´Particularly, it is the envy of the educated young people of India and other low-income countries today. Isn’t that why a one way ticket to the U.S. is now widely considered in our parts of the world to be the first prize in the lottery of life?´

Well, in my little micro cosmos in Europe it goes something like this:

´Particularly, it is the envy of the educated young people of East Europe and other low-income countries today. Isn’t that why a one way ticket to West Europe is now widely considered in our parts of the world to be the first prize in the lottery of life?´

Anyhow,
I had a long talk today with a Dutch law student friend, been a couple of times on exchange, to the US, and his dream, for material reasons, is to marry, and or start a business,
to get a green card,

My Polish friends have the same ´plans´ with
West Europe(ans..),

All my East European friends want to move here
(West Europe),
and most of my ambitious Dutch friends to the US,

Nation building..? good one!, the topic is, where
can I drive a BMW with the least road tax?,
and pay the least income tax?, where is the real estate good value? and what is the paycheck!

´The sublime fruits of that effort lie in the knowledge and spiritual satisfaction that later generations will largely get the material and intellectual benefits -- while having the opportunity of inheriting the spiritual ones as well.´

Ashok,
As seeing some ´sociological developments´,
around me, these kind of topics, are, either
for academics or for the age of 40-50 and older,

But, I love your points of view,

With love, passion, and good spiritual vibrations,

Thanks, Marek. I see your point. But this is an updated version of something I wrote when I was 30.

I suppose I grew old before my time and missed out on the pleasures of driving BMWs and paying the lowest possible taxes.

And I haven't been near a university in a very long time.

Ashok

Dear Askok - Each time I read your posts I get that warm fuzzy feeling that all's well with the world.

I was reading how Ireland turned itself completely around and is now one of the richest places in Europe. They did this by focusing on education for all. If something like this could be implemented in India it would probably be the answer to most of her problems. There's no doubt that Nehru did a very good thing in establishing all the IIT's and IIM's. But I wonder how things would have turned out if the focus had been on primary and secondary education instead. So many more would have benefited. In any case that should be the focus now. And yes, I absolutely have to go back and do my bit.

Ashok,

trust me, you haven´t missed much..

but if you want to get a crash ´course´
on Ego and materialism..
take a trip to the nearest campus,
wherever!, what only differs is the amount,

Stick with deepak..;) for the spirit thing..;)

Do not waste your time on Social Questions.
What is the matter with the poor is Poverty; what is the matter with the rich is Uselessness.
George Bernard Shaw

With love, passion, and good spiritual vibrations,

Ashok,
i think what ur saying is very idealistic ..do u think it is very practical ..??
Every professional graduating wants a better life..they dont want to rot in villages ..(me included).

i completed my engineering just now and i dont think i want to spend the rest of my life toiling in some god forsaken place were i will never be given credit for what ever i do..

i think the bigger problem does not lie with the universities but with the political scenarios..
there are no rewards and so many people shift west ..
as a city dweller i have no idea what goes on in villages ..this may also be a reason for the brain drain in India...

Ashok you are still caught up in the geopolitical model of humankind. In today’s interdependent economic order, there is only one true nation – humankind.

Humankind is not hardware. It is not even the software. It is the User who lives both the hardware and the software. Unfortunately, the User is still fixated on the hardware. So the software is growing like weeds, vast scattered and inconsistent systems that make the hardware do things that are destructive.

Development today is no longer really about uplifting lagging hardware. Lagging hardware is the result of outdated software. The interdependent economic model has no choice but to bring updated software to every community of humankind, until humankind is one big flourishing market, threatened by an angry biosphere.

So development today must be about fixing the software, making sure that our code is true, that its representation of reality is accurate and comprehensive, and that its integrity is not lost in transfer among us – so that we find the ways to maintain our uplift and advancement in harmony with our biosphere.

But I suppose we will not begin to address this problem as people like you remain instruments of outdated national competitive software, fanning the outdated themes of national competitiveness.

Perhaps the problem is with the Univerisities & Colleges themselves.

In order to be accredited in anything, you have to learn history that is untrue, learn ways of doing things that are outdated from people who have never worked in the real world ( student-grad student-doctor-professor ). In short you have to be institutionalized - or at the very least, be subjected to it. You crank out corporate fodder b/c no one really has to think to graduate, they must be able to regurgitate what professors want to see/hear. Doesn't matter if the answers that have or correct or not, you simply better come up with what they have. Yeah, and they aren't necessarily receptive to some young chap setting them straight either. What good is corporate fodder in a country that isn't overrun by corporations ( yet )?

My father ran into a Time-Life series on the civil war that originally started out as one book, but as the historian/investigator dug deeper he found lie upon lie upon lie that has made its way into the text books adopted by the public school system, it ended up spanning some 30 books. My father has never been the same with regard to what we're force fed by our 'educational' institutions. Ohh did I say institution?

Of course this is just one sample of maybe why the exodus is occuring. I wish India would retain its people - getting hard to find a job over here. No just kidding. I'm dying to see a resurgence in old ways, respect, honor, ethics, love, and spirituality. The world seems so plastic under western domination. The gems that lay in magical India once shone upon the face of the earth. Seems that mainstream India may have forgotten its ancient heritage a bit - something worth fighting for ( all of us ). The modern world needs an example of how to prosper ethically.

Which currency in the world is worth the most?

Why is that?

Who really sets the value of a nations currency.

Who is really running things?

Okay maybe the Kingdom is more Peacful than it might be otherwise. Who really knows.

If you want to change India you must change the system it operates under.

Amaranth, Rock Dust and Seaweed
Amaranth, Rock Dust and Seaweed
Amaranth, Rock Dust and Seaweed

This is a magic spell that will help anyone that figures it out.

ok, Richard, you got me there,
I have no idea,

please, explain,

With love, passion,

it´s a zen koan, right..?
elleborate, please, i´m curious,
love passion

Ashok,

In a nutshell - yes and no! :)

I didn't really understand it then - as a school kid a teacher told us that the problem with our educational system was that it was churning out quality people but there werent adequate jobs to sustain them. Remember the news items about graduates taking up jobs as shoe shines? That was true and surely one can't blame those that took the opportunity to seek job satisfaction and a better life elsewhere. It has often been argued that they have fled the country and abandoned it, quite unfair I think. Most worked their butts off to learn and qualify for a better life. Besides, I also remember when the country faced a huge financial crunch it was their remittances from abroad which often went towards filling our coffers. It worked both ways.

Yes, there are more opportunities now and people will avail of them. Where we seem to have gone off course is in the field of basic education for all. More and more people are able to set up industries and professionals have a wide choice available. Family run businesses have become more and more professional and expanded and diversified and provided growing opportunities for talented people to flourish. In contrast, it is politicians who are now converting poltics into a family owned business! Perhaps that is a problem that needs to be urgently addressed.

That our educational set up will have to keep reinventing itself as an ongoing process and keep catering to national needs is an absolute fact. Here again, we have systemic roadblocks. As far as I know, till about a month ago, there were about 800 crores collected through the 2% educational cess - there was confusion about where these funds were to be parked. In other words, in a year and a half, no one had thought out how the money was to be utilised and by whom - it was only to be collected. Now how does an ordinary citizen deal with such situations? Get frustrated and look elsewhere for help and support?

Ashok I understand where you come from and in the main agree with your thoughts and ideas, we seem to differ in identifying where the problem lies.

Divya,

I hope that besides teaching Sanskrit, you also decide to try and educate us to stand on our own two feet with pride. You seem to be someone ideally qualified to shake up the lazy and put the fear of God into the idle and the crafty! Good luck and Im sure we can only benefit by your return :)

But Dara, I'm only studying sanskrit not teaching it!! And I'm studying it on my own at a snail's pace and am still at kindergarten level.

Well hurry up then Divya! :)

This is quite interesting and educative. I have learnt something from it and still have a lot more to learn from it.