Life
In India Without The Trappings Of Power
Getting Around Power
~ by Manju Dubey
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| India
when viewed through the eyes of a Westerner is quaint, archaic, mystic
and charming on the one hand. On the other, it is a mosquito-ridden, poverty-ridden
and full of religious zealots. But to me India is a home like none other.
Travelling within the country fills me with pride and marvel: the uniqueness
of this beautiful land which is so rich in culture. These are oft-repeated
cliches from Indian authors. But the mystic, the charm and the cultural
diversity are what make India today what it is.
When there
was a power outage in the whole of the Eastern US and parts of Canada,
the region went into a tailspin. The President had to make a speech of
sorts to calm peoples nerves. Imagine the same power outage in India, but
with the boiling Indian summer heat. Its 9:00am and you are ready to go
to the office and there’s a power cut (outage) immediately heads roll …..
if the generator does not start whirring in a minute and the UPS or inverter
does not start functioning immediately, then the generator attendant will
lose his job. If you call up the local company bijliwallah (power company)
the standard reply is "don’t know when the supply will resume". If people
hammer out the same question again and again the power company will put
the receiver off the hook. End of Power struggle. |
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Couple of
years back when communism was young in China and Mao TseTung was very much
everyone’s hero …. He had promised economic self-reliance for the Chinese
and said that everyone would be the proud owner of a bicycle at least!
But then we must also note that at least one job was promised to at least
one member of the family, food for all and education too!
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Well
in India I say we are proud of the fact that we are a democracy and in
a democracy saab chalta hai! We don’t have Power so what we have are mobiles
which run on batteries for god’s sake! Every minister will guarantee at
least enough Power for every Indian to charge his mobile telephone. Every
Indian irrespective of his class and stature in society has been promised
not bread and butter (a job) but a mobile telephone so he/she can share
his misery with the world at large!! The government run telephone company
does not give professional service; don’t worry we have wireless telephones.
Technology has come to the rescue of every hapless Indian who was at the
mercy of the local government run telephone company. In India mobile phones
are not a luxury but a very essential commodity. In cities like Mumbai
and New Delhi, it is not uncommon to see the plumber and the electrician
advertise their mobile numbers so as to widen their customer base. The
vegetable seller, florist, pavement dweller, hawkers have mobile phones.
The marvelous ability of the Indian to absorb and assimilate technology,
like absorping a different ideology, is great and can be found only in
India. |
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What do you
mean that there is no infrastructure in India. Didn’t you know that you
can book your railway tickets over your mobile phone. What does it matter
to you that the railways don’t give you requisite facilities, for instance
clean toilets, a clean station or a clean cabin. You booked your tickets
over the cell-phone didn’t you? When I talk to my family in my village
they proudly inform me that cell-phones are available there too but at
a premium price. With their faces swelling with pride as they look at their
mobile phones they say "look here this is what is called a feel good factor".
It’s a wave that is engulfing the entire Indian subcontinent. Did you say
simmering discontent, that too after such a massive dose of technology
to bridge the Power shortage.
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| Maybe
some bright Indian will come to the rescue by discovering wireless electricity!
Wouldn’t that be a great invention for those thousands of Indians whose
lives in the villages and towns are spent in the dark! Maybe after wireless
phones and electricity India will come up with amphibious cars. So we need
not go through the entire gamut of antiquated forms of infrastructure like
roads, phones and electricity (in other words bijli sadak pani) We can
leap directly into the 21st century WAP, phones, Wireless Electricity,
Amphibious vehicles, one touch health cures, we need it all.
Well this is
why I love India: we take shortcuts to salvation and spirituality not to
mention that famous leap we have taken into the 21st century. If anyone
really wants to escape from the drudgery and mechanically routine life
in the West, then you are welcome to live in India without the trappings
of Power because the beauty of India lies with its people and within its
boundaries. Make no mistake Indians irrespective of religion and caste
love India for what she is. I am glad to live in this land without the
trappings of power. It’s full of fun and joy. |
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To contact
Manju Click Here
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