I must acknowledge the kindness of the Government of India in permitting me to come over to the USA for higher studies. I must particularly thank Dr. N.C.Saxena, IAS, the erstwhile Director of the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration and Dr. V. K. Agnihotri, IAS, Joint Director of the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration for supporting my quest of knowledge. They have been avid searchers of the truth, and have not hesitated to write about the truth as they see it. Dr. Saxena's writings on the facts about communal riots in India are gems of honesty which are rare, and must be treasured. I hope to follow the footsteps of these illustrious officers.
I must acknowledge the role played by many students and people from Pakistan and Bangladesh whom I have met while at this university and elsewhere in the USA, in opening my eyes to the reality of our common brotherhood and our essential follies.
Academic learning had much to do with this process of discovery of the truth, and the role played by my professors at this University has been critical. I must name a few whose work and dedication to the search of truth has left me bedazzled. Richard Easterlin, Jeffrey Nugent, John Elliott, Maurice Don Van Arsdol and Michael Magill, are some of the few whose lectures and work have stronly influenced me (listed in the order of influence). There are many more, in other Universities and other parts of the world, whose influence is clear and perceptible, to name a few: Deepak Lal of the University of California at Los Angeles, Jagdish Bhagwati at the Columbia University, and Julian Simon. But long before these researchers, there is a history of thinkers who have contributed to my purely objective, and anti-wooliness, search for the truth. I trace my intellectual lineage to Voltaire, Nietzsche, Emerson, Russell, Whitman, Gide, M.K. Gandhi, and Ayn Rand. I am under a lifelong obligation, due to the debt I owe these people, to not only seek the truth, but to express it - as I see it - without let or hindrance, without fear or favor. Relatively minor thinkers who must be listed here as being good dead guys include Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, Madison, Tocqueville, and Hayek.
Much "local-level" discussion and debate has gone into the making of this manuscript. This is but natural, with nine IAS officers currently studying for Ph.D. degrees at this University, as well as another, tenth one, who has just returned to his job in Tamil Nadu after completing his degree. [That is a huge number, about 10% of the size of recruitment in a any given year. In addition, there are other IAS officers studying hard on the East Coast as well as in other countries]. The most active and longish of these debating sessions have been with C.V.S.K. Sarma, followed by Atul Gupta. There are many other Indians, outside the IAS - both abroad in the US, Australia, and Hong Kong, as well as at home - who have participated in these discussions and exchange of ideas. So, clearly, this manuscript has many influences. I am therefore not solely responsible for the ideas in this manuscript. As usual, all the good ideas are of course mine (!), and all the mistakes are of my advisers, both living an dead.
My pretty wife (who is yet another IAS officer) has been watching me with good-humored amusement as I talk big, write big and discuss only major issues. These men folk! Can't manage the baby, have no self-control (can't give up smoking, drinking and over-eating) and talk of changing the world! She thinks it is my hobby to talk too much. She is always right, too! But being a true democrat (as well as the benevolent monarch of the house), she lets me ply on with this "hobby" with a suitable hands-off policy, begrudging, only modestly, the many hours that I spend tinkering around with this material.
Money is the life-sustaining force on the Blue Planet. Without money in one's pocket one cannot feed oneself chilli lobster and hot dosai, purchase the essential two computers (actually, three), laser printer, cordless phone, VCR and TV, other basic gadgets like microwave oven, stereo system, the family car (actually, two cars are essential), access a washing machine, airconditioner, and centralized heating, nor buy the books needed to learn how the world works. One of us is able to go around only in a brand-new Honda Accord and another is forced to use a brand-new Toyota Camry. I think I will be happy with a just one brand-new Mercedes (unlike that guy - remember - who was a bit more spiritual than me and required only 50 of these). Look at the pitiable condition of us students, with families, in this country called America (saw the tear welling up in my tear duct? Ooo! Hooh!). This book is essentially about creating and holding, this life-sustaining force. It shows how money can be made (or foregone) - on a very large scale of trillions of dollars, by vast nations of the size of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
When much of this book is about Making Money and success as measured through Money, I cannot but acknowledge the scholarship and fellowship funds that my wife and I have received from the World Bank and from the University of Southern California which have helped sustain us through a very trying period of three and a half years at this university in a rich country with only the few possessions listed above. We are clearly among the poorest of the people in this nation, with a per-capita income in the household of less than $5,000, compared with the US per capita of $26,000. That hurts. The great IAS officers of India are forced to wash their own dishes, clean their house themselves, baby sit their baby (can you believe that!), and drive their own car, as well as work part-time in the University Computer center and clean the computers and even mop floors. But that is the "sacrifice" one has to make to be able to spy on these People-Who-Have-Money and bring to you the secrets of their success.
What rubbish! This is no sacrifice
While I am at this, I might as well say it: As you might have already had premonitions of this from a preceding description of the few trinkets that we survive on, this "sacrifice" is something most of one's (non-corrupt) colleagues in India would be quite jealous of: for each of us earns, and saves, as petty students in this country, much more the either of the Chief of Army Staff or the Cabinet Secretary or the Chief Justice of India. Also, each of us has a better quality of life (despite our washing our own dishes) - than any of these fellows have in India.
That is why there is an endless stream of IAS officers now applying for admission to various universities in the USA and elsewhere. At least once they earn and save a teeny-weeny dollar, each bill they take back to India will multiply into a huge number of rupees by the time they return, provided the rest of the IAS officers who are "fortunately" (for us) left behind supporting our "steel frame" (a cage for monkeys?), help us out by continuing to follow policies that lead, invariably and predictably, to the rapid devaluation of the Indian rupee. The rupee's fall is great news to us! What pervertedness is this!
And this was the last bastion. The IAS. All our best brains have always wanted to work abroad, except a few who decide to sacrifice the riches that would otherwise be their due, in favor of "serving the country." Almost without exception, my best classmates from all over India are either abroad today or in the IAS. Remember, this was a true sacrifice by those who chose the IAS. Each of these members of the IAS was potentially capable of earning an average annual package of at least $80,000 (in today's dollars) over the course of their career anywhere else in the world but India.
But now, finally, this bastion is cracking up. The steel frame has been made hollow (We are the Hollow men, tung tung! what is that hollow ring when you clunk my head with a hammer?) - the result of our own choices and actions. Not because of our Genes or Fate, believe you me. And so this termite eaten wooden frame, frayed and smelling, is falling off from its joints, like a leper's limbs fall apart when no care is taken to kill the the germ. This germ which struck us was much worse than leprosy, of course, for leprosy is curable easily, even in India. It was worse than the plague, worse than AIDS. Two generations ago we were stricken by the Germ called Socialism. This Disease has (as expected) left us with festering open wounds and we, as a Nation, stink. For miles you can smell an Indian. The begging bowl, the tattered shirt. The irresistable hydrophobic urge to die in the feeble arms of foreign-born saviors.
Honest IAS officers have been blown up, had their bones fractured by beatings given to them by Ministers, and punished on a day-to-day basis. The good ones are clubbed by the society along with the evil ones and the self-respect of these honest officers is at stake. Our entire sacrifice has been in vain. The Disease overcomes even some of the bravest ones. More and more IAS officers are finding it necessary to become corrupt - just to survive. Others are likely to drop out of India completely, leaving the hollow shell of Mother India to the Socialists who have mastered the art of impovereshing Our Mother and kicking out our best brains.
Many IAS officers who have come on leave to the USA to study are now, somehow, "hanging on" here. Some are working as consultants, others as teachers, and some are continuing to study further. I know of excellent - and very senior (and I mean very) - IAS officers whose primary goal in life now is to wangle a petty assignment in the lower bureaucracy or lower academic ranks of international or foreign institutions before they finally retire into financial oblivion. Methinks that it is perhaps for the best that at least some monkeys, who are not yet infected by the Disease of Socialism (whose typically documented behavior is to find well-dressed monkey bureaucrats and political leaders sitting attentively, bloodshot eyes popping out at night, sucking the Blood of the People while giving them sweet sedatives of "Garibi Hatao" and passing them around from one office to the other, where they can all take turns, till the People fall, pale and bloodless, to the ground), should escape before the incestuous activities of other monkeys infect them, too.
This book will document the true reasons for the escape of the best of our brains from the crumbling Isle of India. I only hope that I can pass on to you some of the pain and share with you some of the tears that are flowing down my cheek as I write this story of the Rape of Mother India. First the British Raped us. For hundreds of years. And then our own people: the Socialists. When will we have the money to clothe our Nation? Shall our Mother have to die naked - with festering sores on her body - in the arms of a foreigner, in order for her Soul to be saved? Does the Body not count? Does money and power not count any more?
This book is about cleansing myself from the Disease. It is about cleansing You from the Disease. It is about making you care for building your muscle, your brain and your power. About regenerating the lost tissues of your body and soul. It is about working hard, for the right things. It is about Making Money to buy our Mother the best of clothes, the best of jewels, the best, shiniest and softest things that this world can Ever have to offer. It is about giving our personal mothers the best funeral in the world when they die. It about celebrating ourselves as Individuals and as a Nation.