The Success of Ordinary Indians
Cousin Rangaraj sent me the link to the article 'The success of ordinary Indians'. I have used the same headline for my blog.
I quote from the article by Akash Kapur: 'These are not stories about the nation’s rising population of billionaires, nor are they are about India’s wildly successful technology entrepreneurs. These are stories about ordinary lives.
It is this very ordinariness, the commonness today of a journey that leads from deprivation to hope, from poverty to something that is at least within striking distance of prosperity, that is the real indication of India’s progress over the last decade.
As the new decade begins, I want to focus on the lives that have been lifted up since the start of the millennium. I have room to tell only four life stories. There are millions more like these. But these four men and women capture some of the hope that marks India today, and that casts little pools of light amid the shadows of deprivation that have for so long defined this country'.
The four stories: A widow Ms. Rajalakshmi who lives in a thatched hut but whose daughter is studying for a degree in computer science.
Mr. Ramnathan, a high school drop out, whose children have reaped the benefits of his hard work. His two daughters have technical degrees, and his son is finishing a course in commerce. Elder daughter back in India after a stint in Chicago plans to start her own software business.
A 36-year-old autorickshaw driver D. Sedhuraman whose daughter attends a private school and has ambitions to become a doctor or an engineer.
Archana Somani, 55 year old. At the turn of the decade, she and her husband ran a small souvenir shop and a travel business. They did fine back then, but now they do much better.
Reading these stories I am reminded of similar ones. Tara and I met our old house maid and her family. Her three grand children are graduates of commerce, computer science and law. They are looking forward to a much better life than their elders who had it tough but managed to educate them. They are bright and confident and I pray that they get the right breaks in their life. It is not easy but I hope being educated will surely help them.
My driver in Bangkok is another good example. His wife worked as a house maid, but they put their four daughters through college and helped them to have much better lives. It is even more creditable as it was easy for girls to be drawn to the more remunerative and infamous careers in Thailand.
While many have come out of poverty, there are millions who may never have similar opportunities and that is sad. It could even prove dangerous for our country. In real numbers, there are more people who are poor now than at the time we became independent.
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