Rising from ashes- Indian Saga

A nation widely known for beaurocracy, illiteracy, poverty .. blah, blah, blah... Now, features on every nation's economic charter. People power? Oh yes.. indeed!
I remember few years back on a lazy lunch talk, i told a friend of mine that India has a future which is remarkable, because growth always has one, she smiled and said,"Gary, you are emotional about India, i dont wanna hit that soft corner. " I also laughed at that, but then i was talking data and facts there, so had little doubt in my mind.
Again in a discussion 3 years back over mergers and acquisitions, i told SK ( well, he is a M&A consultant today), what if one day a home based Indian company takes over a biggie. He turned and said, you dream big and i love that. :). I was like ok, i dont come from Mc Kinsey, so fine. Sitting neat in 2007, we have tatas, kingfishers and blah blah blah. Oh ok. I wasnt really emotional. I took a decision to stay back in India 2 years back for a reason. I dint want the spirit of fighting for life and struggle die in me. Its good and bad. Things are not so obvious for we Indians, so our brains are open to think. We dont really assume that being a pedestrian, people will give you way. We stand right infront of a moving car and find our way. Rather, its either ways i die, but if i dont try, i will stand on the other side of the road forever. :)
Wow, i love being Indian. Looked at the thought process. What a spirit to take risk. It can only come when you know, you have nothing to loose.
Here are some of the facts that people are trying to capture in numbers and pens-

• Over the next two decades, the country’s middle class will grow from about 5 percent of the population to more than 40 percent and create the world’s fifth-largest consumer market.
• In 1985 93 percent of the population lived on a household income of less than 90,000 rupees a year, or about a dollar per person per day; by 2005 that proportion had been cut nearly in half, to 54 percent. 431 million fewer Indians live in extreme poverty today than would have if poverty had remained stuck at the 1985 level. If India can achieve 7.3 percent annual growth over the next 20 years, 465 million more people will be spared a life of extreme deprivation.
• extreme rural poverty has declined from 94 percent in 1985 to 61 percent in 2005, and we project that it will drop to 26 percent by 2025. While the progress has been substantial—even historic—significant challenges remain.

Wow, i love numbers and all above that the fact, that we as Indians, never really though of these numbers. We simply fought a fight for survival. It brought lots of limelight to us, we are acknowledged, people want to study us. But we dont really care, for we are truly democratic, free will survivers, or rather winners of tomorrow. We will keep on making deals years on years. Our long lost brain drains serving people for dollars, will come back, not because we want them back, or we have changed the infrastructure or lifestyle for them, but just because they want to come back, because somehow this country can get them money and same non luxurious homely feeling which they did not relate to few years back. [ Pun intended]

Hail to Indians- for they know not what they cant do !!! [ Well, that stands for all kind of wrongs we are known for as well :)]