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Servitude
And yet, our country, despite being touted as a ‘potential superpower’ and ‘blooming economy’ has to earn big brother’s (read US) seal of approval even if we have to fight terrorism in OUR country, while our children spend their nights attending calls in Air-conditioned pigeonholes, serving fat-brained white masters, sitting millions of miles away.
Has anyone ever wondered why this is so? Why don’t we have even a handfull of well-known product based software companies, let alone a Google, Microsoft or Facebook, despite Indian techies ruling the roost in the mentioned top guns of software industry. Or why, apart from a few Tatas, Birlas and Ambanis, we have a dearth of industrialists in an economy based on agriculture, in a nation with the world’s second largest human resource and a talent pool that can send jitters down the spine of any country in the globe?
The answer lies in our now century old attitude of servitude. Our natural instinct of finding a warm blanket of a fixed monthly paycheck, company sponsored providend funds, medical insurance, etc. And our excuses that are perhaps as legendary as our pickles, curries and potholes. “Where will I get the capital?” “Investment is risky, yaar!” (like it isn’t obvious) and “We don’t have enough opportunities in India.”
Perhaps a few anecdotes here will be worthy of mention. Bill Gates and Paul Allen started Microsoft using the money Allen saved from his job’s salary and Gates’ earnings from poker played in his Harvard dorm(Yes!). Facebook was started off from a Harvard dorm (again!) until it received funds from PayPal co-founder. The same goes for most silicon valley organisations and other companies as well.
It’s not that India doesn’t have it’s share of steel-nerved entrepreneurs and risk takers. The names of our very own Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani, Kiran Mazumder Shaw and L.N. Mittal are as legendary as their ventures. All the mentioned examples proving that to be a successful corporate leader, you don’t need to be spawned off from rich parents or have come across an Aladin’s Jinn. You just need to be brave enough to initiate the step, to roll the dice and to come out of the warmth and comfort of a secured, well-paid job to brave the beauty of the ocean of variables.
And that is where our beloved nation loses the race. Centuries of servitude to white masters and we can’t imagine ourselves to be anything else. Only our masters have shifted to the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Then we served the Britons and now we serve the Yankees. Yes, we do have a few names in the Forbes list, making India proud but this is not enough. The attitude needs to seep into the veins of every living, breathing Indian. We need to refuse offer letters of foreign giants, offering six figure salaries and draining away the talent pool. More industries - small scale and large are required. Our nation’s brainiacs must work on their own ideas, to earn the fruit of their own labour (and merit) rather than serve the rich man’s garden. The Mittals, Ambanis and Shaws should multiply in number and replicate. Result? More indigenous jobs, less unemployment and expansion of national cash reserve. People with money and with a renewed outlook should be able to see the true colours of their government. And perhaps the chameleons will run for their holes. Or lives. The ultimate result? SAARE JAHAN SE ACHCHHA, HINDUSTAN HAMARA! But this time around, the world will do the singing for us. Man, money is not that evil!
Has anyone ever wondered why this is so? Why don’t we have even a handfull of well-known product based software companies, let alone a Google, Microsoft or Facebook, despite Indian techies ruling the roost in the mentioned top guns of software industry. Or why, apart from a few Tatas, Birlas and Ambanis, we have a dearth of industrialists in an economy based on agriculture, in a nation with the world’s second largest human resource and a talent pool that can send jitters down the spine of any country in the globe?
The answer lies in our now century old attitude of servitude. Our natural instinct of finding a warm blanket of a fixed monthly paycheck, company sponsored providend funds, medical insurance, etc. And our excuses that are perhaps as legendary as our pickles, curries and potholes. “Where will I get the capital?” “Investment is risky, yaar!” (like it isn’t obvious) and “We don’t have enough opportunities in India.”
Perhaps a few anecdotes here will be worthy of mention. Bill Gates and Paul Allen started Microsoft using the money Allen saved from his job’s salary and Gates’ earnings from poker played in his Harvard dorm(Yes!). Facebook was started off from a Harvard dorm (again!) until it received funds from PayPal co-founder. The same goes for most silicon valley organisations and other companies as well.
It’s not that India doesn’t have it’s share of steel-nerved entrepreneurs and risk takers. The names of our very own Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani, Kiran Mazumder Shaw and L.N. Mittal are as legendary as their ventures. All the mentioned examples proving that to be a successful corporate leader, you don’t need to be spawned off from rich parents or have come across an Aladin’s Jinn. You just need to be brave enough to initiate the step, to roll the dice and to come out of the warmth and comfort of a secured, well-paid job to brave the beauty of the ocean of variables.
And that is where our beloved nation loses the race. Centuries of servitude to white masters and we can’t imagine ourselves to be anything else. Only our masters have shifted to the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Then we served the Britons and now we serve the Yankees. Yes, we do have a few names in the Forbes list, making India proud but this is not enough. The attitude needs to seep into the veins of every living, breathing Indian. We need to refuse offer letters of foreign giants, offering six figure salaries and draining away the talent pool. More industries - small scale and large are required. Our nation’s brainiacs must work on their own ideas, to earn the fruit of their own labour (and merit) rather than serve the rich man’s garden. The Mittals, Ambanis and Shaws should multiply in number and replicate. Result? More indigenous jobs, less unemployment and expansion of national cash reserve. People with money and with a renewed outlook should be able to see the true colours of their government. And perhaps the chameleons will run for their holes. Or lives. The ultimate result? SAARE JAHAN SE ACHCHHA, HINDUSTAN HAMARA! But this time around, the world will do the singing for us. Man, money is not that evil!
Saptadip Saha
