Tuesday, June 23, 2009

India will emerge eventually

I seriously don't care if India becomes a superpower or not,but every Indian should have at least 3 meals a day,be clothed and have a roof over of his head.The measure of a country's success is not by its nuclear arsenal or by its army's strength.Whats the use of all this if your people are starving.India was the biggest economy in the world in the 17th century when the so called Western powers had poverty and some were still barbarians.Now,that was till the Brits invaded us and robbed the country.They looted,raped and plundered.India has been a silent witness to such things in the past with muslim invaders also but they would loot and leave.The Brits had heard of India being the golden sparrow and of its abundant wealth.No wonder it was called as the "Jewel in the crown" amongst all colonies.Now when Gandhi threw them out in 1947,they left grudgingly and left behind a divided India and a tottering nation deprived of all its wealth,and with a drained economy.The riots that ensued during partition left deep scars on both sides which havent yet healed.Divide and rule policy is what they applied cruelly over two centuries and won many battles.Real shrewd buggers.Indians were naive chaps,very gullible and always wanting to please the white master.
Now after 62 years a lot of Indians and outsiders ask why India hasn't developed the way many nations who got Independence simultaneously did! The answer is that India was pulled back 200 years by the British,who didn't let the country or its people advance.So, in 62 years we haven't done badly for ourselves considering how we were forcibly kept back and our growth was stunted.We haven't done badly at all and should be proud.The U.S got its independence in 1776 and they started becoming a superpower post 1945 after the war.So,do your maths and see how long it took them after independence and also give due consideration that they were not drained by years of British rule like India.The Brits never wanted to leave,such were the revenues earned from India.
So my dear friends,India's favourite song which we all grew up with "We shall overcome" is India's unsaid motto.We shall and we will overcome.India's destiny awaits it and its children.One of my brothers correctly and aptly said that,"India wins over hearts and is not a follower of muscle games", but at the same time India doesn't welcome aggression in any form.History proves it.
India is a great nation.A nation where elders are still respected,families stay together,divorce is a taboo and the neighbour is cared for too.We have culture and tradition going back since ancient times.No power or country can just blow away India like a candle.Amongst the Hindus there's a sayin "Jako raakhe saiyan,maar sake na koi" which loosely translated means that "The one who God protects cannot be touched".India has religion as a power if not anything.People are very religious unlike in many Western countries there is no religion,which is a binding and bonding factor in India.
India will triumph and I dont care if it becomes a superpower or not but it will emerge a great nation,which it always has been.People of the world don't know it yet,but they will....gradually.Jai ho!!

Sunday, June 21, 2009

calm in sydney

Hi guys,sorry for the delay in posts but I was waiting to comment on something concrete regarding the attacks on students in Sydney and Melbourne.Unfortunately,it seems that China has hijacked that issue and the media and government seem more content in being answerable to them.Very enraging and demeaning but true.Now why is that? By that, I meant,why is China being given more importance.
Now,as a student in New York I did fairly well in F.I.T,which for the uninitiated stands for Fashion Institute of Technology and is considered the Harvard of Fashion when I studied there during 1994-1996.My only competition were Israeli and Chinese students who took more credit per semester than any of us.Credits were the points allocated for a certain subject and an average student would take up to 16 credits which could equate to 4-5 subject depending on how much credit each subject held.It was tough competition from Israeli kids as they were smart,hardworking and intelligent.The Chinese kids were smart,hardworking and intelligent.I was over smart,hardly working and assumed an air of superiority.How did I manage to stay above? Well, a little bit of work was required and in subjects where the exams were essay types,I scored hands down as my English was good.The Chinese kids had a major problem there.This is one of the biggest legacies the Brits left us.....the English language.I read somewhere that 40million Indians(In India and worldwide),speak English as a first language and have better written and comprehension skills in the language.So much so that Indian teachers are being imported in hordes to England to teach English to the English.Now,isn't that ironical?Even when India was a colony,the Brits sent Indian teachers to some of many other colonies like West Indies,Fiji etc. to teach the locals English.

Coming back to the Chinese,right from my New York days I had understood that China enjoyed an MFN status with the US and despite arming themselves,they got away with it.I think many forget or don't even know that China along with the U.S,Russia,UK and France is the fifth member of the UN permanent security council members.Isn't that amazing? One Asian country among all these anglophiles,considering Russia also as a White nation.Maybe White Caucasians would be more appropriate.Even during the pre-colonisation days,unlike us Indians who welcomed Europeans with wide arms to help sove our infighting's,the Chinese always fought off invasions.I remember seeing this programme on SBS channel on how the Chinese captured the first French arrivals and put them in a cart,paraded them and beat them with poles.China also was an ally in the second world war.So as is usual from ancient days,after the battle's won,the spoils are split.So did the allies,and today the power equation that we see are the results from the spoils that were split.China also got away with being a communist regime and has emerged so powerful.In one of the Pierce Brosnan Bond movies, they refer to Chinese Air force as the biggest Air force in the world.Their Army is also a force to reckon with I believe.China has flooded the markets over the last decade or more with Chinese cheap goods and people are dependent on it as recession has been on and off world over.

India figures nowhere in the top agenda's of countries like USA and even Australia.Its very natural why.There's been no love lost between China and India over many issues like border and water disputes and the most touchy one being Tibet and harbouring Dalai Lama over which a deadly war was also fought in the 60's in which the Indian army took a good beating.India was a country coming out of 200years of colonialism and its army was new and weak.China had superiority in man power and weapons.The terrain where the battle was fought was again alien to the Indian soldiers who didn't stand a chance.When a country which is a permanent security council is the aggressor,the media coverage is not much but if a country like India helps Bangladesh to break away from Pakistan there's a lot of media outcry.Since China has an old axe to grind with India,Australia which needs China to buy their minerals and keep that boom going won't supply India with Uranium.I was shocked to read that China has been supplying arms to Pakistan which in turn gave it to militants who use it to spread terror in India.Isn't it obvious as to who put a spoke in the wheel of India's many attempts to get US approval on various issues like Nuclear and defence developments.

I was watching this Nicholas cage movie in which he was an arm dealer and at the end of the movie there was a caption saying that the five security council members of the UN are the five biggest arms suppliers in the world.Isn't that ironical?

As a student in New York,one of my social sciences Professor's remarked that India has everything going for it,but unless it has strong lobbying in the US at the senate levels,India's status would remain weak.Fifteen years have passed and the status still remains the same.

We need a leader who not only can provide stability and peace but also be an International leader.Rajiv Gandhi was the only one who could hold his own amongst leaders of other nations,but he was not allowed to live.

India's image abroad is poor and Indian's in India and abroad have to change attitudes so that people sit up and take notice.We are a great nation that has survived for 2500 years and more and we need to be respected and remembered.And others will only do so if we are proud of our heritage and our culture.If we ourselves deride our own culture and people,why will others respect us.All of us at some point are guilty of that to fit in with the "Saheb".That should stop and we must fight for our rights peacefully.We are from the land of Gandhi,violence was never our way.Gandhi threw out the Brits without throwing a single punch.Lets remember that great man and learn from him.Jai Ho!

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Back in Sydney

I apologise for the gap in my entry as I was away in Cairns,and the place where we were staying didn't have Internet access for the period of our stay.
Now,Cairns is a lovely place! To me it was a bit like Kerala and Goa.So you can Imagine how beautiful it is.It was truly out of the world! Now we took the Virgin blue flight from Sydney and it was delayed due to fog in Brisbane and our flight carrier was originating from Brisbane.I must say that I loved their service and attitude.Very polite and efficient.The Cairns airport is undergoing some repair work which required me and my partner to walk from one end to the other for baggage collection.Good exercise.We picked up a car from East coast car rentals who messed up the bookings a bit but Mini car rentals which is next doors, was nice.The customer service rep,a girl called Lia helped us out.We stayed at a place called Trinity beach resort which was lovely and the beach was just 200m away.The staff and owners were very welcoming and the apartments were also self styled and suited our purpose.There was an IGA at a 2 minutes drive from our resort which was super rocking.

We covered most of the attractions like the barrier reef,corals,kuranda skyrail and the train etc.Port Douglas which is a 1.5 hour drive was also fabulous and the Hartley Croc farm on the way was also worth a visit.

Now what I liked most about Cairns was that the people were so courteous,traffic was so organised and there was no rudeness or aggression anywhere.A little of that behaviour we saw came from tourists.

Whoa,when we came outside Sydney airport it was a rude awakening.A big shock.

People are so busy here that they have become insensitive and selfish, hence the aggression and the honking and the swearing.

Me and my partner don't know where we will settle down but we know that Sydney is no longer a safe prospect to consider settling down here.

The Indian students were right to protest but resorting to violence is not a way out.Two wrongs don't make a right.They came to study here and not become vigilante's or goonie's.There are other people who are doing a good job at that and soon their deeds will catch up with them.
But the whole episode has exposed the lackadaisical attitude of the Australian Police and how they look the other way and turn a blind eye to many of these incidents.Won't be too far fetched to say that some characters here are playing these gullible boys to their advantage.God save them from these Parasites.Australian government is only concerned with the lucrative business they're in danger of loosing,and not about the plight of the ones who contribute to that business.Insensitive is all I can call them.In fact the Universities who lure them here vouching for the safety and protection of Australia are the ones to be held responsible.Now,that would be asking for too much.God bless these hapless souls.Only he can help them now as the law can't or won't.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Its quiet in Sydney and Melbourne

I was waiting to see if anything concrete will happen with regards to the students being bashed that rocked the Indian community.Nothing concrete has happened,only promises or claims of what will be done.Not good enough.There was a big turnout by the student community in Melbourne and they were camping near Flinders street I believe,which is near the Train Station.The cops did look perturbed on TV as the crowd was big.The students did stage a night out there and finally in the morning the cops resorted to force to evict them from their protest.One student was injured and the commissioner of police apologised.

Reminded me of the movie Gandhi where the Brits forcibly remove peaceful protesters.In this case the students were agitated and did break some window panes, and some White bystanders resorted to racial slurs and asked them to go home.They will say that they meant home in Melbourne but the real intent is any ones guess.

In today's Sydney Morning Herald there was a report that the PM has deputed a chap to look into the Indian incidents.They will need to as the Indian student community brings $2billion into the economy and they are lucrative.Many parents have asked their wards to return as with India's booming economy,they don't see s need to take these risk's.Some reportedly have gone back already.

The truth is that I have never faced racism In Australia,but after 8pm on trains I have faced a threat from drunk people,mostly bums on centre link.In Australia people like me slog and pay heavy taxes and this money goes towards paying bums and do no gooder's who are incidentally citizens.They use the money to drink,smoke,gamble and abuse poor people on roads and trains.I've had bums who were drunk at 10am,approaching me for "Change" and abusing me when I refused.
So.these boys who face these threats are just unfortunate to be out at that time, as all the low lives and do no gooder's are up and shining.They're uneducated and frustrated youths who envy these guys and probably need some quick cash to get drugs.These poor Indian guys are just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Hope something comes out of all these meetings deputations of security in charges,as the government can't afford a drop in Indian students to Australia.Good luck guys!