A unique experience of wonder made me realize that Indians can be very pro-active. I was travelling on Air India accompanied by almost 300 happy passengers, 7 bulky air hostesses, and may be two pilots who we never saw. Whole aircraft was filled with Indians with an exception of few Europeans and one European happened to sit next to me. As we took off we shared about ourselves a good strangers trying to know each other. Most Indians on board were absolutely quiet not uttering even a word. The British woman next to me wondered as to why this silence which is against the nature of Indians. As our journey proceeded we were served beverages and drinks before the supper by the plane crew. As the drink made its way there was some murmurs in the plane and after couple of minutes the plane was filled with enormous noise people talking, singing, and moving about. Now the reaction of British woman next to me was of awe and wonder. I intervened at pleasant awe and wonder by making a witty comment, 'We the Indian need some spirit to boost our low spirits'. It was true that we the Indian are known for our boisterous way of living our lives. It is quite opposite to our nature to remain silent as we always do in London underground. India has seen its golden era in the field of technology, and this was evident in people using the cell phones and mobile internet. India has gone a long ahead of many other countries in the world to see its development in most fields. Despite the chaos that is very prevalent in every nuke and corner of our country, it has risen to the hight of order in utter chaos. As I was driven by my brother from the Airport to my home, there was utter chaos on the street, every one was driving everywhere. I told my brother to be more careful in his driving but he said we are not in London any more my dear brother. I had to close my eyes because I was absolutely scared of our roads and the vehicles criss crossing. I realised that every one of the drivers knew what exactly he was doing, therefore there was a sense of order which looked an utter chaos into my eyes. It was an experience of fear but ultimately turned this experience into joy since I am proud to be an Indian.
An old lady was trying to climb the escalators in the biggest shopping complex in Mangalore. This complex is the first biggest complex of that kind in my little coastal city. This lady was amused and perplexed at the stairs that never needed to climb but she had to get into it in order to experience her amusement and perplexity. I held her hand helped her to climb the escalators, and there overflowed the joy and wonder on her scared face. I could imagine her feelings on climbing on those escalators, she was flying in the air, she was feeling that she was climbing the sky. But after few minutes of her climbing I had to help her out of these escalators. This is not matter of wonder for a person who lives in a developed country where climbing on an escalators is a necessity but for the people who haven't seen it in their lives makes an enormous difference.
As I was strolling down the developments that India has seen is incredible. India despite being over populated and issue of distribution of wealth is a major problem still most people in India manage to go to bed without starving. This is my own observation, can be wrong or debatable too. I shall write more about Indian developments in my next few articles.