• In your column, ‘‘The HMT advantage’’, you overestimate the importance of the HMT phenomenon. It is true that a larger number of people in many fields now hail from mofussil towns, without the benefit of pedigree or English medium education. But it is still important to have the ‘‘right connections’’ — whether through family roots, caste background or elite institutions. I am a St. Stephen’s college alumnus and have seen how the network of college friends works — whether it is a bureaucrat who will speed up a passport application, or a friend in a multi-national who will organise a job interview for a progeny. Of course, it is also true that a larger number of people in these elite institutions are themselves from mofussil towns in Bihar and other states.— Dr Shobhit Mahajan• Is it really necessary to lay all the good — or the bad — that has ever happened in our lives at the door of the free-market and globalisation. The reality is that most of the over-achievers you mention grew up in the bad old days of the Cold War, state-controlled media, import substitution and Licence Raj. Kalpana grew up with Doordarshan, not Discovery Channel. Dhirubhai had already made it big before the economic liberalisation of the mid-90s. The IIT boys of the ’60s and ’70s didn’t exactly mouse-click their way to the US. All of them were exceptional people who refused to be limited by the perceived and real constraints of class, caste or gender and created their own opportunities in a much less globalised world than we have today. If there are so many at the top today — unlike, for instance, in neighbouring Pakistan where a narrow power-elite still runs the show — it has mainly to do with our democratic fabric.— Aditi• ‘‘Middle India’’ has been deliberately ignored for decades by politicians, governments, media and administrations. It’s sad that even after 50 years of independence, we have not been able to develop more than one city in each state. The media too has never bothered to look beyond the centres of power.— Vipul Kulkarni• We have many first generation entrepreneurs who built their business empires from scratch. Quite a few cricketers and golfers also grew up in not very comfortable surroundings. Names like Kalam, Kapil, Kalpana, Murthy, Munjal, Mittal. all remind us that success is achievable and doesn’t depend on English diction or pedigree. Don’t we remember Tenzing Norgay, who didn’t have any schooling? What is needed is a dream, a desire, a determination.— Dr R.K.Malhotra• The government should take steps to undo the mistakes of the founding fathers of our Constitution. Had Dr Rajendra Prasad’s Bill — that only the matriculate should be allowed to vote — been passed, things would probably have been different now. An Education Commission, as powerful as the Election Commission, must be formed. But no politician should be allowed on its advisory board.— Sanjay Gajria• Let excellence not lead us to intellectual arrogance. In our contemporary society, it often does. Kalpana Chawla was truly great because her greatness sat lightly on her shoulders.—Parimal Y. Mehta• Zaheer Khan may not be having a very good run at the World Cup but that doesn’t give you reason to take his engineering degree away.— Rajat• What is important is the fact that the ubiquitous HMTs have, over the years, been able to make a mark for themselves and to add to the ever increasing numbers of the intelligentsia within and outside India. The monopoly of the rich and famous in hogging the limelight has become a thing of the past. The focus is, slowly but surely, shifting to these HMTs.— V.P. Damodar• I studied in an HMT school and am in the US now. But I feel that I have not contributed anything to my country or society by leaving it. An HMT product may be successful personally, but doesn’t factor in national development. We need a system that thinks of the national interest. The country’s bright minds should be retained.— Mahesh• The reason America has done so well is because it has been a class-less society where one’s capability matters more than pedigree. The most successful Indian entrepreneur in USA, Sanjiv Sidhu, is an Osmania University graduate, not an IIT alumnus. The greatest businessman of the century, Jack Welch of GE, was not from MIT or Harvard but from a state college. There is no need to practice educational elitism.— Jaywant Nitturkar• Though elite schools have produced their share of successful wards, it is the HMTs that are our future. The only obstacle in this otherwise steady but sure progress of a nation is the scourge of corruption.— Milton D’Silva• The newer generation is more ‘‘true to its roots’’ or ‘‘commonplace’’. But is that good? How would you gauge the degree of corruption that today’s youngsters grow up with, assuming it is ‘‘the way it is’’. Is the current state of India, with its one billion people and the lack of international respect due to a sovereign power and culture, not also due, in no small part, to the rise of the HMT?— Rommel S. Dhadha• It almost seems as if you are trying to say that those who come from upper class and have achieved success in life should not be respected.— Rohit Chhabra• I was one of your HMT’s 25 years ago. I ‘‘ran’’ away from the country because the system was loaded against such a background. Thank God that it is changing now and middle India has finally arrived. There is a bright future for India.— Jay Jayanth
