[Mayavi]

Originally Posted by esteem_lover

dear mayavi, honestly i am astonished by the amount of history you know

I think we are just talking past each other.

[ananthkamath]

Originally Posted by typeOnegative

So what if we created the plane. If we did, we should have been ruling the world.

We just might have if we had not had this self-deprecating attitude and tendency to divide ourselves based on caste & language.

I mean, if you see an Indian guy on the street in America today, 99% chances are he will not smile back, rather he will have a smirk on his face and that smug "I am better than you" look.

We Indians really arent from the same country, we just happen to be from the same geographical area. And therefore we can never appreciate what a fellow Indian has done well enough to support it.

Originally Posted by v1p3r

My great grandfather invented an aeroplane. I have it and use it to go clubbing on weekends. It's invisible too, so no one notices it. India will be a superpower.

Who cares? My grandfather stole it from your great-grandfather. I hold the patent for it & you aint gonna make a cent out of it...LOL

[carboy]

Originally Posted by vivekiny2k

we have beaten to death the stories of aryabhat inventing zero and silicon valley having so and so number of indian CEOs.

Don't forget the kid who made the Operating System far better than
any of the existing ones.

[THE-U-]

Forget about this airplane people. Let's first design a great internal combustion engine that is technologically superior to the European and Japanese ones. Dump AVL, who needs their technology for the common rail diesel engines? We can do it better, right?

Let's also make our highways better than the autobahns and interstates and make our people respect law and order. These are clearly not very difficult compared to building a propulsion systems out of atoms etc.

Let's work toward making the present state of affairs better and not dwell on the past.

[rks]

Originally Posted by THE-U-

Forget about this airplane people. Let's first design a great internal combustion engine that is technologically superior to the European and Japanese ones. Dump AVL, who needs their technology for the common rail diesel engines? We can do it better, right?

That's the spirit. Indians are as good as anybody at conceiving ideas. It is the execution that is missing. When an Indian tries to follow through on a good idea, he often runs into obstacles put up by his fellow-Indians. That is what needs to be changed. We need to get out of the prevailing mindset, namely, that it is better if the Americans/Japs/Europeans get credit for a great invention, but nor our fellow-Indian. Sadly, this is how many of the senior scientists at our research labs/universities think.

[typeOnegative]

Originally Posted by ananthkamath

We just might have if we had not had this self-deprecating attitude and tendency to divide ourselves based on caste & language.

Cliche.

Originally Posted by ananthkamath

I mean, if you see an Indian guy on the street in America today, 99% chances are he will not smile back, rather he will have a smirk on his face and that smug "I am better than you" look.

I have experienced it as well. Have had more Pakistani and Bangladeshi people being warm and friendly to me than my own countrymen.

Originally Posted by ananthkamath

We Indians really arent from the same country, we just happen to be from the same geographical area. And therefore we can never appreciate what a fellow Indian has done well enough to support it.

Another cliche.

Ananth, the problem I find with Ram's post is that it somehow seems to reinforce the fact that we hate our selves and others, because we find we are not respected enough.

The Wright brothers got credit for the aeroplane? So what? That does not mean that we clutch at straws to prove that we are better than the others.

We are so desperate to prove that we are/were a great civilization/culture that I am afraid we end up making ourselves look stupid. How many of you have gone to a Indus valley site and marveled at their accomplishments instead of paying lip/SMS service to the Taj? How many have tried to be polite to the taxi driver, the bai, the bus conductor because being polite is being cultured?

Somewhere in our psyche I think is buried a feeling that others look down on us and we have to show them that we are great. Much like, I don't have money to buy the milk chocolate you can afford because your father is rich. , but hey, my great grandfather had more cows than your grandfather did.

Idealism is good once in a while if we can show results - wipe out poverty, safeguard women, publish more scientific papers etc. But this claim to greatness based on something that might, but most probably has not happened is too much. And as I posted earlier, we are not alone. The Chinese are no better. At least they are doing something.