Swades Déjà vu

9 days. That’s all it takes, to make you realize how much void you have in your life. People in India die to run away from dirty pot holes, screaming horns, cow dung on the roads and things like that. But believe me, 6 months after staying abroad, all of that is music to my ears.

Maybe we’re born messy, I don’t know, but I like the hustle and bustle. Sterilized environments sort of make you numb, and in many a ways incapable. Here all you have is control - temperature control, climate control, driving control, attire control, attitude control, control over what you say, and eventually control over what you think.

People call it being civilized, but honestly is there any civility in hiding your curse under your nose? Is there any civility in being so politically correct in whatever that you say and do? True, a developed nation teaches you discipline, and a lot of it. Be it discipline when driving cars, while standing in a queue… whatever; but at one point, that discipline aggravates into control and that’s not good.

Yes, in terms of process flow, developed nations are better and easier. It’s easier to buy property for instance in a developed nation. For a country like India, there are innumerable processes, and each take their own sweet time. But what’s necessary to understand is that our minds have been attuned to this ‘process-less’ system, since birth. We have been living in a world where even getting a cooking gas connection is a challenge. And that’s the very reason why we can strive in any given circumstances.

It was during my trip back that I realized how insanely complex it is to manage a democracy like India. In a place like Dubai, which is maybe twice the size of Ahmedabad city, it’s so easy to drive growth. Had Mr. Narendra Modi been asked to handle a state only twice the size of Ahmedabad city, he would have done wonders, and that too with relative ease. But sadly that’s not the case. He has to handle a state with about 20,000 cities and villages.

In a place like Dubai, a lot of micro-management is possible. The citizen is accessible. There is more money, and fewer responsibilities to put money into. The case is inverse in a country like India. And yet we strive. And yet we post 8-9% growth for a considerable period.

People say that 95% of retailing in India is unorganized. And for all I feel, there’s a fair chance that it will remain so, especially in a rural setting for a pretty long time. A lot of industries in India still remain unorganized. Industrialists, and economists feel that its not appropriate. What most people don’t realize, is that its these unorganized supply chains that have oiled the economy of India since independence.

It’s the roadside vendor, the small kirana shop outside your house, the ‘kaam-wali bai’ who comes to do the household chores everyday, the milkman… it is these people that oil the economy. Their contribution might be miniscule, but together, they give a lot to drive growth.

And this is what fascinates me about India. It is the minuteness of entities from where the enormity comes out. Challenges in large conglomerates are crap. There are really few challenges, but a lot of brains thinking who can solve the problem. But there’s no one to help in the Small Scale industries sector. There are the real challenges. SSI’s face problems day in and day out, simply because there are a lot of SSI’s and not enough trained manpower to run them.

And lastly, I’ve realized, that India is a Knowledge economy, while Dubai is very much still a trader economy. As a trader economy it might have huge financial resources, but not a lot of brains. As a knowledge economy, we have a lot of brains, but not enough resources to tap them.

In conclusion, all I would say is that it is after staying abroad that I’ve truly realized the potential of the Indian economy.

When MNCs started deciding to come to India for setting up business, I thought, “hey! They should have come a lot earlier”… but after staying away, I really don’t blame them. As a nation our PR skills are downright pathetic, and maybe that’s the reason why no one ever paid heed to us. It was the sound of money that made them overlook whatever image they had formed about India and came running to us.

If democracy were a norm of this world, we could have been a world power long back.