A fly-over here, a Metro line there, farmlands to skyscrapers, farmers to millionaires, small cars to SUVs in multicolours… the face of India changes each time you blink your eyes. And slowly, over the 60 years since we gained Independence, the pace has been increasing.
What does ‘Independence’ mean to a generation – a majority of those logged in reading this – who were perhaps born in a free country?
It means in some ways,the freedom to choose which way that country wants to grow. We’ve had many invasions – cultural and technological – but we have always managed to take what we have wanted and discarded the rest. In the 60 years of us seeking, taking, learning, growing… here is a pick of the 10 things we chose to make our own and which in some way or the other, mark the birth and growth of a country with her own individuality.
The Landmarks of a Shining India
The Internet, since its first tentative steps in India, has become one of the country’s biggest employment exchanges and is rapidly recruiting even as I type. Well, for one, I have my job because of the Internet and you’re reading this thanks to the Net too.
In the 60 years of our Independence, it’s been a mere 15-odd years since the cyberspace began claiming Indian mind space. And to think it all started with excitement over e-mail and how easy it was to correspond globally, instantly. Today, the Internet is synonymous with convenience and even a separate lifestyle.
June 2002, I was doing a story on children being beaten in Delhi municipal schools and was talking to kids and parents in Govindpuri, one of South Delhi’s slum areas. The kids were dirty, underfed and hated school because they were beaten up there. Till an NGO called Project Why decided to help those children and take up the case of corporal punishment with the Delhi government.
Beyond tackling the child-beating, Project Why also set out to educate the children; and one of the tools they used was to install two computers in the one-room ‘school’ that the NGO set up. Where books had not helped, the kids - who had never seen a computer before - took to the instruments like play things. They learnt how to operate the computers; but the change was deeper. Today, the kids are confident, they are not shy of speaking to anyone or speaking out and they will even greet you in clear English.
One of the country’s major players in IT training, NIIT was instrumental in setting up in the regional language computer literacy programmes across India, to teach more people about computers. The idea being that more and more Indian should benefit from the technology…
Train ticket bookings, passport application, applications for LPG connections, bank transactions, email, billing at your local retail store, generation of your PAN number… the Internet and computers are the way ahead… for all of India.
Ask Suresh K* (name changed on request) from Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, studying at one of India’s premiere MBA institutes in the capital today… He would perhaps be handling his father’s shop had he not been able to prepare for his entrance exams from online tutorials. He would have perhaps missed his seat — insurgent threats made it impossible for him to come down to Delhi — had he not been able to log on and check his results.
From dial-ups and waiting for the dial tone, to data cards for anywhere-anytime connectivity to broadband and Wi-fi… the road lies ahead and Indians — across the span of the country and economic divide — are logging on to the benefits.
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