India can't become America !

Clean roads, lush gardens, sky scrappers, honest govt employees.. the list is endless when you compare US with India.

This article is not about being patriotic or not patriotic, this is about why we are the way we are at present.

What was the reason behind our behavior. But this is based on my simple commonsense, not on any historical data or anthropological data.

Something for you to enjoy reading and think over...

"Four hundred gold coins and huge amount of gold and diamond ornaments were found while digging the foundation for a new house"
                                                        - Claims a local news paper

"My grand father gave 100 acres land to my father, and I got 200 acres from him. Now I have to give my children at least 400 acres"

                                                     - Vision of a father

"My son who studies MBA in the foreign university is going to be the next managing director of my company"

                                                    - MD of a professionally managed big company

When the CM/PM/MLA/Minister/corporator dies his son/daughter/wife will be the person chosen for replacement.

I tried searching for such kind of incidents in US web space for the last four days, but the google search failed to find.

From the days unknown we Indians earn not just for us. We earn for our next two generations at least. I am not talking about spending for education or marriage of our children. But it is beyond that.

We want to inherit a rich legacy to our children. House, land, jewellery, business, bank balance every thing that has got a value need to be handed over to our children when we leave.

Here is a simple calculation: if Rs 1,00,000 per month in current days is enough to have a good lifestyle, then Rs 5,18,66,353 (five crores and 18 lakhs) are enough to live for the next 100 years even factoring the inflation.

But we find people in govt/private services trying to amass wealth through unethical means. Anything that we need has got a price. Be it a ration card or driving license. Anything that is built be it a small gutter or big project has an element of corruption.

There is an undelying desire to be safe and settled that has been present for centuries together.

I was astonished to see that the term "getting settled in life" is used mostly in Asian countries, particularly in India than in west.

Getting married
Having a house
Having a stable job
Having children
Having good bank balance
Having enough name in the society

These are the common characteristics that are associated with the so called "getting settled".

We need to settle first in life. Then we need to ensure that each of our son/daughter/son-in-law should settle down.
If the god allows us to stay some more time here, then even our grand children should settle down in  life.

Just imagine when somebody is trying hard to create this settlement, how trivial it appears for him the ideals of morality, ethics etc?

Which takes over the other.. settlement or ethics ?

Our great ancestors behaved in the same way. That is why you find tonnes of gold ornaments dumped in temples, houses, foundations.

Our grand fathers tried to build a legacy.

We are in the process of building the same.

Do we need clean roads, lush gardens, skyscrappers, ethical officials OR SETTLEMENT ?

Working hard to build a legacy for our children is not a mistake. But searching for wrong ways to build right legacy for children is crime.

Let us think... And I dont want to sound as if this is the only reason for our behavior. There could be several more too..