Possibly because of the pathetic rates of literacy in India , ( let's not even get to eduction )  a lot of educated people in India have a tendency to behave like God's gift to mankind because there are so few of them. And if , god forbid , they happened to study in a famous instiution or became fluent in English - the problem just becomes worse.  While there certainly is a section of well meaning + educated people , for the vast majority of educated people in India education is just a means to gather more , instead of being something which should be scattered.  And that is why it is okay to have hundreds of millions of illiterate , poor people in a country which has a very well educated elite .

 

   The latter part of this blog entry of mine might cause the alumni association of my alma mater to disown me ; but what the heck , public opinion was something I never much cared for anyways , and I have no qualms about treading on other people's toes if logical thinking tells me that's the way to go.

 

  Education , is basically something which is sought to get a better job , which leads to better salaries , which in turn leads to better "matrimonial prospects" , along with the unspoken benifit that once you're rich enough in India , you can practically get away with anything - from rash driving to murder . Why else do so many of us educated folk , have half a dozen badly underpaid servants in our homes , when most of it is work which we should be doing ourselves anyways ; Why don't we see anything wrong with it - and then on the other hand , we pretend to feel sorry for them and give them "charitable gifts" once a while instead of just giving them the pay they deserve.  I've seen educated Indians - relatives included - come to the United States and say something like - this country is sooo much more advanced , nicer , etc . and is centuries ahead of India - but I just can't live without the servants and manual labour which I'd have back home. IMHO such people , are the biggest problem in India since they make sure that a section of society stays where they are forever. To such a person I could only say : You are the problem in India.

The very-necessary transfer of knowledge and wealth is obstructed by such people.  Add to that the fact that we aren't a very charitable race of people either , and the problems only become worse.  The fact that Bill Gates has donated more for charity in India , than all our billionaires put togther should tell us a lot about ourselves.

 

  Also , a lot of college educated people in India aren't really conscious of the fact that they were educated via subsidies which could have been used to provide 40-50 kids each primary education ; and there really doesn't seem to be much of a desire to give back.

  

  One might expect that Indians educated in westernized curriculums might be more conscious of the gross inequality of the society we live in . Unfortunately from years of personal experience of observing and analyzing people  , I have realized that English medium education (in India ) does not equal westernization . In fact , for India , it reinforces the feudal nature of our caste system . It becomes the "language of the rulers" kind of affair , and enables you all the more to "tower over little people"  - since those fluent in English are likely to have better jobs and salaries. Such people also have a tendency to "look down" on the masses all the more.

From my experience at college a lot more of the students who came from the "elite" schools ( from the British era , possibly still stuck in the Victorian age ) were likely to be characterless scumbags compared to those who came from normal , respectable schools .

 

   I truly admire the Americans for their attitude : What you do with your education is what matters , not who you are or where you got it from . And it matters even less what kind of an accent you have.

 

   Which brings me to my final point . Why did I start this blog entry in the first place ?  Because I was reading about the Pan IIT Meet held in Chicago.  I would never be caught dead in such a meet. If you went to a college reunion , would you want to laugh and recollect old memories with your batchmates , or would you want to be stuck with some pompous conversations about corporate titles, and invite half a dozen paid strangers to tell you how great the IIT system is ( Okay , they're CEO's and President's of companies. )

 

   Atanu Dey says it all.

Check out the entire article at :

 

  I ran into this article while I was reading about the Pan IIT 2009 meet in Chicaco , and wondering whether I was the only one who felt that only a bunch of hot air balloons would attend something like this.

 

On IITs, PanIIT, and the Funding of 50 New IITs
Oct. 07 2008 - 12:00 am View comments (0)

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

Atanu Dey's and Vinod Khosla's Marshall Plan for India :

 

Will our policy makers ever pay attention to people like them ?