Life is full of chance events...and many times chance experiences are pretty rewarding and thought provoking.
As I boarded the bus today at Churchgate and sat by the window, ready to doze off for the next 2 hours, I was startled by a thick voice over my (partially deaf) right ear - "Whats happenning to Google?". I turned only to face a fat dark person who repeated his question on noticing a confused look on my face. It took me a second to realise that his question was directed to me owing to the magazine-article on my lap. The man sounded knowledgable, and so I became interested. We started talking about Google, its business model, its technology, its servers.. and then from there we went on to a host of topics related to technology. Soon we were introducing each other. This was a software engineer from Hyderabad around 33 years old who was in Bombay for some personal work. He was quite an entreprenurial person. Had his own recording studio where his team of (what he called talented) musicians worked. He also had a few canteens in Hyderabad - which were manged by employees.
Sometime later he started asking about the Grand Prix - for no reason I thought. Then he said - "My son is 3 years old. I want him to take up this - F1, Grand Prix. I want to send him to Germany for this. My life has been very monotonous - study, work and then family; I dont want my son to experinece this, he should have a chance for adventure". And then he started balming the Govt for not supporting Narayan Karthikeyan blah blah....
I have two points to ponder here -
1. Is it fare of today's parents to expect so much from their children ? Is it fair to children that their parents try to set a path for them even before they are born ? And if the child cannot fulfill the parents' dream, can he/she be held responsible for it ? More so, is this surrogate satisfaction going to help the parents personally ??
2. Here is the 'new Indian' who dreams big. He runs two or more businesses and wants his son to take up the expensive sport of Grand Prix. He blames the governments for not supporting these adventurous sports. But has this new Indian ever given a thought or even a look to the poor and downtrodden in this nation ? Is it fair for us to think of such expensive adventures for our next generation when we cannot feed even those in this generation??
The question which has perplexed me always is - What is rise in standard of living ?? Does it mean a small rise in incomes of many? Or does it mean large increase in incomes of few? How does a nation progress? Due to a few succesful industry houses or many small businesses??
I believe that the Indian model of Social Justice will always ensure growth of many. Years of development based on a strong "small scale sector" validates my view. But lately Indian economics has been moving from the socialist model to the capitalist model... I wonder whether we are yet ready for such a society, more so whether our values and our culture are in line with it.
I pray for the new strong INDIA ... where 'the head is helf high and mind is without fear'..... amen
As I boarded the bus today at Churchgate and sat by the window, ready to doze off for the next 2 hours, I was startled by a thick voice over my (partially deaf) right ear - "Whats happenning to Google?". I turned only to face a fat dark person who repeated his question on noticing a confused look on my face. It took me a second to realise that his question was directed to me owing to the magazine-article on my lap. The man sounded knowledgable, and so I became interested. We started talking about Google, its business model, its technology, its servers.. and then from there we went on to a host of topics related to technology. Soon we were introducing each other. This was a software engineer from Hyderabad around 33 years old who was in Bombay for some personal work. He was quite an entreprenurial person. Had his own recording studio where his team of (what he called talented) musicians worked. He also had a few canteens in Hyderabad - which were manged by employees.
Sometime later he started asking about the Grand Prix - for no reason I thought. Then he said - "My son is 3 years old. I want him to take up this - F1, Grand Prix. I want to send him to Germany for this. My life has been very monotonous - study, work and then family; I dont want my son to experinece this, he should have a chance for adventure". And then he started balming the Govt for not supporting Narayan Karthikeyan blah blah....
I have two points to ponder here -
1. Is it fare of today's parents to expect so much from their children ? Is it fair to children that their parents try to set a path for them even before they are born ? And if the child cannot fulfill the parents' dream, can he/she be held responsible for it ? More so, is this surrogate satisfaction going to help the parents personally ??
2. Here is the 'new Indian' who dreams big. He runs two or more businesses and wants his son to take up the expensive sport of Grand Prix. He blames the governments for not supporting these adventurous sports. But has this new Indian ever given a thought or even a look to the poor and downtrodden in this nation ? Is it fair for us to think of such expensive adventures for our next generation when we cannot feed even those in this generation??
The question which has perplexed me always is - What is rise in standard of living ?? Does it mean a small rise in incomes of many? Or does it mean large increase in incomes of few? How does a nation progress? Due to a few succesful industry houses or many small businesses??
I believe that the Indian model of Social Justice will always ensure growth of many. Years of development based on a strong "small scale sector" validates my view. But lately Indian economics has been moving from the socialist model to the capitalist model... I wonder whether we are yet ready for such a society, more so whether our values and our culture are in line with it.
I pray for the new strong INDIA ... where 'the head is helf high and mind is without fear'..... amen
Well ,
ReplyDeleteThe fault of the man was partial.. He wants a better life for his son.. He wants him to enjoy every but of it.. His interntions are not bad. His direction of thinking is wrong.
Well the growth of large scale industries never hinder the growth of small scale industries. If government makes rules that are conducive to industries then it does it bit..
And my view is that industries are increasing at a very high pace.. Can u ever imagine that there are 80 odd small scale steel plants coming up in Raipur Bilaspur Zone?? Each plant worth 7 crores. All was coz of good management of mr Jogi. And side by side he started large scale prjects too.. So government if wants can help both of them. All depends on their willingness..
Manish