Black and White

Happiness research - Self help books (Blink, Dale Carnegie etcetera) - Ayn Rand and Objectivism - Free market economics (Reaganomics, Thatcherism) - Paulo Coelho and his Alchemist - Jonathan Livingstone Seagull - Abdul Kalam (not the person but those who choose to exploit his name and ideas) - Chetan Bhagat - the Indian casteist, superstitious, selfish, shallow careerists & cheats - BJP fans - Israel lovers - I find all of them related somehow. Mainly because someone who is one of the above/fan of one of the above will be/will be a fan of/ most of the others in that list. Of course this is a bloody black and white statement, but I find this true at least 80% of the time.

India is growing for sure. There is so much optimism everywhere. People are venturing out. Still - there are so many bigots, so many casteists, so many jingoists, so many racists, so many male chauvinists, so many selfish assholes, so many ultra-superstitious - so many cheats - out there. But they all work hard, and hence the economy will keep growing (lead by Narendra Modi and Gujarat).

Well, let me make my statement a little less blanket. I am mainly talking about the vocal class of India - because they are so vocal that they make you feel prejudiced about the whole country. The vocal class is mainly urban, brahmin, etc. But in sheer numbers, they run into many millions. The rural India - well - I am so ignorant about them!! But traveling across villages in Karnataka and Tamilnadu always makes me optimistic - though there might be undercurrents that I wouldnt have seen (casteism, superstitions, etc - of course - but at least the overall mentality is not to win over by any cruel means).