Shining India?

I'm beginning to wonder if the Indians are going way over their heads these days. I'm all for friendship, but it peeves me now to see them blowing their own trumpet, endlessly and shamelessly. For the last few years, our ears have gone dry, listening to shouts of "Shining India", despite the separatist elements, the massacres, the Mumbai slums...

Now, there's more. A few examples:

Mr. Chakravarty of the Hindustan Times (Waiting for Obama's Call) was going bonkers over an anticipated call to his PM from U.S. President-elect Obama. And what annoyance that he called Mr. Zardari and a few other leaders before he ever got through to Manmohan Singh. Bummer! He missed an important rite of passage by not calling India first. India is shining.

The Hindustan Times again, and this time, its Mr. Thappar (Obama or 'Oh bummer'?), crying fowl over Obama's expected foreign policy on Kashmir, because it seems more in line with Pakistan's demand for an intervention. But of course, if they can't let in international observers easily, how could they allow mediation. India can go it alone, because India is shining.

Now for Mr. Bachchan and his blog. On the day when the media around the world was going ecstatic over a black man in the white house, our superstar did the research and managed to make it all about India, going on to quote a not-so-ecstatic response: "So, we can be partially progressive while still following and passing regressive policies. Segregation of color in America is not abolished! India is a far fairer democracy! Here even the so called untouchables have representation. They are considered; one of them may well be Prime Minister one day ! The US still isn’t the land of the free after all…".

Then there is mention of that evening in 1969, when the first man landed on the moon. And today, so has India's spacecraft, lodging its tricolor on the moon. Instantly, he is corrected.

No sir, don't get carried away! India is shining, but its spacecraft hasn't yet landed on the moon (it was, in fact, the Moon Investigation Probe), nor is there a flag as yet.

Having the chance to take pride in one's country is something very special. But trying to rub it in harder than it warrants, takes away any shine that might have been.

Copyright (c) 2008 Saadia Malik

The National Outreach Programme

I was among the fortunate few to have attended one of the most prestigious grad schools in the country. I was also among the unfortunate few to have witnessed the "uprisings" of the spoilt brats, meandering the halls of the campus. Money well spent?

Come to the other side of the financial divide.

The Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), in tradition of all well-reputed institutions, developed a National Outreach Programme. What this essentially does is that it encourages and facilitates bright students from the underprivileged areas of Pakistan to apply for admission, and in case of induction, offers them full financial assistance. I had the chance of working with two such boys: one from Peshawar and the other from Quetta. We were a team of 5, assisting a professor with a class of around 300. Since I was the only one who had graduated, they would keep calling me "central command". I lived in glory, thinking I was something special. I was so wrong. Once the course ended, we remained in touch for sometime, but the association proved to be a fleeting one.

Thanks to social networking sites like Facebook, I got back in touch with them, only to find my younger, much brighter colleagues, touching the skies. The boy from Peshawar is currently a grad student in Public Administration at Columbia University, and the one from Quetta is studying International Development at Harvard University. Tears to the eyes? And now, I ask you again, money well spent?

How much ingenuity is going wasted in our country?

• Our GDP per capita, according to the CIA, was US$2400 in 2007.
• Income disparity is very, very high.
• The typical one year's Masters fee at Harvard costs around US$35,000, and this does not include registration, material, boarding and lodging expenses.
  

We have a lot of spoilt brats wasting money invested in them; and we have so many humbled children, who have the potential, but who cannot even afford to dream. Think about it. 

And now for some trivia. Barack Hussein Obama Sr. was imported to a university in Hawaii, from Kenya, on American donations. That was where he met his second wife. And look what that union produced! Barack Hussein Obama, the president.

"Barry", that "skinny guy with a funny name" (as he recalls himself), went on to study at both Columbia and Harvard.

Now put our two lads together. Moral of the story: put your money at the right place, and you'll make history, over and over again. Cheers!

Copyright (c) 2008 Saadia Malik