ek hai anaar yahaan, kitni bimaariyaan! (Yes, several problems plague my country but..)

Confucius said: "In a country well governed poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed wealth is something to be ashamed of." 

Given the corruption in India and out-of-control food and commodity prices along with rewards for incompetence in current Indian government, I guess that India is a rather badly-governed country. In that vein, I would say that in a developing country (or even a developed one for that matter), a vulgar display of wealth shouldn't be swooned over, instead it should be guffawed at as millions others die of starvation. Of course, one should appreciate hardwork and resultant success (wealth and success without hardwork must not be encouraged - possibly the same holds true for dynasty politics as well?).

India, let's face it, is a developing and relatively poor country - and will stay so for some time, given its population problems and bad governance- despite its ever-increasing GDP (PPP) and high growth rate (countered quite significantly by the inflation rate). India's GNP and nominal GDP (especially per capita values), along with HDI (Human Develop Index) remain very low, putting us in the lower bracket of nations in the world. Add in the factors of crime-rate, especially crimes against women and children (as well caste-based violence),  it becomes more important than ever before to find solutions at common-man level rather than expect much from the government, which is, let's admit it, a product of this very society that we live in. 

These solutions primarily include better access to education for everyone, and not just education, better and more inclusive education that is not a left-over legacy of British rule. One that doesn't make kids memorize the capital of a non-existent country 6 years after its breaking up (Czechoslovakia is, or was, the country in question). One that teaches respect for women and weaker (physically, economically or socially) sections of society, one that doesn't refer to Native-americans by their derogatory name - "red-Indian," one that teaches Indians to be racially sensitive and not call blacks and east-Asians with derogatory names. 

Perhaps an educated society would be able to overhaul its own mental mindset or maybe an effort on the part of involved individuals would help overhaul the education system to provide that stimulation for the change in mindset to a more inclusive one - that formed the foundations of Hinduism and India as a whole. This change is also meant to weed out the existence of fraudulent God-men (brought out by the recent focus on the death of the Sai Baba figure), although I am quite ambivalent about the man behind that character. 

Fake he may have been (and there is sufficient evidence online to prove that), but the thing is if he used this for good of the society ( http://www.thehindu.com/op

inion/editorial/article176

6917.ece ), I still commend him. In a country like India, which is filled with idiots looking for miracles rather than solutions borne out of hard work and something called "thinking", if by being a fraud Godman, you can get people to donate to charities and support good causes, hell every good soul should try to pull such magic-tricks and do that! While I do/did not pray "to" him or think of him as a miracle-worker, I still appreciate his efforts for "manipulating" the naivete of uneducated (literate but still uneducated) Indians with resources for the greater good of the society in general. 

But, what we need is an education system or a change in mindset, that brings some cynicism to the "taking-themselves-too-seriously" Indian public, where we don't need some fraud God-men to show us the path of "morality and meaning." We have to realize now that just being harmless is not enough, nothing less than being useful will do to avert the crisis that looms over India and world at large. 

Indians and altruism.

We often hear about foreign cricketers, likes of Brett Lee and Steve Waugh, involved in charity foundations in India. Yet our media never seems to report about the charity work undertaken by Indian cricketers - especially Sachin, Yuvraj and Dhoni- though Sehwag is also, not seemingly very actively though, involved with UNICEF. Indian media often reports about the efforts of Hollywood stars involved in "causes", but those of our indigenous stars seems to escape their mention. One can owe this to a possible mindset in India that good acts should be used only to earn good karma for next life, and not accolades for this. However, a more careful thought would suggest that by highlighting their charity efforts, a national mindset can be affected to not only appreciate helping the under-privileged, but also demand it of the affluent (and themselves).

Several stars outside India use their popularity to garner support for their causes and foundations, it may not be a bad idea for bollywood and cricket superstars to do the same in a cricket & movie-mad nation. I noticed, though, that a recent act of kindness by Yuvraj Singh and Bhajji - donation of Rs 1 lakh each to Arunima (volleyball player who lost her leg) - has received some media attention. So, while we are at it, we may look at some others by Indian cricketers: Sehwag is associated with UNICEF (along with some more cricketers - but I wonder how demanding it is), Yuvraj Singh runs a Yuvraj Singh foundation in Durban (SA), Dhoni and Sachin personally sponsor charities in their respective cities. I haven't been able to find more information - maybe (at least I hope) there are more efforts that I couldn't locate.

In any case, let's look at Sachin's efforts (because he is Sachin and is probably the most famous for his humanitarian efforts and there are appeals for a Bharat Ratna for him). According to a newspaper article, he sponsors some 200 kids through Apnalaya (http://www.apnalaya.org/). Without taking anything away from his effort and intentions, I think he can and should do more (if he is already doing so, then kudos).

Nelle Kooren, founding chairperson of a charity organization in Netherlands ( www.onderwijsvoorindia.nl ), is a full time student and yet organizes dinners and events to raise enough money to support higher education of more than 40 orphan/poor girls in Tamil Nadu (in collaboration with a local NGO Sevai Society). In comparison with her, I think Sachin has many million times more wealth/money and several hundred million times more influence. I still think he can make better use of his influence and fame to support more kids, like Jacques Kallis does or McGrath does or even Imran Khan does for his cancer hospital. Again, I am nothing away from him, just hoping that the real Indian idols use their influence to help change the national mindset to a more charitable one.

P.S. If this blog inspires anyone to help a good cause, here are a few links:
For those in India, you can/should either donate to Jagriti (http://home.iitk.ac.in/~ag/jagriti) or an initiative by a few IITK alumni and friends (www.godparents.in). Of course, Sachinites can always follow their God to www.apnalaya.org
For those in Netherlands, you can either contact me or go to www.onderwijsvoorindia.nl to donate.
For everyone elsewhere (Indian/NRI/Non-Indian), one of the best ways is of course using www.godparents.in to make donations. Be generous, because Mahatma Gandhi said:
"Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it."