India poised… what poise?

‘India Poised’ is the new slogan manufactured by the old lady of Bori Bunder turned Media Baroness.

Poised, my foot! Its India Muddled we have to contend with.

India is going through a tough time, really.

The chaos on the streets in any small town reflects Indian the turmoil in the Great Indian mindset.

Driving along the roads of Patna in Bihar is like living in several times zones at the same time. You will have the huge spanky SUVs and luxury cars , the Chevrolets, Opal Astras rubbing shoulders with the sturdy box-like Vauxhall-clones the Ambassadors.

There are horse-drawn carts, bullock-carts, human powered Pedi cabs [rickshaws], tractors and trailers, trucks, buses of every size and description…

Being young in middle class India is just as chaotic.

The joint family is breaking up, there are new aspirations, the head of the household finds himself redundant and obsolete, the caste barriers are crashing. Even the security of government jobs is melting away.

Brahmins find that their bosses are low-caste men, whom they would not have at the same table just a generation away. In the villages, the Rajputs desperately try to keep the lower castes in line using brute force if necessary.

The young are trying to battle with so many new concepts: marriage by choice, early career planning, the right to express their own sexuality, no matter how ‘alternative it is…..