But unlike Columbus, Thomas L Friedman was not charting a course of the unknown, but putting to record what was well known, the immense potential of countries like India and China. By a twist of fate, India was in the news in 1492 when Columbus set sail in the Santa Maria and so it was again in 2005, when Friedman's book titled
The World is Flat was published.
Tom, as he is more popularly known, is not a celebrity author like the Rowlings or the Naipauls (he has also authored a book,
The Lexus and the Olive Tree). He is a renowned journalist, winner of two Pulitzer Prizes for international reporting, in 1983 and 1988.
He has been a journalist for close to three decades. Before conquering India and China (with his theories), he was the lord of the Middle East. Through his columns in the
New York Times, Tom has been highlighting the different issues pertaining to the region; he was one of the few brave people who supported the Iraq War initially -- but not anymore.
He talks about globalization and its resultant benefit, but make no mistake, he is a hard-boiled patriotic American at the very core. Take the instance when he talks about how in the past his parents use to say, 'Friedman, finish your dinner, people in China and India are starving.” And now, he advises his daughters, “Girls, finish your homework, people in India and China are starving for your jobs.”
It could be construed as recognition of India and China's emergence or as a warning to fellow Americans to gear up, depending on which side of the globe you are reading this line. Or when he talks about how Americans are lagging when it comes to students getting science and math degree courses, it is more of warning than anything else.
Friedman has a queer habit of looking straight into your eyes, as if he is scanning your thoughts with his constant gaze. It can be quite discomforting, but immediately he will put you at ease with a quick repartee, like the time he asked a journalist in Mumbai, “Are you married?” On being told that he wasn't, Friedman's next response was, “Why not?”
Friedman is constantly crisscrossing the globe, and is often short of time. At the recently concluded NASSCOM Leadership summit, when he was asked to extend the time for his interaction with the members of the press, he responded: “I can't, you forget that I am a journalist as well, and I need to take interviews myself.”
The best thing about Friedman is that he has strong views on various subjects and is not shy of articulating them. He condemns Google for 'going along' with the Chinese administration and filtering search results. He admitted that he is an avid blog reader, but most of it is like 'an open sewer'. He admits at being a supporter of the open source movement, “but I am a capitalist as well. There needs to be incentive for innovation,” he adds. Friedman is less of a philosopher but more of a pragmatist.
Friedman hobnobs with the Who's Who of the IT industry and refers to most of them as 'personal friends'. In India, his list of friends and admirers reads like:
Narayamurthy, S. Ramadorai, Nandan Nilekani, Jerry Rao, Vivek Paul, and so on. No wonder that he is a celebrity in this part of the world, he was even awarded the NASSCOM Global Leadership Award at the summit. Blue coats from different IT firms often, can be found quoting lines from his book to draw home the point.
He is currently working on an update of The World is Flat, it should be out by the end of April 2006. But Indians needn't start ordering caviar and wine, as by his own admission, it will have less of Bangalore and more Berkeley.
Shashwat Chaturvedi
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