A Better India, A Better World

Now there are two writers in the family. There’s Sudha Murthy who writes inoffensive stories and now there’s Narayana Murthy who has put his speeches into a book. This is a good thing because Murthy is the kind of person whom you cannot argue with. He is a role model to millions of Indians who see him as a creator of wealth and opportunities and jobs. But although he is seriously wealthy, he also seems to be the kind of person who has tried to live according to the dictates of his conscience. He did not sell Infosys when they were offered a million dollars. He has tried to walk the talk. His speeches therefore come from a double high ground: here is the rich man who also believes that a clean conscience makes the best pillow. The problem is that these were speeches. They work very well when you read one. Or two. When you read five or ten, they begin to fall into a pattern. Murthy says some good and inspiring things about India. Then he says some bad things about India, enumerating all the shortcomings of the country in a series of incontestable and terrifying numbers. Then he points out the possibilities and the potentials of tomorrow. Stirring stuff but one does not get much of a sense of how a better India is to be made, unless you consider the idea that we should all study hard, work hard and eat our veggies. This of course presupposes that we get a chance to study hard, that we are not working hard when we should be studying and that there are enough veggies to go around. And as for the equation between a better India and a better world, we did not need Mr Murthy to tell us that. Indians represent one-sixth of the planet; if they get a better deal that’s a lot of people getting a better deal, which means a better planet.