Dear Ana, Thank you for your friend's story. I am happy to learn that, in the final analysis, ALL turned out for the best for him.
My only addendum to the above is as follows: 1: if your friend was an engineering graduate from a top college in Bombay and he signed up "with an agent" to work as a waiter, he was not very intelligent. 2: if he did it 'because of love', he was far dumber than one can imagine. 3: there are very few places in the world which will allow 'foreigners' to work jobs reserved for locals ie waiters, car washers etc 4: until you put names of cities/countries and the years involved, I will applaud you for your imaginative fiction. 5: my personal experience with most Goans (Indians) is that while they may have come with $8 in their hands (the foreign exchange allowed in the 1970s) and while they may have initially worked mundane jobs (as landed immigrants) eg at Heathrow and Toronto airports or at the restaurants and fast food places in those countries, TODAY they own the businesses and employ Europeans to work in them. Their children are almost invariably independent professionals eg doctors, lawyers, accountants, pharmacists etc. 6: It all depends on one's focus. One can be positive or one can be negative. 7: And YES, if one wants to make it, one can make it anywhere in the world including right in Goa. (As in many offers ...CONDITIONS APPLY) jc On 12 January 2014 09:05, Ana Maria Fernandes <[email protected]>wrote: My class mate in school in Bombay after finishing his engineering in bombay got a job in one of the top industries in bombay. Inschool he was a topper and a source of intellegence. He joined a top college for science . He was earning around sixty thousand in seventies when you could get a rice plate for just one rupee and a cup of tea for four annas. He married his next door neighbour whose dreams was to go west. While she was for he was against but as theirs was a love marriage he did not want to cause disturbances and agreed. Paid a huge sum to an agent and migrated. Result he found his engineering degree in the waste paper basket. The agent arranged him a job as a waiter in a small resturant. Worse was the wife was expecting and she could not cope up . They were literally beggars. she could not complain while he bore all these for her love sake. He could not afford to learn anything as everything was expenses. They had got a house on rent and every month the landlord was to be paid. He was forced to buy a car. Now wife's pregnancy. He would start his work at 6 in the morning that is washing cars, cleaning the floors etc etc.Then he would go to real work place at11 am and would leave at 11 pm. All he could afford was a slice of bread and butter and some water to drink. They did not know if they could afford the hospital bills during delivery. He thought it best to send his wife down to Bombay for delivery. The wife agreed . My class mate thought this is the best time to leave the west and search a nice job in Mumbai and under the pretext of losing his job and migration he came to India . He managed to get a nice job with a salary of forty thousand . His wife too realised that it is better to stay in India and educate your children then to jump to the west and struggle for just a status sake.
