INDIA POISED !! Really??

"Double Sundae" shouts the frontpage headline on todays TOI. After Tata's acquired Corus it's Birla's to acquire Novelis in Canada.(http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/After_Tata_its_Birla_Magic_of_metal/articleshow/1593535.cms)

Well we all know how TOI is going ga-ga over "India Poised" funda. I never paid much attention to it except for the beautiful song composed by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy & Gulzar. Listen to it Click Here

However, after reading it again I started wondering is this REAL !!
I mean all this really big acquisitions, announcement of Wal-Mart entry into India, big software companies lining up to enter India etc etc. Do these things really mean we are growing, transitioning from developing country to developed country? If the answer to all this is YES, then at what cost?????

Just yesterday there was a beautiful Marathi movie on cable.
How a foreign company wants to start a soft drink company in some village in Maharashtra, how they bribe the government. How the government happily on receiving the money start grabbing farmers land. How one particular farmer tries to resist it and ultimately gets killed.

Some pondering over one interesting shot in the movie:

One day the director of this company comes to this farmer’s house to know why this farmer is resisting this soft drink company setup on his land.

The director asks why he is resisting the village development.
The farmer replies, "Who is going to benefit from this project?
What are we farmers going to gain from this?
Farmers will be losing their bread and butter (their lands) in return to under valued compensation. They will have to search for new jobs, relocate to unknown areas, and break their entire present setup. Now why should they do this? Should they do this for the soft drink unit or should they do this for the few greedy politicians?"
The director has no answers to this.
Further the farmer says, "I am happy because whatever I grow, I eat it. Remaining I sell in market, I have bought few jewellery for my wife, we wear sufficiently good clothes, my kid goes to school, we have villagers who participate in each other happiness and sorrow. Tomorrow due to this company new big housing project will come up; few 5 star hotels will come up. Off course we farmers won’t be able to afford it
Then why should I leave my village. Who is going to benefit from this, obviously your Company and politicians. "

After hearing this, I really started thinking isn't this what's happening in India right now. I do believe we should develop, grow, but at what cost?
We need to decide in which areas we have to develop and what to develop. Right now we are blindly following the western world. In this entire process we are forgetting what we are, who we are, what's our culture, our roots.

Why we need the western world to tell us how great is our vedic mathematics is?
How great is our Yoga Abhyas is?
How superb Sanskrit language is?
We are running after careers, fast food, nuclear families so much that we are forgetting how we ourselves were brought up. How we enjoyed playing with our friends after school; how we listened to stories from our grand parents; how we ate good healthy food.

There are some positives aspects to be seen from this new globalisation phase. Like accessibility to information, plethora of career options, easy money, well to do lifestyle; but what about the negatives. We still have pathetic roads, electricity problems, growing divide between haves and have nots, increasing crime rate, corruption ........and list goes on.
Shouldn't we try to address these problems? I know these problems won't be solved in few days, but atleast we should start in that direction.

Does success in Software, attracting few big names like Walmart in India, acquiring big companies overseas means we can challenge the world?
Do you really feel India is POISED?

माझे आराध्य दैवत पंडित भीमसेन जोशी यांचे ८६ व्या वर्षात पदार्पण

काय योगायोग आहे. आजच सकाळी अनेक दिवसांनी पंडितजीनचे "मिया की तोडी" ऐकले आणि आजच स्वर भास्कर पंडीत भिमसेन जोशी ह्यानी ८६ वर्षात पदार्पण केले. मला आज ही ठलक पणे आठवत आहे. मी पंडीतजींना सर्व प्रथम पुण्यातल्या राघवेन्द्रस्वामी मठ मधे पाहिले/ऐकले होते. तेव्हा कधी माझ्या मनाने पंडीतजींना माझे गान दैवत बनावले कळालेच नाही.
त्या नंतर मी त्यांचे अनेक मेह्फ़िलि ऐक्ल्या, अनेक ध्वनी फ़ीत विकत घेत ल्या . पण अजुन ही सर्व कमीच वाटते.हे फ़क्त मलच नव्हे तर सर्व रसिक श्रोत्यां असेच वाटत असणार. ह्यची प्रचिति सवाई गंधर्व मधे येते. शेवट च्या दिवशी कोणी पण पंडीतजीनचे बुलंद गायकीचा अस्वाद घेतल्या शिवाय जात नाही. उलट त्या वेळी मांडव तुदुंब भरुन जातो.अपना सर्वानकरीता ही सकाळ मधली बातमी कॉपी करत अहे.
हा माझा मराठी मधला पहिलाच ब्लॉग आहे. तेव्हा अनेक चुका झाल्या आहेत. हळु हळु सुधार होइल :).

-अमित


पुणे, ता. ४ - ""रसिकांची सेवा करण्याची संधी आजवर मिळाली; पण आता शरीर साथ देत नाही. मलाही लवकरात लवकर गाण्याची इच्छा आहे. डॉक्‍टरांनी "हो' म्हटले की रसिकांची सेवा पुन्हा सुरू करीन,'' ...ज्यांच्या बुलंद गायकीची मोहिनी रसिकांवर आजही आहे ते स्वरभास्कर पंडित भीमसेन जोशी सांगत होते. ......पंडितजींनी आज ८६ व्या वर्षात पदार्पण केले. सकाळपासून त्यांना शुभेच्छा देणारे दूरध्वनी खणखणत होते. हिरव्या काठांची किनार असणारी लुंगी, रेशमी शर्ट आणि शाल अशा पोशाखात पंडितजी अतिशय प्रसन्न मुद्रेने प्रत्येकाचे स्वागत करत होते. त्यांचे शिष्य, कलाकार, चाहते, रसिक... साऱ्यांची चौकशी ते जातीने करत होते. जुने संदर्भ सांगत होते. युवा गायिका मंजूषा कुलकर्णी मूळची सांगलीची आणि काणेबुवांची शिष्या, हा तपशीलही त्यांना आठवत होता. माध्यमांच्या प्रतिनिधींचेही स्वागत ते "या पत्रकार' असे म्हणत करत होते. "चांगले संगीत ऐकून मी झोपायचो; पण अलीकडचे संगीत ऐकून झोप उडते,' अशी मिस्कील टिप्पणी करत ते म्हणाले, ""हल्ली सुधारणा दिसतात; पण त्यामुळे "गडबडी' वाढत चालल्या आहेत. रसिकांना तृप्त करण्याची माझी आजही मनापासून इच्छा आहे. ईश्‍वराने मला ती संधी द्यावी.'' आर्य संगीत प्रसारक मंडळाचे सहसचिव आणि प्रसिद्ध गायक श्रीकांत देशपांडे, खजिनदार गोविंद बेडेकर, उपेंद्र भट, मुकुंद गद्रे, मोहन दरेकर, राजेंद्र कंदलगावकर, रघुनंदन पणशीकर, हेमा उपासनी, मंजूषा कुलकर्णी-पाटील, तबलावादक भरत कामत अशा अनेकांनी त्यांचे वाढदिवसानिमित्त अभीष्टचिंतन केले.