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LIVE from Mumbai (part 2!)

Fiona Crack | 17:51 UK time, Friday, 9 February 2007

Shilpa and Shriaz are sitting with me in the studio in London and they are discussing how Indian they feel living in another country with our audience in Mumbai.

Our lines are up. We can hear them, they can hear us. We're on our role and it's our last "India Rising" programme. It's been quite a week.

Greg Bruschi sent a sympathetic email to our team on the road saying "Sorry you are not feeling well. That can't be helped. I guess you are earning your pay this week?" Thanks for that Greg. They certainly are!

On to your comments....

Mansour, Monrovia
Indians are hard working people. I love them dearly.

Davey Peterson, Baker City, Oregon, USA
First of all, I am very excited to be able to listen to World Have Your Say on Oregon Public Broadcasting.
This week, I have listened with great intrest to your programs from India. Let me be clear that I want to see India succeed. However, this morning, an article appeared on CNN that seems to contridict a lot of the assumptions made this week about India's ststus as an emerging superpower. Some of the stats in the I found interesting. For instance:Only 10% ot the entire Indian labor force works for the formal economy, and only half that is private sector. Right now, there 7 million Indian laborers working in the manufacturing sector as opposed to over 100 million in China.
The national literacy rate is only 61% which is even behind Rwanda and just barely ahead of the Sudan.
Nearly 1/2 of the world's hungry reside in India, and finally,
India has a greater number of people with HIV than any other nation.
My question is when facing all of these daunting challenges, is it really reasonable to expect that India can become a superpower in the next few decades and what is the plan to remedy these problems? I wish India all posible luck and I look forward to visiting someday soon.

Andy, San Diego
I think that older Indians are less patriotic. It's the doctors, scientists and MBAs from the 70s, 80s and 90s that took their educations from India and took off to Canada, the US and Britain in search of higher incomes. There has been an incredible brain-drain from India for more than 3 decades. These people abandoned India.
Instead of seeking to make India a better place, they emigrated en mass for their own selfish ends.
From what I've heard over the week, it's the younger Indians who feel a duty to make India a better place. The younger Indians are definitley more patriotic than their parents.

Ravi from the US
Despite being US Citizen, the blood is still indian and will be wherever I am. The one thing that does hold us together is the culture, progressive thinking and secular tolerance. In general, Indians are happy people and they will prevail.

Lubna, Iraq
To me as an outsider,i respect indian scientists role in developing medicine,my indian friends, you should know that we in college of medicine.

Ekayu Wilson from Soroti, Uganda.
You can take an Indian out of India but you can never take India out of an Indian.

Ravi for US
Despite being US Citizen, the blood is still indian and will be wherever I am. The one thing that does hold us together is the culture, progressive thinking and secular tolerance. In general, Indians are happy people and they will prevail.

Lubna, Iraq
To me as an outsider,i respect indian scientists role in developing medicine,my indian friends, you should know that we in college of medicine of Baghdad, depend on B.D.Chaurasia book,who is an indian doctor in studying Anatomy. India equals knowlege to me.

Ekayu Wilson from Soroti, Uganda.
You can take an Indian out of India but you can never take India out of an Indian.

Kindama, Freetown.
Indians world wide finds it very difficult to mingle with other nationals, in fact inter-marriage is completely omitted in their vocabulary, this negative attitude of theirs wont help if India should occupy the world centre stage.

Fang-Jei "Jonathan" Teng
I can relate to her sentiment about 'being more Indian than Indian'.
As someone of Chinese background, I feel the same way when I went to Mainland China, that my beliefs were a generation old at least when talking to my Chinese peers.

Shyam, Portland, Oregan
1. Lethargy. Everything takes ages and ages to get done. A laid back approach to everything
2. "Chaltha Hai". A compromise on quality in what we do. Take a plastic product made by china and the ones we make. The finish product differs because of the "Chaltha Hai" attitiude.

Blaise (Blez) Portland Oregon
This seems an odd discussion. If Americans sit around and discuss this they look right wing and silly. What I think defines Indians is an amazing country, food, and a fabric of culture that makes many others pale by comparison. I am not Indian.

Steve in Utah
How do Indians feel about the stereotypes that many Americans think about? Do they like how many people unfortunately only see them as Apu in his convenience store in The Simpson or the telemarketer or customer service call centre worker? If not, what do they want others to see them as?

Suman from Utah US
I left India 23 years ago. I am very glad to say, my kids who are grown up and feel more of an Indian. I am very happy to say, that kids know more and have read few parts of Bagwat Geeta.
I was reading in Ö÷²¥´óÐã, about American born Indians, and raised in US and they have low expectation about Indians. When NRI who land in India get a very cold treatment. And they know who they are, but the Indians in India pinpoint at them saying are they Indians or NRIs........... And that as a parent makes me sad to hear or read.

Roberto Marino, Willoughby Hills, Ohio, USA
My parents left Italy in 1959. I periodically go back to visit my aunts, uncles, and cousins in Italy. I have noticed on those trips, that my values and those of my parents reflect that 1959 mentality. My parents and I have been frozen in time with respect to Italian culture, while my aunts, uncles, and cousins have moved on from those 1959 values. So in the USA, I feel Italian, but in Italy, I feel American.

Haresh R. Nagarajan, US
Indian patriotism is a feeling that is within us, it's a feeling that would bring us from all corners of the earth to defend our country from invaders. The invasion of western culture is something we struggle with though, but we are a melting pot of native and foreign cultures.

Alfred, Monrovia, Liberia
Indians are fair, trusted and friendly business partners unlike other foreign nationals that I know in Liberia.

Ranjan Shrestha.
India is the nation where people live in the slumps under the shadow of skyscrapers,where handful of people are enjoying
buffet diner and the majority are starving and where religious roit is an episode of a decade.In the euphoria of economic prosperity,indian leaders aren't getting serious about soaring
population,enviromental degradation and india's contribution to global warming .I think india has lot to do to get to the level of super power.

Maihan from Afghanistan
Does patriotism has the same meaning to all casts and religion holders in india.

Vijay, Punjab
To be an indian you have to be mean spirited, narrow minded and as flash and trashy as a new Russian and vulgar as an American.

Anon
Corruption exist everywhere the world is driven by corruption

Jeff, Kenya
Hi. What unites Indians is their intense pride in their differentness and their fire to always be ahead.

Juls Jos, Nigeria
I see indians as a diverse people. I feel their population, religion, democracy and culture makes them so different from other citizens of the world.

Wayula and Laura, Cameroon.
We want to know how welcoming you Indians are? For we'll love to be your friends.

Muhammed, Lusaka
India is a beautiful land and I feel proud to be an Indian.

Wale Oshodi, Nigeria
India, to my best knowledge, is laid on love. I've been watching Indian films a lot now and 90 per cent of the films are based on love

Anon
I wanted to share my views on Indians being patriotic enough. Indians are extremely proud of being Indians despite all the drawbacks.

Lanai
From what I've heard all week, Indians seem to be very politically savvy and articulate. They genuinely care about what's going on in their country and have strong opinions. This is so refreshing coming from a place of general apathy and indifference in America.

Michael Page
It's been great to hear this week's programmes. Great range of topics and lots of well-argued points. Loads of passion and enthusiasm. And let's hear it for the technical people who made it all possible when the odds must have been against them. Well done everybody.

Girish from Cleveland, USA
Corruption in India affects the common citizen (on daily basis) however in developed nations as in Europe and USA the common person is not affected very much. A driver in India is likely to bribe a police for whatever the reason (perhaps on weekly basis in the form of HAFTA), but that is unheard of at least in the USA. The Bribing has become a 'way of life' for Indians. Indians must root out corruption, at least the kind of corruption that is affecting the common person.

Mark, USA
Considering the apparent opportunities in India for capable people right now and the large number of Indian émigrés, there seems to be a lot of Indians who are very patriotic....as long as they don't have to live there.

Chris
There are no patriotic people in India whom we could call 'great'. All that were so, are dead! People here just want to take an advantage and get rich.

Adam
Hi, I think young indians try to act more Western than Westerners. Me living and being born in UK, still live like, dress and show my Indian values regardless of living in the UK.

Taraprakash
True, India is like an entire humanity. But if you feel a lump in your throat when India achieves something at international level, you are Indians.
I also used to think how I was different from other Americans here in the US, and when Shilpa won in the big brother, a pretty useless show, and Indians cheered in England with tricolors in their hands, i could feel a lump in my throat. and that was Indianness I felt.

Prakash Yadav, Chennai, India
I love my motherland for its monogamy culture and vegetarian diet.

Arpit Shah
India is about : land of ram, krishna, gandhi, mother teresa, mahavir, buddha,etc. It's land of yoga..aruveda....land of mystique.....land of culture.....land of miracles.....land of himalayas and ganges.

An American living in France and interested in India
I have enjoyed your shows this week but find I must change the dial when everyone talks at the same time. It is wonderful to hear the passion but I want to hear the messages.

John in Cleveland
I've been listening and I really don't see what the fuss is all about. I was born in America, but my parents were from Hungary. I consider myself Hungarian first only because of the cultural upbringing my parents gave me. I learned Hungarian before learning to speak English out of necessity because my parents at that time could not speak English. I am sure as the generations pass this feeling of being American will dominate over being Hungarian. I'm sure it's the same for Indians. It depends where you live and how removed you are from your culture bottom line.

Anon
Indians should try to improve their country and not just accept everybody like in Britain.

Amos, Uganda
Indians are bad employers.they low wages, over work you and they do not allow trade unions in their companies.

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