“The land of India is an ocean of mystery, the more I solve it, the more mysterious it becomes” – Anurag Singh
An Introduction –
From the east to the west, from the north to the south , India has a lot to reveal. The biggest fact of them all being that you can never truly experience India until you’ve been there , still in my review I’ll try my level best to unveil the mystic India , in the best possible way, in pen and paper. I’ve categorized the details under various headings to make the article more readable and organized.
Facts -
India the seventh largest country in the world stretches 3214 km from the north to the south, and 2933 km from the east to the west, covering a whooping area of 3, 287, 263 sq km. India has 28 states and a population of over a billion (1, 027, 015, 247 – 2001 census) which makes it the second most populous country of the world. India has a GDP of 470 billion dollars and per capita income of 366.5 dollars. Here are a few more interesting facts (they have been listed for convenience).
Total Road network (in km) – 3.3 million
National Highway – 58, 112 km
Cellular mobile subscribers – 13.5 million
Internet users – 3, 000, 000
Poverty ration – 26.10 %
Culture -
India has always been known for its great culture. India has the greatest quality of all to “Adopt”. The Indian culture is a result of various different cultures pouring into it. It was rules by the Hindus, Buddhist, Muslims and then the British. All of these (and many more) have influenced the Indian culture, which has taken up all the good from other cultures and yet maintained its individuality. India is exploring the horizons of the next generation any yet has some how, India maintains it charm and prestige. The Indian Bollywood produces more than 700 movies every year, more than 75 percent of them on love, yet majority of the marriages in India are arrange marriages (Decided by the parents and other elders, instead of the couple). I will admit that it’s changing slowly but steadily.
Indians are sweet people, eager to meet and be helpful. As a foreigner one receives great respect and hospitality. There is a huge gap, the called generation gap in between the elders and the new generation. In the earlier generation the Men wore shirts and pants, brought by the British and women Saree and salwar. The modern generation is much more liberal and open minded and all enjoy freedom. I marked one great thing about India that, drinking is not really accepted by the society, may it be social or recreational. Though a Vodka fan I believe that is a very intelligent thought to discourage alcohol. Indians are found of gold and as a matter of fact, more gold is wore in India then else where in the world. Indian love to get dressed and look good (as a matter of fact they do).
Diversity - in my trip to India, talking to Indian, I came across the saying “Unity in Diversity”. It was a little hard to understand but as I traveled from one part to another, it wasn’t long before I realized. India has the great quality of being unique, no I don’t mean as a whole (yes it is), but what I mean is every single, tiny piece on India in different from the other. Walk two miles and the clothing changes, the people change and the languages. Every state is so different from the other that you start to feel that you’re in a different country all together. I traveled from East to the West. East most people looked like something between the Indians and the Chinese. They spoke different languages. I traveled a little west to reach Bengal and people changed all of a sudden. The language changed to Bengali and people really looked different. Traveling a little more west brought me into central India. People spoke Hindi here (Hindi is India’s national language), they ate different kinds of food and clothing too seemed changed. I continued further more to the west and reach the western end of the country. People spoke Gujrati and they wore these beautiful clothes.
In India you can find the desert, lush green forests, snow covered peaks and plain lands.
It really worth being called a subcontinent for it has it all.
India on the move -
India is truly on the move. Indian economic figures weren’t very pleasing in the past but it all seems changing. India recorded a growth rate of 7, which put it as one of the fastest developing country. India is the hot spot for job outsourcing; almost 50 % of IT related jobs were moved to India in 2002-2003. India is booming with call centers, IT related companies and dotcoms. Indian Bollywood is expanding to new areas and has an ever increasing international market. The Indian Bollywood has a far greater audience and revenue than the Hollywood. The Indian Fashion Industry is the latest trend setter with Indian clothes being worn the world over. India is truly moving but it has several bottle necks which have slowed it down over the past and are right now too.
Despite all the Glamour and Glitter surrounding India it has several dark spots in its face which really need to be worked on.
Corruption - While is on the train to Goa from Mumbai (Bombay), I asked a fellow passenger “What do you think is really killing India, throwing India out of the track and away from really being what it deserves to be” , He smiled and said “Corruption” . My stay in India revealed to me the depth of the roots of corruption. It’s not organized like the gang of God Father; rather it resembles the peer network. There is no centre, no hub yet it’s all interlinked. Getting a simple job done in any government agency is extremely crude and very painstaking. Despite this some how in a mysterious way, it’s working.
Dispute - the single biggest dispute that India has is of Kashmir with Pakistan.
Pakistan was a part of India before 1947 and was ruled by the British. By the time of Independence the Muslims under the leadership Mohammad Ali Jenna demanded for a separate state. So India and Pakistan were formed. Kashmir then was an Independent state and was free to go either in Pakistan or India. The king of Kashmir opted for India and merged with India. Soon after the independence Pakistan declared war on India and entered into Kashmir. India believed in the UNO as it to interfere. The UNO set the so called Loc (Line of control) and the part of Kashmir with Pakistan formed the POK (Pakistan occupied Kashmir). Since then it has been the dispute between the two countries.
This is just brief information on India, to truly experience India you have to be there. I’d like to know your comments and would like to work more on this article.