In a strange nation

Of late I have been thinking that India is living in paradoxical times. On one side we have an agency crying hoarse about pesticides in colas and on the other we get to see thousands throng voluntarily to Mahim beach to drink sweet sea water believing it to be a miracle..and of course there are still plenty in the country who do not have access to clean drinking water but then cola bashing is that much more politically correct. Also there is this strange argument that the CSE has put up..food items that are essential to nutrition have a greater permitted level of pesticides and non essential nutrition items have to have far less amounts of chemicals..why would that be..I am more likely to consume essential items..am I not? Now people really really concerned about pesticides would have checked stuff that is consumed the most...but checking samples of the fruits and vegetables we produce across the country would be a far more involved task than taking samples at a few known cola factories..and would not provide the short cut to the media coverage...so there it is..its like trying to improve performance of the code where it least matters..trying to optimize that .01% time-taking string manipulation code just because it has something to do with strings :)

Then we have a progressive legislation in the Right to Information act that is followed by a quota legislation that is as regressive as it gets.. One trying to weed out corruption and the other corrupting the social fabric and productivity of the nation further. Why is it so? It brings us to another one..I earn more than the President of India when all I have is 5 yrs in the industry and a President generally reaches there towards the end of his career..Sometimes one wonders why aren't civil services and legislative positions in the government "legally" the ones that pay well..I mean the official salary of the President is 50000/- of course he gets to live in a very big house and would have other perqs..and ya occasionaly gets to fly in a fighter jet..but I am sure a lot of corporate head honchos do better than that..It sounds simplistic..maybe it is not..but then these jobs are important factors for a country's growth and economic sense says that they ought to pay well and if they do we would surely see competent people doing their jobs and possibly a double digit growth rate and hopefully then it would feel strange in a different, more positive way.