, Indians have a way of blurring the boundaries of my sharply honed American individualism.
I once walked next to a stooped old woman on a three-day pilgrimage with thousands of others high into the Himalayas. With every painful step, she panted, "Shiva!" Sometimes she lovingly patted my hand, as if to give me, a stranger and her junior by at least thirty years, encouragement.
I remembered my thoughts before the trip. They were a jumble of worries and fears about myself. Could I make it physically? Where would I go to the bathroom? Would my period come, and how would I handle it in the midst of so many people?
With the majestic Himalayas at my feet and the tiny gnarled old woman at my side, I became very small.
I cried nonstop every one of the three days.
I left India that trip too humble to seperate myself any longer from the dazzling, deep stream of life around me.
When the distances between self and living again grow great, and my ego starts to flaunt itself, I return to India.
She works her magic every time.
Cheryl Bentley, "Enchanted" (From "Travellers' Tales - India")
A curious mindset Indians seem to carry is embarrassment about our background and culture in the modern western context, at the same time living those values, almost clinging to them. There is a lot India is proud of, its extraordinary software industry (an article in Forbes) to its ancient history, religion and philosophy.
Indians in United States - an opinion
Adam Osborne is the guy who invented the first microcomputer bus called S-100. He's one of the two that started Apple computers (the other is Steve Jobs).
This article was printed in Dataquest magazine in the April 91 issue. It was written by Adam Osborne, who is the director of Silicon Valley Technologies and publisher of a monthly newsletter "From the Fountainhead"
I was raised in Tamil Nadu in South India, in the ashram of Sri Ramana Maharishi, of an English father and a Polish mother. Both were dedicated followers of Sri Ramana Maharishi. Therefore as a child growing up in the small town of Tiruvannamalai, Tamilnadu. I was fluent in Tamil and was surrounded by Indians who were proud of their nationality and heritage, and believed they had a lot to teach us Europeans. I still speak enough Tamil to get by, and feel that my roots are indeed in India. I must be only professed "vellackaaren" (white) TamilianAmerica. After all, how could anyone, even an English boy, grown up in Tiruvannamalai, in the ashram of Sri Ramana Maharishi, and not acquire a pride in his roots? It is therefore with some misgivings that today I find myself dealing with Indians, many of who do not feel proud of their Indianness.
Indian Americans represent the most affluent minority in America, ahead of Jewish Americans and Japanese americans. This is a statistic and not an opinion. Indians swarm all over the Silicon valley, where they are an integral part of most product development teams: be they teams developing new semiconductor chips, software packages or computers. Indians are recognized throughout America as technically superior. No Indian in America has to explain his educational background, or apologize for his technical training. And yet, as a group, though Indian Americans are quick to acknowledge their caste, religion or family, they lack national pride. Indians are not proud of their nationality as Indians, something I realized many years ago, Something that puzzled me.
Recently, talking before Indian audiences on the lecture circuit, I have frequently talked to Indians of their lack of national pride, with telling results. Invariably, after making this assertion from the lecture podium, I find myself surrounded by Indians: Engineers, Scientists, doctors, even lawyers, all asserting the correctness of my observations, "You are correct," they will assert. "I am not proud that I am an Indian." Is the reasons India's colonial heritage? Who knows? But whatever the reason, it is a pity. Since the day Indians learn pride, India will rapidly move out of its third world status to become one of the world's industrial powers.
Today I work with an Indian American, trying to help him make his dream come true. And in the process, make my own dream come true, since I have hitched my dream to his. Then, with my dream realized, I will return to India, to preach Indian pride: not pride in being a Hindu, or practicing Islam or being a Parsee, or a Sikh: not pride in being a Tamilian, or a Telugu, or a Punjabi, or a Marwari; not pride in being a Brahmin rather than a lesser caste. These are all divisive differences that India would be better off without. But I will preach that Indians must learn to be proud of being Indians just as Singapore nationals are proud of their nationality, irrespective of their race or their religion.
Then there will be no more shoddy Indian products, since every worker will generate output with the stamp of a proud man on it. With self-evident quality that screams out: "That is the work of an Indian!" And corruption will decline. For, although bribes are solicited by greedy, dishonest men, as well as by men who do not earn enough to feed themselves and their families, and even though these root causes of corruption transcend the bases of lack of Indian pride of which I speak, nevertheless a proud man will pause, more than a man without pride, before extending his hand to receive a bribe. And a proud Indian will try harder to be responsible for products and services that others will praise.
AND IT IS IN THAT PRAISE THAT INDIA'S FUTURE INDUSTRIAL GREATNESS LIES.
- Adam Osborne
A consequence of freedom is responsibility. The citizens are now responsible and accountable for creating and shaping their nation's destiny. Freedom and democracy bestow us with means, however imperfect, to address what we care about, be it values of fairness, well being, prosperity or spirituality. Pritish Nandy of Times comes down heavily on the rampant use of complaints that we sometimes use as a device to shirk responsibility. While JFK said
"Ask not what the country can do for you, ask what you can do for the country"
Consider that responsibility is not a burden, but rather a joy to have. It gives expression to the human spirit, dignity and creaticity, as GB Shaw so eloquently expresses:
"Some people see things that are and ask why, some people see things that are not and ask why not"
Some thoughts
Consider that all that has been said before is true - that India is a vast country with a heritage of the undying human spirit, that cannot fail to reach you. - that this spirit is suppressed today; be it in our lack of pride, poverty, corruption, civil war or terrorism.
A thought that occurs repeatedly is that India as a people are resigned to the quality of life they have or have inherited. We squander the freedom we have to create and realize our own future. There may be no cure to this resignation than to recognise it is there, see its many faces, catch it in each other as it is expressed ongoingly and move beyond it knowing that throughout history it has not taken more than a declaration, an unshakable stand to achieve in a lifetime what generations only contemplated.
People know that having too many children hurts their family and the nation. People know that corruption and terrorism cause more problems than they solve. People know that brain drain leeches India of its vitality. And somewhere deep inside, people also know that they can make a difference. The means are there, unlimited human talent, enormous discretionary wealth of Indians abroad, the natural resources, the strength of philosophy, the depth of culture and a love for the people that we hide.
If you want to help
There are many ways to help. People help through education, money, creating jobs, etc. There is no "better" way to help, just where your heart is.
There was this young woman who loves to photograph, there is a moving story of how she travelled third world countries taking pictures and teaching the kids to take pictures. She brought photography to the lives of these children and through that act awakened their minds to the outside world and what is possible. The name escapes me, but this incident truly recounts the value of self-expression in human life.
Some people have a full life and would like to help those who are helping. Several organizations are listed below. They have been vetted to make sure there is no bias of caste, religion or language. More will be added as they are discovered. They are reported to be effective and usually give good feedback of their activities to reassure the donor. They are always looking for people to become part of the organization in India or elsewhere.
Give a man food and he will have a meal, teach him to fish and he will eat for ever
Links to Numerous India Pages (Evidence that we Desis are consummate geeks):