Mera Bharat Mahaan
Sorry for the late post.. I wrote it when I was in the airport, but due to slow internet, haven't posted it yet.. so here goes:
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I am currently sitting in Charles De Gaulle, Paris airport as I blog this. With a few hours to spare before my flight for Dubai leaves,I was just watching the news they were showing. It was in french so I had no idea what was going on but they were reporting something about L.N.Mittal of Mittal Industries fame who went abroad at a very young age and created a HUGE empire and is one of the most reputed Indians in the International Diaspora. I had no idea what the report was about but just the fact that Mittal was on the screen, it got my attention. What is it that even after leaving India for over 15 years now, the mention of an Indian name on an international medium makes me smile and glow with pride inside that Yes, finally we are being taken notice off.
As my mind sets to discover why, I see a group of travellers boarding the Air France flight to B'lore. Again, seeing them, I have a smile of knowing who they are; which is really odd considering that I have no idea who they are, what their background is, what is their purpose of going to B'lore, but what binds us brown faces is the simple fact that we are Indian by heart. It might not always be just the passport or just a POI card or an Indian Visa, its the 'Indianess' at heart, a feeling that how much one chooses to ignore, they really can't.
Yesterday, my taxi driver was an Indian who has been living in Canada for the past 15 years. Some topic about India came up and his eyes just glew and almost moistened. He was telling me that he never went back home, but he has never really felt the need for him to because his home is in his heart. His exact words were 'Jab mera watan mere dil main hain, kahin aur jaane ki zaroorat kyun hogi?'. He told me about every time he recieves something from India, the feel of that itself is so different.
All these random thoughts bring me to a question I've always wondered.. Is it just that us who live far away from India, who aren't in that culture feel the most love towards the country ?
Is that simply because grass is on the other side ?
Are we craving for our country or are we craving for a new life ?
posted by Madhavi at 12:05 PM
7 Comments:
It's the Indian 'experience' I miss: Bollywood cinema, indian weddings, ganne ka ras, gully cricket, holi, dandiya raas, mango chutney, aapams and my grandparents :)
The cows on the streets, I can do without!
-such x
Ohh man.... U wRite pretty Good... juSs chanced Apon Ur Blog Address... courtesy MSN... NIce piece of WrK.... CheCk OUt Mine...:p... feeL ok To DrOp in Ur SuGGeStioNZ
flawedconception.blogspot.com
AJwaD
With all this talk on the merger, and about how it puts a smile on your face. Well, think about it, how do you think he got to where he is? By paying his workers above industry grade wages? I doubt. There are few Indian companies, that also compete on a global scale without having ethical questions thrown on them.
Here's a comparision to go with that:
Mittal Steel: Largest steel maker in the world with the owner/founder's family owning close to 85% of the company's shares. How did it grow to be the world's largest? Acquiring sick companies in Eastern Europe, United States and other countries where they were being divisted often shrouded in corruption, thanks to the fall of the Iron Curtain. An equivalent of that would be: Steel Authority of India selling all assets and refusing to divulge for how much.
Tata Steel: The world's lowest cost steel maker. No where near the largest. Publicily traded company, part of a family run conglomerate with interests from missile technology, salt, water, electricity to automobiles and agriculture and new-age industries like software and "IT", whatever that is. Board of Directors has independent members often in no way connected to the family.
THAT is the firm I would proud of. Mittal Steel taking over a company is typical of his business style. When Tata takes over or sets up a firm, there's a profound effect on the surrounding regions, example TataNagar.
I'm sure no politician in Europe would commmit political suicide by renaming something to Mittalville or something.
Bottomline: Mittal means business. And often gets his way. His business style is shrouded in mystery. I wouldn't be overwhelmed or proud if Mittal grew to control over 50% of steel output without a single plant in India. Even if Tata only controls 10% in the future, which could possibly lie pretty far off in the future. That would be make me a lot happier.
It's amazing how Indians and Pakistanis outside share concerns, thoughts and most often face the same problems. I don't know why, but when in India or Pakistan, we seem to be hell bent on MAD. Most people leave their homes in the sub-continent because there are stupid things like reservations, quota and such blatant discrimination for things that were in their control.
"Hell with this place, clearly, they don't care about what value addition I can do up in the chain. Maybe the guys in the West will. What maybe! Ofcourse they will and as long as my children don't grow up to be in a quota environment, I don't really care if people notice my brown/black/pink/blue skin color"
To answer your question: Most people just aspire for happiness. It doesn't really if they are in the home land or not. Missing India is bound to happen. No matter how many years you live outside India.
-Incredible India-
Well done on the absolutely irrelevant comment! At least you live up to your name, Randomnoise.
Care to explain yourself nameless?
This is silly..
Who are you RandomNoise ?!
I thought I was pretty clear, RandomNoise - Your comment ran the length of a post! Why give us your opinions of the Mittals of the world?
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