Thursday, May 19, 2005

A Rising Star of India

I am interested in the article. However it may need an intuitive or religious mind to appreciate its value, for it is related to a country full of spirits.

Some cynical persons might simply say that this boy wants to be a politician or something someday. But, judgment of the God might be very different.

A young Indian software engineer working in Infosys with 3000 employees in Bangalore, India, proudly said, “I will soon make a business trip to the US. Here you can enjoy success if you have ability and skills. I don’t even know what caste I belong to.”

Most of Indians are not a Muslim. But Hindus. Buddhism was born from Hinduism, separated, but eventually absorbed again in India. However, China, Korea, and Japan were once all eager to learn Buddhism, and developed their intellect by mastering the religion. Indians might be well aware of that, and thus very proud.

Even the concept of the number zero was developed in India. Not in ancient Greek or Rome. Even Mesopotamians who developed various skills of calculation, including Pythagoras's theorem, 1000 years before Pythagoras was born could not reach the level to manipulate zero.

The article is accompanied by a few pictures, one of which shows two boys and a girl, of lower classes if they go to school at all, who live with their one-dollar-a-day-earning father in a blue-sheet tent shown behind them. Beyond many similar, half-broken, blue tents, a large modern building is under construction for an IT company.

Bangalore is a rising star of India that is the second largest software exporter in the world. Besides, the province where the city belongs has two official languages one of which is English. Perhaps during the 21st century, the same thing, that is, employing English as one of official languages, would not happen in China and Japan that have never been or not wholly been colonized by any English speaking country.

It is well known that there are many street children in India. Major difference between G7 and other countries might be this existence of street children. But India is one of the worst in this respect.


The young Indian software engineer spotlighted in the article is also a helper to these poor children. He reportedly successfully persuaded his company to support children in a state of destitution. He is also teaching how to read and write to them in person. Maybe such an employee that is so enthusiastic about saving street children is very rare or just one of its worldwide 36,000 employees of Infosys Technologies.

He may become a politician or something some day. Or he might simply continue to irritate unlucky Americans who think their jobs have been taken away by this kind of young IT workers overseas.

Indians seem not to respect Japan though they might be influenced profoundly. On the other hand, it seems that some Japanese cannot help but believe there must be something very valuable in India, such as zero, Buddhism, or maybe the Indian Ocean. Anyway, I have never heard them shouting “Death to Japan!”

(Source of Information: The Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper)