Pregnant woman appears for a porter's job

"For filling up 344 jobs, 4800 people turn up"

This might sound like a newspaper headline in an Indian newspaper in the bad old days of pre-liberalised India.

It is not. It is a news item carried by the Indian Express on 31st July, 2009.

And the 344 vacancies are not for a high paying job but for porters for Allahabad railway station.

Among the hopefuls were 27 women. One is pregnant. Another is a MA in History and yet another is a Master in Computer Applications.

Our claims that we are an emerging superpower seems laughable after hearing all this.

Our country has two parts; India and Bharat. India has rosy pictures of Indian techies earning lots of money, overfed Indian middle class women and video games and I-pods.

Bharat is a dismal picture of unemployment,poverty,injustice and hopelessness.

Most India media have stopped covering Bharat. Covering India is more profitable.