Coming back home to India
“Home is where the heart is” took over me and after living for nearly 12 years abroad in Melbourne and Auckland finally I decided to come back to India in November 2001.
The main thing that attracted me to live back in India was of course the family ties added to this was the sudden boom in the Indian economy. At that point I saw the sudden rise of the Indian stock market, real estate and booming economy, clearly for me India was a hot destination. My strong belief that I can make more money here than abroad was one other major factor.
Now it’s almost 10 years that I have come back, set up my own education consulting and English testing business and I must admit it is doing very well. What I did not realize was that if I want to be successful and survive in India, the I will have to trade of my dignity and my self respect. I slowly became a hostage to the corruption in India. Today I feel insecure about the future of my kids.
At every stage to get any work done, right from the clerk to the highest level. When I buy a car and to get it registered I need to bribe, when I need a permission for building a house or when I want to register the land I just purchased, wherever and whenever I could not do it without bribing people. Corrupt politicians, corrupt judges, corrupt police officers, corrupt bureaucrats, corrupt contractors, etc I found that corruption has become acceptable norm among people in India and is also welcomed with open arms.
Never did I actually realize that India is not anymore a civilized society. India is rules by money, power and greed. We call ourselves tolerant citizens, but again when we see injustice happening around us, we turn away or walk away. I must admit I did this several times till now. In India today we accept violation of human rights and mis governance. Corruption has become an acceptable norm among people in India and corruption is welcomed with open arms.
People only talk about corruption and many movies are made every year where they project on eradicating corruption in India, people love to watch these films but in actual life no one does any thing.In fact it’s the same people ( all of us) encouraging this practice.
The corruption in India is toying this lovely country. I belong to India and will be here for the rest of my life making this a part and parcel of my daily life
