The growth that India is seeing…

A Mercedes Benz is parked in front of a garbage pond.
And this (luxury car and/or the smelly heap) is one of the many you could see around anywhere in the city. Take a small tour – and you got it.

Has life in India improved?
Yes, there’s the Mercedes. But, No, there’s still garbage all around.
Maybe (a work-in-progress…)?

It’s not an easy question to answer – given the many dimensions.

From childbirth to romance – life in the nation has changed. And so have employment opportunities of the young to the medical facilities for the aged.
This has transformed not just the poor, but also the rich. And mind you, their definitions are different now.

I love driving my own car early on in my career – something my father managed to realize for himself only near to his retirement. My wife enjoys painting herself with Revlon; while my tiny daughter is busy munching on the caramel-rich Lindt.

Okay, I belong to the humble middle class of my country. And yeah, that Mercedes Benz is surely a dream for us.

Now, coming back to the garbage, it’s still a part of the everyday mundane lives today, as it was yesterday. Not sure about tomorrow, though. Hope not.

With India’s economy opening-up some 20 years back – meaning foreign organizations allowed to set-up shop – lot of money has poured in since. It has been a win-win run for both; the salesman from abroad together with the customer back home.
And in this rush to relish the fruits of money, something has gone amiss.

While life has improved exponentially at an individual level, it has significantly lagged behind for the broad public – something which we all also belong to.

Most of the advanced countries today have been through this phase in their past, sometime or the other. Guess, they didn’t borrow God’s magic wand to take that leap to the next level!

Probably, we are yet to start thinking about how it would feel to be an Indian standing before the whole world?
How to distinguish ourselves from among the multiple nation states on this earth?
Meaning, like the Americans are known for their entrepreneurship (they don’t fear risking), the British for their authority – having ruled the world for centuries, the Chinese for their labor and perseverance, the Japanese for their ‘robotic’ inclination towards cutting-edge technology, the French for their expression of Love, ..
What is our identity among the humanity?
Is it that something which will bind us together as an Indian?

Probably, the next few years will see the Indian heart-and-mind opening-up to the world at large.
And I guess to begin with, the international events organized on home soil, be it Formula 1, Cricket World Cup, Commonwealth Games – recent ones to name a few, would help shape that.

We have a lot to learn to grow.

I know I sound a bit preachy here, but just think about it.
Do you want to improve the lives of fellow countrymen (and women, for that matter) together with yourself?
How to do it beyond our self with compassion?
Will it ever happen?

Let’s find those answers. But more importantly, execute them beginning from the individual-level.
Hope to see that Mercedes Benz minus the garbage in our home soon.