Hi,
I was watching the video of Swadesh movie of Shah Rukh Khan the other day. I had purchased the second hand cassette from an Indian store sometime back for one dollar. Unlike Harvard Univ. library where I could see lots of Indian films and those from other countries -to remind me of the situation in those countries - here I have to rely on Newsreports on TV and internet. This movie is grounded in Indian rural scene -- but surprisingly starts very close to where I have been staying for the past 6 months. At NASA's Goddard center - thats where I get down from the bus to go to the SSVT temple. Today also we are going to the
temple -but in my roommate's (his parents') car.
But the movie was shot long before I ever knew that College Park is near Washington DC
Many of my French and Brazilian roommates (actually it is American slang for housemates) have been interning at NASA's Goodard center. Yesterday I took the bus to go in front of their visitor center. My roomates have given me some posters from NASA of stars, galaxies, spacecrafts etc which I might mail to Jaipur School.
This movie is strange but maybe it inspired many NRIs -esp those at World Bank etc --who have taken up many electrification projects and IT enables rural projects in India recently. However I do know of some young techies who after working in the west opted to work in development - many at World Bank etc. However, gaining practical experience before advising others -is something people can learn from this film.
Although I do not think that any techies should leave their jobs to become Mahatma Gandhis in rural India. They can do it part time and/or fund future Mahatma Gandhis in India where their dollars. Maybe they might go their for sometime - just like in summer break Indian families tended to go back to their village farm or grand parents - atleast till MNCs arrived.
Any comments?
Umesh
PS: www.darshantv.com today said that Indian feel homesick when they come to US -- maybe they have been Mama's boys/ Papa's babies before they left India or they cannot eat anything except Indian food or listen to anything except Indian film music. They should go out camping in Himalayas or NE jungles or desert -alone or with friends on shoe-string budgets - before undertaking the long stint abroad. Many ofcourse are already doing it - but few of
them have shown guts to try to work or study abroad.
Umesh Sharma
5121 Lackawanna ST
College Park, MD 20740
1-202-215-4328 [Cell Phone]
Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005
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