The Modern Dandi March

Wrote this one on Gandhi Jayanti.

I’ve started working for an Indian IT major. And there are certain things I couldn’t help but notice. My training group comprises of 36 individuals coming from not less then 15 states in the country. You name it and we have it (Punjab,haryana, tamil Nadu, kerela, ,Gujarat, Karnataka, uttar Pradesh , assam, rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, delhi, maharashtra) Its like attending a class with your country. All of them have different accents, different mother tongues, different tastes in food, different ways of living and interacting with people. But there is one thing we all share – a sense of acceptance of our differences and the ability to keep everything behind us when it comes to learning things together and of course making money. In a way our small class is a microcosm of the economic and social revolution that is slowly yet steadily changing the face of our nation as a whole. The pursuit of profit is the pillar on which our society rests now.

The Indian economy has often been compared with an elephant. Slow and wise but lethargic at times . The same goes with Indian psyche. We as a community have always cherished the wisdom of our memory as a nation which sometimes forestalls the advent of path breaking ideas or research. We trust the conventional approach to business, governance and politics but we forget to remember that conventions are always subject to change in our argumentative nation. The new “chai piyo aur kaam karo “ campaign epitomizes what’s happening in the Indian society today. There has been a profound shift in the perception from your social status(caste) determining your economic well being in ancient India to your economic well being determining your social status in modern times.

It’s Gandhi jayanti today and bapu more than anything else was a symbol of self sufficient Indian villages and the eventual transition of the rural population to the middle class. These days it’s not unusual (in fact very common) to find people from backward areas of our nation working in the knowledge industry and joining the middle class which in the long run is the economic sword of a country and without which an unjust society is inevitable. So when bapu proceeded with his dandi march he actually laid a path before us , the path of self sufficiency and progress, the path of inclusiveness and perseverance, the path where bharat and India meet to cover the arduous miles together.