Raising hope

Yes I love to borrow titles of my post, this one coming from a critically acclaimed sit-com (please check out Wikipedia for further information). During my life (so far) I have realized that there is a thin line between living in an illusion and actually raising hope. There have been times when I have used phrases like “India can never change” & “there is no hope left for India”. One day, as I was sipping my coffee it struck my mind that I have made no efforts in participating in ‘changing India’, and therefore don’t have the right to say any of the above phrases.

Fortunately, I came across an article published in New York Times by Thomas L. Friedman (the man doesn't need any intro) and quite soon after that I visited India for holidays. There I actually noticed a cell phone tower every few miles and hoardings with  mobile service companies advertising “call @ 1/2 paisa per second” at each traffic light! Somehow I didn’t even mind a billboard saying “learn fluency English in 10 days” which was right above a public toilet. While being amused at such a board was an easier option, I also imagined handful of students who might benefit from attending such a course. Imagining students speaking fluent English would be what I term as ‘living in an illusion’ but when I think of students/parents wanting to spend a sum of money on an English language course that raises hope within me.

Thomas Friedman mentioned two firms which are worth talking about in my post. Ekgaon is a firm which designs and develops software and information systems to meet the needs of developing communities. It offers many interesting services but One Farm is the one which caught my attention. We could ponder about the level of corruption involved in the 2G scam and how competition among the mobile service providers has reduced the costs of services but Ekgaon thought above all this and developed a programme that runs on the cheapest cell phone models offering illiterate farmers a text or voice advisory service that tells them the weather conditions for the next few days, which fertilizers to use according to their soil specification and when to sow and harvest their crops etc.

I can keep on bickering about the quality of Indian products but when I think about the time when each Indian household was cutting back their budgets to save and buy a pager; Reliance Communications came up with the cheapest mobile phones and taught every household the true meaning of connectivity. Just after witnessing a family of four members stuck in the rain on their scooter, Ratan Tata announced the idea of TATA Nano. Indians had to just save some extra bucks to buy Nano than to buy a 2-wheeler. When an average income parent thinks about applying for a loan to buy their kid a laptop, Indian government declared the launch of “Aakash Tablet” @ $60 each. People are unhappy about the processor speed and the storage space (and many more technical aspects which I don’t understand) but Aakash raises hope within those students who have to search for a nearby cafe to complete their projects, and those parents who regret not being able to afford a laptop for their child’s education.

So what if India is growing slowly? So what if the GDP doesn’t increase as predicted? Which nation doesn’t have scams? There is always hope and we can’t give up on it! It’s easy to think big and look forward as an individual. But the day we all think of moving forward with 1.2 billion Indians together, is the day Indians will see that ray of hope.