Indians can indeed be very proud. We're always looking to blame the corrupt politicians, the system, but we forget that the people themselves form the system. But if an outsider points this out, we quickly get defensive and use and every counter-argument that we can. You will hear the success and achievements of Indians around the globe as proof that we're not that far behind. I've seen it far too many times. Startups claiming to be 'global', yet emphasizing their 'Indianness', a Indian actor getting 5 minutes of screen time on a Hollywood movie, or even Sunita Williams, who was born and raised in the United States. We are quick to take credit, yet get up-in-arms when someone points out our flaws.

Worse, when we do talk about those flaws, we don't necessarily do anything to fix them.