Words and Action

In some sense we have been lucky to see India transform in many ways in recent times.

My father always used to tell me how, to get his first scooter he had to wait for a few years after booking it. To own a Bajaj Scooter, during those days, you had to pay a premium if you wanted to bypass the regular line of consumers. A classic case of low supply high demand. (Same was the case with telephones)

We have come a long way from having to slant the Bajaj Scooter in one direction and kick start it in early morning hours after several attempts. (The joke goes - 'that is why Bajaj did not venture into Airplanes. Who was going to slant them?'). In today's India we can simply show up into a showroom and come out with any vehicle we have the capacity to purchase.

But that's the material change. What about the mindset? Has that come along too? Thankfully yes, at least to some extent. We have moved on from the tight permit-licence-quota-raj time period to a new exuberant and confident India, being driven by a youthful and spirited generation. The overall optimism of New India is contagious to say the least.

Hopefully this optimism and positive energy manifests itself into something remarkable and fruitful for India. We may already be noticing signs of it in various aspects of the society.

Reminds me of an essay I read sometime back by Rediff.com's Amberish Diwanji. In that essay, Diwanji says

[..]India's worsening economic situation hit a nadir when the first Gulf War broke out in early 1991 and oil prices went through the roof. To the utter horror and shame of Indians, the Government of India had to fly India's gold reserves to the Bank of England as a deposit to ensure that India did not default on its international payments
Most Indian women wear a mangalsutra (a chain with some gold and a small pendant of gold or stone), and which is never removed unless the woman is widowed. It thus symbolises the health and wealth of the house. Sending Indian gold to Britain (the country that millions hold responsible for impoverishing India) was, clearly, deeply humiliating and unacceptable[..]

Clearly necessity is the mother of all inventions. India, just about 20 years back had to take a call. Should we or should we not open up? How far can old-school economy sustain us? How should we re-invent ourselves?

Almost 20 years down the line, we are all here and results are there to see. This is not to say that India has magically transformed and there are no more issues any more. Of course we have issues facing us left, right and center. Of course there are great number of people still not able to make ends meet. Of course 42% of our children are still mal-nourished. Problems galore.

The changes of early 90s was not one single magic bullet that would change everything. But it did set up a series of transformational changes that when taken in context will help us understand the New Emerging India. History probably can only be appreciated in hindsight.

As a Nagpuri phrase suggests- "gyan batna" is simple. But you got to wet your feet and take the plunge. Sitting on fence and talking is cheap. It comes at no cost. What counts is words followed by action.

Nagpur First will hope to leave it's foot prints on the new , positive, emerging India. It hopes to follow the words with action that has tangible results. It's not going to be easy. But challenges can be fun too..

Even as I type this, there has been some momentum on the Nag River Rejuvenation Project. It's still early days and more details will follow in subsequent posts. But there has been a start ...