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"India is my most complex lover. And I’ve had complicated relationships. Believe me." I won't mention who said this and in what context coz it takes away from the quote :)
I have been back in India for over 2 years now and I have to say that it is a changed country. India has always been associated with Faith. In any faith based society, what you believe in often shapes reality and the future. The new generation believes in the new India. It believes that this is not their grandpapa's India. They believe that they can change India. They believe that they can do great things in this changed India. Rather than being spectators, they are willing to be the instruments of that change. It is this belief that is transforming the nation.
Though the fundamental change has been a shift in attitudes, much has also changed in India in terms of infrastructure and opportunities. There is no shortage of stories, in both urban and rural India, where people from humble beginnings have transformed their lives and the lives of others. There are so many of these stories that you can't threat them as exceptions. Even the lot of the average man has changed so much. Just think of the growing middle class and what they can afford now in terms of housing, education, electronics, vacations, luxury goods.
Having said that, India remains a land of contradictions. Rural India remains in a state of neglect. With no real economic activity in huge parts of India, there is major migration to the cities. With so few cities and 40% of the India's population expected to be in the cities by 2025, there are huge challenges ahead. How do you feed this huge urban population? What is the fate of people left behind in the villages? Just the shortage of water can bring everything crashing down? What is the environmental impact of the economic activity? What tensions arise due to the change in demographics of urban India?
There are more questions here than answers. Even where there are answers, there are no easy answers. To all these questions the new India simply says "Yes there are unanswered questions. Yes there will be missteps and mistakes will have huge consequences. Yes there are huge hurdles the size of mountains. In the land of the Himalayas however, there are no insurmountable hurdles. All I ask of you is to have a little faith"
