July 11, 2007 - Kolkata, India

"The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been kindness, beauty, and truth."
~ Albert Einstein

Kolkata is known as the "intellectual city" of India. Today we were witness to this claim by meeting three of the top high school students in India. Two boys and one girl. One boy and the girl are only equivalent to our Junior year high school standing. The third boy has received a full academic scholarship to Harvard.

We were curious as to whether these students would return to India after their academic pursuits abroad. Basically, we were told that if India does not provide the opportunities for them to pursue their intellectual interests, then they would not return. They believe themselves to not be citizens of India, but citizens of the world!

In the US, many of our top money makers, eg. Bill Gates, are also socially conscious contributors to society. Currently the second wealthiest man in the world, Lakshmi Mittal, is from India. At this point in time, he has not contributed any money to charities, nor his home country. We were curious as to whether these students would ever want to give back to their country.

I'll let you contemplate their response: It was more important to focus on saving the environment and animals near extinction. The human species is the most intelligent animal on the planet, but have chosen to destroy their Earth.