An American virus too weak

I was in the final year of my engineering graduation eagerly waiting to get recruited by a software company operating in Bangalore, the valley of software engineers. I came back home after a long day at college. My mom, who is always glued to SunTV, the premier television broadcasting company in India, called me and asked me to check out the scrolling "Flash news" in the bottom corner of my BPL box.

It was the news, that people never wanted to hear. The news which shook the American Homeland Security; Sept 11 . My deepest condolences to those families who lost their near and dear ones. But, how was I to get affected by the incident ? A bomb blast in Kashmir was treated as a "Breaking news" in the country's leading channels and the next day it would appear as if the news never broke out. And life continued... But a terrorist attack in the United States had a domino effect in the rest of the world. Companies which were piled up in the college's placement list started dropping out. We were apprehensive of our future. An American recession meant a global recession.

Asians were considered to be frugal, and the Europeans were always wrapped in the gloomy weather, and because of the Americans and their spendthrift ways, the world economy had to face hardship only few times. Not anymore..Times have changed. Asia (China, India and Japa) is the world's fastest growing consumer market. Recent forecasts from IMF have told that the household comsumer spending in Asia will rise by 7%, compared to the stingy 3% in America. Yes, Asia is in it's biggest shopping spree, while America is patching up holes in its wallet. No more an American recession will have a huge impact in Asia. Continuing with the current trends, by 2020 China's consumer market will overtake America's, though Dow Jones touched 12,000 mark this season.Foreign exchange reserves in China and India were 987 billion dollars and 158 billion dollars respectively. Some worry that America might come dangerously close to a recession in 2007, because of its low household spending.

Asia has contributed 21% to the increase in the world's GDP compared to America's 19%. Many argue that most of the exports from the Asian continents were to America. Asia's export growth would certainly be affected but most of Asia' growth has been because of the domestic demand.
The vagaries of an American monsoon will no longer make the world's economy vulnerable. The world won't stop for an American breakdown. An American virus will no longer inflict unbearable pain to the world, though it might make it ill.

Is India culturally super-power ?

This is no offensive title to derogate India. I am neither blogging to dart India with criticisms nor aiming to puncture it with sarcastic comments. It's purely an alarm to the heaps of capable human brains resting either under the comforts of a six-digit salary or over the government laid benches in the recreation parks.

I am proud to be part of this great nation, India. The country has millions of individuals who have the culture, rooted deep inside their soul. But, I was shocked to see the search results powered by Google, when I typed 'statistics about Indians'. It took me to 'India HIV and AIDS statistics'. Is the Google's PageRank algorithm weak enough to identify AIDS as the Key Performance Indicator for India's statistics or is it really one of those statistics that India should look into with a layer of "castor oil" poured into its' eyes ?

According to a popular British Television Channel, India accounts for more than two-thirds of the total number of HIV cases in Asia. And researching the reasons for it leads to the most obvious answer; the word that makes a youngster wrap his mouth with his palm; the word that is the most sought in the internet arena; "unprotected sex". Recently I had a heated argument with one of my friends regarding the cultural shift that India has been experiencing of late, and he asked me to stop talking about the beautifully woven "Indian culture" garment that camouflages the sexual orientation prevalent. I am often contemptuous when I narrate the Indian culture saga to my fellow British colleagues. But, more than often, my vocal chords have been tied as soon as they ask me back about the HIV statistics.

Of course, there are many cases where infected blood transmissions have been the reason. But the odds are always against the higher ranked reasons. I can't accept the excuse that sex education wasn't imbibed into the grey atoms of the human body, when it's a universal truth that seeking carnal pleasures apart from your life partner (pre-marital or post-marital) is a kernel error. And when we are the prime advocates of such philisophies, do we need tutorial sessions to teach us how contraceptives should be used when indulging in "external" sexual activities ? Who gave us the right to cheat ? Who gave us the incongruous boldness ? Who administers such thoughts ? Are we Indians ?

The right punishment to those involved in such immoral sexual acts is to erase their citizenship and deny them the right to live in India. Will the newer generation awaken to a holy sunrise and fight against the unchaste hormones and not blame the books ? Will Google display "India with the least no of HIV cases" as its top ranked search result ? I would then consider India as a super power when such a state dawns.....