On Wed, Sep 10, 2008 at 9:53 PM, Thaths <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Wed, Sep 10, 2008 at 7:19 AM, Suresh Ramasubramanian > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > They stay six or seven to a small apartment, cook in the apartment, save > a > > lot - I mean a lot - of a salary that's already pretty low, and then go > > back home loaded with gadgets bought from the nearest best buy, > chocolates > > from a 7-11, and a bank balance that reads like 200..250k rupees ($5000 > > say) rather than 15..20k rupees. > > Is this different from the migrant labor in the middle east? In the > late 70's early 80's my second cousins would visit from their > slightly-white-collar jobs in the middle east with suitcases loaded > with bic pens, nylon t-shirts and ABBA and Boney-M cassette tapes. > > Thaths
Don't forget the plaid suitcases and the plastic mats which would be tied around the boom-boxes. I have read accounts of Russian /Italian emigrants also going back home with similar gifts. So I guess the phenomenon is pretty common. When I lived in Kolkata, I would see the Bihari milkmen, Oriya rickshaw pullers, and later, Bangladeshis who did a lot of menial work, living in small rented garages, eating satthu and chili/onions, and going home once in a year or two, and taking similar gifts.... Deepa. > > -- > "I saw this in a movie about a bus that had to SPEED around a city, keeping > its SPEED over fifty, and if its SPEED dropped, it would explode. I think > it was called, 'The Bus That Couldn't Slow Down'." -- Homer J. Simpson > >
