Are you sure this is development?

We are proud to be Indians – especially given the recent economic development of the country! Measures of development of a country is set against an economic benchmark. Ask any regular middle class or as they prefer to be called these days upper middle class family member and all that has changed is that people ended up with more money. That is because the employers (mostly MNCs) are paying more. That is good – Mr A would say – “this money will trickle down to the poorer people in the society and it will show”. Sure it takes time for anything to trickle down through a billion+ people. Not corruption. Not poverty. Not illiteracy. How has that survived for so long and grown by leaps and bounds? We have seen wonderful developments made in the capital city. New roads – better public transportation systems, the IT hub of the country (Bangalore) is going to make helipads available in the city center to attract investors and VIPs to fly in and out without having to waste hours stranded in traffic. Is that a solution for the general population? We are not getting a helicopter anytime soon – so how is the commute going to look for us… every single day? How am I going to get to the hospital in a life and death emergency?

West Bengal has become a whole different story on its own. Political big guns hire criminals to clean up for them and they are obliged for a meager sum of money. The common people who chose to earn an honest living suffer. Nothing has changed. It is easy to think “nothing has changed” and “nothing ever will”. It is also easy to say something needs to be done. But today we the young and the middle class of India need to do something about it.

All I can do it think about it from thousands of miles away and hope and pray my family is safe and not being affected by this. But isn’t this a trickle effect – will this pain not trickle up or down to us?

“If you undo all the work that you did in the past – you have nullified your existence. Aren’t you back where you started?”