India Trip 2012

Sweaty Chennai, Boring Trichy, relatively better Bangalore 

(March and April 2012)

Two weeks into my trip,I had traveled to places like Chennai, Tirupati, Madurai, Trichy (including nearby rural areas) and Bangalore.  There were plenty of opportunities to observe infrastructure development in some parts of these cities/towns and listen to other's  ideas and views.

Not a slave of comforts, power shortage came as a rude shock to me though. My mom never mentioned about it once. Tamilnadu boasts more than 250 engineering colleges and other outstanding institutions like BHEL. Chief Minister Jayalalitha is a skilled administrator. Country as a whole has a rich pool of talent. Yet, we are struggling to generate electricity efficiently. Every Aam Aadmi was talking about the CM being not able to handle it efficiently and that only two hours off in chennai is a biased decision. Apart from the talking and abusing, there could not be much done by the public. It was miserable to see old people with heart problems suffer in the mid day heat from sweating. They could not have a complete mid day siesta and wake up puffing and  struggling to breathe. Inverter would not last long enough to operate even one fan. 

During one such conversation with an elder downstairs (He badly needed rest in the afternoons but I always used to see him near the door where there are better chances of being blessed with a breeze), he explained the situation to me. He was very vocal in airing his views on poilitics, governance and music. He asked how the chennai residents could be treated better than the rest of the towns and cities in Tamilnadu. He had also lived his earning years in Chennai but moved to Trichy because he could not afford to live there in his retired years. The same middle class income situation as my parents and most other retired folks settled in Srirangam. They had chosen Srirangam so that they could atleast be close to the reclining Lord of Vaikunta and enjoy the Koil utsavams. I am still a part of the same system and did not and do not look at the situation as an outsider. Still, I  felt glad that I got out of that place. Middle class priorities on education-first everything else-rest definitely worked for me. ( My interests in music and writing took a backseat and is still there enjoying its nap and waking up to say Hi when the ride gets pretty bumpy sometimes). 

I had high hopes of India being very advanced in every sector in the next 10 years. Corruption in politics (2G scam case having gone the Bofors way) and hapless public will not and cannot change much to better our country. If I were living in India, probably I would also be not noticing anything any differently than others and highlighting them. I might also just complain and move on. But, this is the scenario, I know them in my consciousness. Now, What am I going to do? 

My few-cents:

- India is only for the rich; not for the middle class and the less privileged. 

- Money is meaningless; only power buys influence. 

- India is an experience, not a country. 

- We need to make small towns more interesting.  For example, build relevant infrastructure to cater to all ages. There was not a single children's park amidst a group of apartments in srirangam. I agree the community is built around aged people but still..... 

- Indians are addicted to T.V , noise and cricket. If T.V and Cricket are banned, 90% of our population wouldn't know what to do with their precious time. 

- Overall, inefficient and self-pitying people forming mediocre society and corrupt government.