Hi friend,
Today’s newsletter is about celebration, but has a dark side too. I hope you read it with an open mind.
Also, my cohort-based-course, Summit 21, will run its last cohort for this year in 6 weeks. If you want to learn how you can create sustainable systems from consistent writing, join here. We’ve sold out 8 out of 9 times so don’t be too late :)
I went for a trip to an organisation in the US (think of the name that pops up when you think of rockets 🚀😉) and someone asked me - "Do you live in slums how they show in the movies?"
The movie Slumdog Millionaire made headlines at that time by winning multiple Oscar awards.
Also, let's consider the lack of awareness back in 2010.
I told them that the entire country doesn't live in the slums.
I wish I could tell you something sassy I said to stand up, but at 13, I didn't know what to say. I just wanted to get away from this discussion.
Fast forward to 2018, I solo travelled across Europe and it was common to hear
• Is India really so poor?
• Do you use animals to commute?
• How do you speak good English?
Fast forward to 2022, and our Scottish tour guide in Brussels said something that shook me-
"The beautiful palaces you see across the continent, sure, they're pretty. But don't forget that they're built by exploiting people from other countries, slavery, starvation, and looting their nations. Have you ever thought of where this money and labour came from? Because behind this beauty is a very, very dark history."
It took me back to how I felt when I saw the King of Mysore's sword and armour in Edinburgh Castle. "This should be in *my* country!" I thought.
And I remembered all those times I’ve been in awe of British architecture (where did the money come from?), and castles across Europe. African and South Asians ‘worked’ to build them.
It feels strange once you have this perspective. All that looks beautiful has so much darkness behind it.
I try not to overthink though and appreciate beauty. That doesn’t mean it’s not at the back of my head. And maybe we can all learn from history as most countries have.
I once had a Britisher apologise to me in my hostel in Berlin and I was perplexed. You didn’t do anything, you don’t need to apologise. I hold nothing against you or any person or nation in the world because history has been cruel to everyone at some time or another.
This week, India made history with Chandrayaan-3. India is the:
4th country to do a soft landing on the moon
the first country to land near the South Pole
It's such a proud feeling for the entire nation! It shows the world that we're not just a land of elephant commuters anymore (we aren't anyway, what an ignorant perception to have).
We're almost at par.
Our people are running global organisations across the globe.
What I’m most excited about is that every young child in India can now dream bigger because of the way we're growing and innovating. The societal notion of only pursuing traditional career paths is slowly fading, and this adds to it.
We will have more children dreaming about the moon and the stars.
We’ll have more kids painting the moon and the stars on their canvas.
And maybe, just maybe, they won’t have to throw a fight or justify why they aren’t doing software engineering or medicine instead.
We live in a land of endless possibilities.
What a wonderful feeling :')
Wherever you are, I hope you can cheer for us (with or without beer, no comments :P) and celebrate.
Love,
N
I was stuk in there
The beautiful palaces you see across the continent, sure, they're pretty. But don't forget that they're built by exploiting people from other countries, slavery, starvation, and looting their nations. Have you ever thought of where this money and labour came from? Because behind this beauty is a very, very dark history."
We always copy the western countries. Why don’t we be unique? Even before the western countries landed on Moon, our ancestors had explored various planets and their impacts in human life. How they moved, their timings, etc. even without any physical tools.
Today we boast of landing on the moon that is because we achieved that someone in the western country had already done it. Because we matched someone.
I really appreciate our scientists are capable of doing something phenomenal and have the capacity to match what western countries are doing. But what we don’t match with them are the discipline and other qualities. They don’t litter, spit on the roads and urinate in the public places. They don’t violate traffic rules, etc. Why don’t we try to match these things first? Why don’t keep our country clean first.
We were always the nation of seeking spirituality however today we are seeking more pleasure just like western countries. We try to match those things that are not really necessary. This is just my opinion.