I was sitting in a car and the passenger with me was Bill Microsoft Gates(BMG).
As we were speeding down the busy roads that were eerily cleared of traffic for BMGs convoy, I wondered if this was an experience any motorist would ever experience in Apna Mahaan Bharat. Buzzing to work at undreamable speeds LEGALLY.
Sadly, I was brought out of my thoughts of fellow bharat with a mighty thud. Some chap who had the footpath painted black and white and covered the obvious plant holes(thats what I told BMG that the potholes were as we were truly an Eco Friendly Nation and tree planting has now become a national hobby, even in the middle of a busy road, why even national highways) and missed out on the not so obvious ones!
BMG laughed aloud at my explanation and told me that if you guys cant get your act together on the Infrastructure believe me when I tell you that you cannot come together as a nation. That does not mean just roads, it means rivers, it means airports, ports and every conceivable means of communication including, ofcourse, the Internet.
Whats the point in every one having mega capacity pc’s / work stations / servers / state of the art facilities - if your connectivity is poor? Similarly, importing top of the line cars, manufacturing cars that the world saw in some cases five years ago to fifteen years ago - is not the answer if you cannot have people use the infrastructure to travel upon.
Infrastructure also unites people. Sure, BMG said, we have Blacks, Whites, Jews, Italians, Indians, Europeans and ofcourse Red Indians too, in the Maha US of A. But when our President talks of a nation he talks to Americans of America. He does not talk to Mallu’s, he does not talk to Gujju’s and / or the other mosaic of people that we are slowly but surely disintegrating into.
We all speak of the greatness of the IT Highway, the divide that’s going to crumble because of this great entity. But yet, the politicians seem to treat us like some god for saken African Population that does not deserve even such advancements as we have made in the past ten years. Our roads are horrible, our sidewalks are taken over by the Vote Bank Mafia, our traffic lights are haven for the worst tear jerker ever seen - a hungry woman holding an impoverished child.
Why doesn’t an underground take affect here and next time around when a politician comes a calling with a garland round his or her neck, and a few psychophants around him, hands folded in mock respect - why dont we just ignore him or her for the clown that he or she is and decide that we need better?
For our neighbour - Communist China is growing at a rate we can barely match. Our resources are being drained by an authority in Government who insist on keeping a force in Kashmir when all we have to do is to declare them a separate state and reinforce our border with them. Do you know how much a bottle of coke will cost in Kashmir then? Do you know that if India will not open her borders access to Kashmir is virtually cut off?
But we cannot use those resources for Inftastructure Development in our Bharat because we are a people who will complain, but will never use the powers that come to true activists. We are a people who have been pacified.
Not by the British - because there never was a Bharat then -it was they who united this land mass into one country for easy governance - not by the Moghuls or not by anyone else - we have been pacified by our own Netas, who come in as poorer than you and I put together just to occupy a chair with the sole notion of improving’Apna Infrastructure’ Apna Farm, Apna Gaadi’s, Apna Jewellery, Apna yeh, Apna Woh and if there is anything left - Apna Mistresses.
The first infrastructure that is required is to unite us as one people. One people, one country and then - we will bother about someone who died in Kashmir just as we will be if that was someone on our street. When our infrastructure is in place, we will bother that water that is available when we open our taps is not available for our farmers who toil so that there is dhal / chawal on our plates.
But until then, I’ll come back and give you a few more millions. I could give America this big a cheque and they’d still not treat me a Hero.
Bharat Mata ki Jai.