I will be writing about my recent trip to Rajasthan in the coming week. Meanwhile, here are links to two series I wrote in the past in February 2004 and September 2005. This is how I had ended my last series:
We need a Grand Vision for a Great India – an India that includes the hundreds of millions for whom life has barely changed over a generation. Our leaders have failed us consistently (but then it is we who elect them). We can wait for the Messiah to come and lead us to the Promised Future – or we can try and use the emerging technologies to create a New India, bottom-up. For example, a mobile phone will be available with every tenth Indian. How can that be used as an agent for change and development?
As I made my way back to Mumbai, I thought once again of Rajasthan’s temples. They withstood invaders and nature. Today, their past is what attracts the modern travellers. Do we want India to be known for its past – or for its future? That is a choice we have to make.
