In my family, as in most middle-class Indian families I knew when I was growing up, science and mathematics were held in awe.
Aravind AdigaThese are the three main diseases of this country, sir: typhoid, cholera, and election fever. This last one is the worst; it makes people talk and talk about things that they have no say in ... Would they do it this time? Would they beat the Great Socialist and win the elections? Had they raised enough money of their own, and bribed enough policemen, and bought enough fingerprints of their own, to win? Like eunuchs discussing the Kama Sutra, the voters discuss the elections in Laxmangarh.
Aravind AdigaApparently, sir you Chinese are far ahead of us in every respect, except that you donโt have entrepreneurs. And our nation, though it has no drinking water, electricity, sewage system, public transportation, sense of hygiene, discipline, courtesy, or punctuality, โโdoesโโ have entrepreneurs. Thousands and thousands of them. Especially in the field of technology. And these entrepreneursโ"we" entrepreneursโhave set up all these outsourcing companies that virtually run America now.
Aravind Adiga