A Paradox

When everyone is harping about the great Indian rising and the powerful, gluttonous Indian middle class, I just thought what a paradox this is. On one side we have high rising flats and malls and the other side tucked away in some dark corner of the same city, we have the slum dwellers in their ramshackle tenements and rickety shacks. When models drape designer rags and size zero somethings and proudly exhibit their 'acquired' jutting shoulder blades from strict diets on orange juice, we have scores in the streets and bylanes on similar attire(which were never designed by those fashionistas) where a size zero might prove too large for their frail bodies. We have NGOs and other organizations doing all they can to bring awareness on AIDS and STDs and even whole commisions to debate over sex education for school going children and yet the tourist spots across the nation has seen an increase in sex tourists and paedophiles, notwithstanding the drug traffickers all of which interestingly enjoy backing from higher ups. When our country boasts of thousands of schools and colleges (mostly private that are really flourishing businesses just like our many hospitals), primary education for all children, stopping child labour and safety for children, let me not forget the many innocent, ignorant, voiceless, hapless little ones who are thrown into the streets everyday to fend for themselves and end up being used by some perverted jerk for his pleasure, who might even be a policeman, who was supposed to be their guardian. The women's comission and feminists shout out loud their great achievements over the years and point out the independent, self sufficient Indian woman of today but we often forget that the independent Indian woman is still scared to work night shifts and dare not travel even in a bus after 10 in the evening alone and that the female to male ratio is off-balance owing to female foeticide rampant even in cities and what about all those women who ended their lives after being outraged and branded never able to handle the ridicule from the society they were part of, those who are tortured by husband/relatives for dowry (which according to history was abolished years back) and many more...When we get proud of our financial stability that can overcome even the feared inflation and aid us to purchase an apartment in the heart of the city, we shamelessly forget those who have opted for one meal a day diet and no vegetable/protein diets to just get through each day...Isnt it a paradox? I do dearly love my country but sometimes I feel I will never understand it fully...