Hi Everybody,
My association with this group isn't very old. It started 2 and half years back when my previous company sent a group of 30 people to Texas for training. And the plethora of information given by this group helped the entire group tremendously. After that I have been a sporadic visitor of this group.
The other day I was reading the Prime Minister's speech in Oxford where he mentioned about the most important British legacy, the English language and about their modern school systems. http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/nic/0046/pmspeech.htm . A Times of India columnist once wrote that it's only for the Tamil crusaders that English stayed in India despite the onslaught of Hindi Imperialism that started right after Independence. Hence all the kudos for the Indian BPO success should go to the Tamilians !
Another article that re-shaped my thinking process was the one I read (rather my mother read it aloud to me and my sister) in Prantik (an Assmese magazine) almost 16/17 years back, where a well settled NRA called the Assamese families who sent their kids to English medium schools as "boga baduli" (white bat) which is a bizarre epiphany. (Though I am not very certain about the writer's name, the "Prantik" edition with that article still could be found in my book shelf back home provided my mother hasn't sold those old copies) This was said having found by the NRA writer that certain English medium educated Guwahati kids spoke worse Assamese than his own USA born and brought up kids. The article highly influenced my mother who is a teacher in a school named after the great martyr of "baxa andulon" Anil Bora. Once mother also told us how the Assamese had to fight to have Assamese as the official language of the state. The memory of that cataclysmic event was still fresh among the elders then. It was our father who put all our three kids in that English medium school in our town which was another legacy left by the colonial Brits and he expected us to imbibe some of their qualities like discipline, time management etc and definitely to learn English better. The following year my mother re-enrolled all her three kids in local vernacular school. While my siblings continued, I was not able to cope up with the difference, not for a single day and went back to my alma mater the very next day. However through out my student life I made sure I am equally proficient in "Oxomiya" like my siblings and many a times outdid them
Years later when I was in Delhi pursuing my post- graduation, the BPO boom started first in Delhi. Though I was over qualified for those jobs, I thought of joining the bandwagon rather going back home and being jobless like my batch mates. Another reason for choosing the BPO was to avoid jostling with the rowdy and vulgar north Indian crowd. All BPOs have their private cabs for employees.Last month I completed my 4th year in BPO.
This Group would be surprised to know that BPO is the one of the best thing that has happened to India. No Industry can offer anything better to thousands of mediocre like us and I am sure the industry will stay here for ever. And parents who opt for English medium schools are not necessarily "boga baduli". All that matters is the attitude the parents groom in their kids towards one's culture and language Never for a moment can I convince myself that with my family background I could have managed with vernacular education whatever I have achieved so far. My personal experience says the number of English speaking people/youth is quite less in Assam when compared to some other Indian states. A few BPOs in our state would have tackled the abysmal employment problem to certain extent. In other indian cities the BPO success has ushered in the birth of dozens of english training center along with special voice and accent courses, american accent being the first in demand.
I would also like to share my advantages/disadvangtages as a native Assamese speaker in BPO industry in another mail.
Swapnali Saikia
Bangalore
India
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