The biggest sin of all …
Here is a small story about my ex-colleague, Andrew M’ackay, on being better. While in school Andrew went to his father with his report card in hand. He had scored pretty good marks but his father’s attention was taken over by the remark his teacher put next to his marks, it read “Can do better”. His dad looked at him and said “My child, this is possibly the worst remark that anyone could have got! I feel sorry for you.” This confused Andrew a bit, after all why is this remark so bad? He couldn’t just take his dad’s words for granted and so asked his father as to why it was such a bad remark? His father replied “Can do better is the biggest sin of all because you are wasting the talent God has given you!” This remark probably changed Andrew’s mindset for the rest of his life, because the Andrew that I know today doesn’t settle for less, outshines rest of his colleagues (I was one of his colleague!), works his full potential and lives a well settled life outside India.
India ‘Can do better’
India today is in Andrew’s shoes about two decades back. It is a country blessed with almost everything – huge agricultural land – rich culture and above all great people. But still comes under the category ‘developing countries’ – read as ‘Can do better’. This is no doubt as Andrew’s father says ‘the biggest sin of all’. We have the potential but are not utilizing it properly, we are capable (and dare anyone say otherwise!) but somehow we seem to be unwilling. Why is it like this? What changes do we need to make both within us and around us to get better? Through WhatIndiaWants.com I hope to share my ideas, opinions and experiences with issues that haunt us every day of our life. WhatIndiaWants.com is also open to ideas, suggestions and solutions from its visitors. Let us together bring India to the forefront of the world.
About the author (Vivek Deshmukh)
Vivek Deshmukh is a web usability consultant by profession with a bachelor’s degree in electronics engineering. He spent 7 years of his recent life in Dubai before he came back to India. While in Dubai he had a great opportunity to work with Emirates airline, one of the best airlines to travel and to work with. While in Emirates he could take advantage of the discounted air tickets which allowed him to see and experience life in 10 different countries. The experience that he had during his travel is what made him realize that India still has a distance to travel before it can be called a developed country. In fact the biggest inspiration for him to write this blog came from his travel experiences.
