Living up to the potential

This is how it happens all the time...when I return from India after my long trip, the nostalgic feelings sets in invariably.... No doubt I miss my family more than anything but along the way I also miss being first class citizen, I miss people, food, pollution, noise and everything that defines India... I know the fact that the grass is always greener on the other side. Besides US is after all a dreamland of the world..... On the contrary, I feel almost scared about what to expect next when I do return to my birth land... I have a snapshot of the things I love about India... and every trip back home makes me feel displaced in time. Malls on every corner, school kids with cell phones, multiplexes, bistros, baristas, McDs... All these were not necessarily part of my 'Indian dream'. The world is becoming a global village and all countries are starting to look like mirror images of America…..in varying degrees maybe but not by too much margin... I had been warned about several things that strike a 'returning' Indian. The noises, the throngs of people everywhere, the stench of human excrements, and the general hum and buzz of everyday life in a country alive with diversity. True to these expectations, I did realize many of these things to be true…..They were not hard hitting and they didn’t unduly bother me. But the main thing that did become painfully noticeable was the level of expectations from this country. It's surprising that each and every thing seems to be rid with a kind of mediocrity and substandard-ness. The quality of roads, services, products, in fact, of time and value... I am still trying to figure out why there is so much discrepancy between the amount of talent in this fertile nation and the output or infrastructure it bears. Agreed, populations are so large that it is but natural that sustenance goes beyond available means. But does this mean that it will forever operate only at a certain percentage of its possible potential? When and how will this change? And then comes the painful thought of realizing and achieving our own potential.. Its more like dreams unlimited situation.. All of us have such a huge potential yet I read that average human being uses only about 20% of that brain power over the course of life... So where's the hindrance... what's there that stops us? Lack of imagination or too much influential stuff cluttering our minds and consequently limiting our potential? ...Is it the catch up game or the palpably false phenomena? I am not sure I know the answer... but somewhere deep down the fact of not living up to the potential does bother me... whether its me personally or the country which I care about deeply….. Both ways......I will just leave this tinkering thought here for now….