Hi,
It may seem to many that those Indians who are coming to US etc are having a
silver spoon in their mouths and lead a comfortable Hollywood style life. Maybe
some do -- those who happen to be progeny of Bollywood stars (read Fardeen
Khan, Kareena Kapoor ex NYU, Boston Univ.) or Indian industrialists (read
Ambanis ex Stanford, Wharton etc ) and politicians (read Rahul Gandhi ex
Harvard , Cambridge).
On the other hand are people who are gambled a lot -with money and prestige and
life paths.
A good example is my current house . Now it is 1:07am (Thursday) at night. All
my housemates are awake. One will go to sleep shortly. He will wake up at 5:30
am to go to work at 6:30 am. He had come back from work at 10pm when I saw him
while returning from my work shift (3-9pm). Though generally his work shift is
from 7am-3pm and then studies for MS (only Mon and Thurs) from 4:30-10pm -
yesterday he worked continuosly for 26 hours - returning at 9am yesterday and
after sleeping for only 4 hours went for a 2pm-10pm to complete a project
assignment. He is an Infosys ex-employee -India's top IT firm.
Another roommate will keep awake -giving me company - till 4am (when I
generally go to sleep) and sometimes longer. He will be browsing the net for IT
info and some interesting stuff. His classes of MS are also in the evening 4
days a week but works morning job as well at a restaurant on campus. (Such is
the level of professionalism that when one of our housemates went to his
restaurant - he got a tip from that group - housemates are at home -- thats
professionalism-- no wonder our household accounts are of CPA accuracy - all
bills tallied and o MS Excell worksheets with embedded coding) . Sometimes
before he goes to sleep our final roommate will be back from his all-night
shift at work.
He is the most unique case. Working at gas stations to pay for his daughter's
MS IT college fee of $100,000 - which I believe he paid by mortgaging his
house. His son is also in the same Univ in the area - but on full scholarship.
That guy being full vegetarian cooks his own food complete with Indian
paranthas and other tasty stuff. (We others cook by turns - one guy each day-
one day left free - for Chinese noodles etc) He will go back to India when his
visitor visa expires in Jan 2008 -to come back again - though I overheard him
saying on phone that he had come seeking opportunities .
Most of us are in constant touch with India and a few say that they would leave
for India once they stabilize their careers -esp those in IT. Non IT guys like
me or the journalist guy - chose the road less travelled so don't mind the
cultural differences and look forward to challenges.
So what about patriotism?
Umesh
Umesh Sharma
Washington D.C.
1-202-215-4328 [Cell]
Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005
http://www.uknow.gse.harvard.edu/index.html (Edu info)
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/ (Management Info)
www.gse.harvard.edu/iep (where the above 2 are used )
http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/
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