Today's newspaper revoked a long-time frustration of mine about Indian talent.
It was a column 'sound-off' in 'The Hindu' metroPlus.
Every other man outside India wonders, Why is India always developing, developing and only developing.. It has everything needed for growing into a blockbuster country of the time.
It has huge human resources, it has considerable natural resources, it has people with huge money (Vijay mallya for an instance)... It also has the most important thing, the FIRE in the minds of people to take the country to great heights.. But why does it ever grow so... so.. slow. Did India get very serious about the tortoise story or something!
In my opinion:
Indian parents have the key to unlock India!
Parent in India, show achievers to children when they grow. But when their child wants to take up something other than the usual (doing engineering and getting into a high-paying software job) they object.. they discourage.. they start quoting family troubles they had to face to raise the family.
Parents achieve success at forcing the child to do engineering, .. forcing again to do software... forcing into marriage to a distant relative's son/daughter because some astrologer said they will make a great couple.
The reason: This is what their parents did to them.. and they dont want to try something other than activating the same process, even if they understand its not favoring their child's interests.
Its more like a process in any child's life in India. Children and their talents remain behind the parents and their process. This way they say they are keeping traditions, culture, discipline, and why not may be they will even say 'keeping democracy'.
Some children walk-out of this process..
Take any famous businessman in India, there's 80% chance that you will learn he ran off from home to make it.
Take any famous business-woman in India, there's 80% chance that she grew up from one job to another taking 20 years or so to become a senior manager... and there will be a few woman who were the daughter of a businessmen discussed above.
While some children fight the process and even convince parents to think different, most children (almost 70%) give-up fighting and accept the process.
That's not all..
As per the process, the child is more so released from the process after his/her marriage (since Indian parents consider that their committments now gets over with the marriage).
But by time a man/woman get married its too late for thinking achievement from the beginning..
or again,
They are into another process where one has to convince spouse, in-laws, taking their time with work and running a family.
With no more fuel left to make to their aspirations, many take to a new process with their children (like their parents did with them).
Hope is with new generation parents who seem to understand the problems.. and probably live out of... The Process.
