For Sale

Many of the Indian Thoughts readers have pointed out that my passion is always for the young. It is true; today, especially in India, it is the youth who is most strangled, due to mostly compulsive religious practises, polluted social outlook and corrupt administration. They are the people who need much care. They are the would be  kings and queens of tomorrow. Recently, I came across a review on Indians outside India, which concludes saying that Indians are no way inefficient and they strive better outside India. Is the present Indian system so venomous that it does not allow anybody to grow beyond seven feet? Rono Dutta once president of Sahara Airlines later became the head of United Airlines, the biggest airline in the world. Vikram Pundit, an Indian born American once was the Chief executive of Citibank, one of the largest banks in the world. In 1998, Rana Talwar was group executive of Standard Chartered Bank, one of the biggest multinational banks in Britain. Lakhsmi Mittal of Indian descent is the chairman and CEO of Arcelor Mittal, the world’s largest steel making company. Subhash Chandra of Zee TV is a global media king Gururaj Deshpande’s Sycamore based communications company is currently valued by the US stock market at over $ 30 billion, making him perhaps one of the richest Indians in the world. Arun Netravali has become president of Bell Labs, one of the biggest research and development centres in the world with 30,000 inventions and several Nobel Prizes to its credit. The list continues through Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi, Saber Bhatia, Shailesh Mehta, Rakesh Gangwal ….. However, this statement is not wholly true because there are hundreds of Indians like Rattan Tata, Narayana Murthy and Kris Gopalakrishnan of Infosys, Ambanys, Adi Godrej, Savitri Jindal etc. who could soar to heights.

To identify the main problem factor here, if there is one, I should say that it is just our attitude on ourselves. The word sale literally refers to transfer of a product in exchange for money, an equivalent service or a thing. But a ‘Sale’ board in a store means that the product is available at a discount price. Today, it is a sad thing to note that Indian youth have chosen to be a material open for sale. Ask someone, ‘What are you?’ The answer could be something that means that they are working for or they belong to somebody or something. Occasionally you might hear isolated meek voices saying that I’m a software engineer, I’m a farmer, I’m a sales expert, I’m an artist etc. What difference it makes? In the first case you say that you are sold to a particular company or concern; in the latter situation you say that you are what you are. I say that the Indian shackles are not the issue but putting ourselves on sale is. We first make sure our worth in currency and fix the deal, where both the individual and his shadow are sold. Today’s worst scenario is that the nation is filled with energetic youngsters with a tag on their necks, ‘For Sale’.

Joseph Mattappally