To mark the twenty-fifth (silver jubilee) edition of this column, a different
format has been chosen. This column is a collection of contributions from
readers including a contribution from myself. Expatriate readers were requested
to comment on how they compare their stay in India versus their stay abroad.
Those in India were asked to write about their visits/stays to foreign lands.
There were prizes in the form of Fabmall Gift Certificates (GC) for the contributions.
The final results are as follows, as judged by my friend and a neutral judge:
1. Best Entry wins Rs 400/- GC: "Our hearts and souls remain in India” by
Manju Bunka/Puja Bunka
2. Second Best Entry wins Rs 200/- GC: "Land of Freedom” by Narendra Singhal
3. Joint Third Best entry wins Rs 100/- GC each:
"Phoren Experience" by Alhad Wakankar
"My Observations on the USA" by Pankaj Chauhan a.k.a.
PC
4. Other entries win Consolation Prizes Rs 50/- GC each:
"Trip to Singapore" by Shaifali Aggarwal
"Reflections on Life outside India" by Malay and Barnali
The above contributions, and another contribution from yours truly are presented
in CC25 and CC26, in order. Kindly give 1-2 weeks time for delivery of prizes.
You should receive email from Fabmall with your GC number very soon.
Chachu (12/30/2003)
Contribution #1: Our hearts and souls
remain in India
Next month commemorates the 22nd anniversary of our arrival in Indonesia.
When we first decided to come out here, never in our wildest dreams had we
imagined that we might stay this long. My husband signed a four-year contract
with the company under duress but we thought it was too long. I assured my
parents and a very distressed grandmother that we would be back well before
that. As you know, that did not happen and we are still overseas. May gods
intervene and we go back home to India soon with happiness in our hearts.
Unlike today, when we moved it was not a fashionable thing in our community
to go abroad; but circumstances had forced us. Today, NRIs are considered
moneyed people with pots of luck; people who have supposedly lost everything
- their culture, traditions, values - but are rolling in gold and diamonds.
I really don't understand this fictitious face given to a very patriotic
and tradition-abiding community.
Yes, there are some shallow people who proudly claim to have forgotten their
language, rituals, culture, but they are rare. Such 'modern' people are plenty
in India, too. I have met hundreds of Indian families living in the US, Singapore,
Indonesia and many other countries who religiously follow all the festivals,
national days and other celebrations more devoutly then many in my own country.
We always say, "Indians outside India are more Indian."
NRI children, particularly girls, are given a totally wrong face. My own
daughter and her numerous friends are a wonderful example of nice Indian
girls. They are mostly highly educated young women who make their parents
proud. They don't believe in dating, going to discos or wearing revealing
clothes. When asked a question in their mother tongue, Hindi, they respond
in kind. Many family, friends and acquaintances have often commented on how
humble, polite and friendly my daughter is. Such comments make me proud...yet
they also sting. Because the underlying tone is one of surprise - how could
she be, when she was raised overseas?
At every step we are confronted with stereotypes and misconceptions that
do little but hurt and divide. In movies, in media, in a hundred everyday
comments of friends and relatives we are misrepresented and mistaken. But
we do not scream or shout. In our own quiet ways, we go about changing the
minds of those who malign us. We teach our children to understand not just
to read and write Hindi, but what it means to be Indian. We show them the
beauty our culture, our heritage holds. Because, in the end, though our bodies
may live in San Francisco, London, Dubai or Surabaya, our hearts and souls
remain in India.
End of contribution #1: Courtesy Manju Bunka/Puja
Bunka (wins FIRST prize)
Contribution #2: Land of Freedom
I stepped on this great land of "Freedom" on 16th Sept, 1999, my heart filled
with a lot of anxiety, hopes, and expectations. The luxury and the 'near
perfect' life that the young mind saw around him was beyond his imagination
for this mind had never before crossed the boundaries of cocoon Indian life.
As months flew by, the dark side of 'near perfect' American life started
surfacing, a demonstration of inherent imperfection and anomaly in humans.
The strongest blow was due to the cultural differences from a culture where
he had to be comfortable with marriages lasting for only a few years or even
a few months in most cases, where sons disown their fathers, and mothers
disown their daughters, where aged live in old-age homes, where children
have to constantly vouch 'We love you' to their parents, where money takes
place above all relations – perfect signs of a highly 'capitalistic' economy
and a highly 'individualistic' society.
As I led my student life, at times I gave thought to my future plans of staying
in the US or going back to the home country. It was a choice between the
luxury and freedom of western world and the social charm of simple Indian
life. In my last trip to India, I made the following observation about my
motherland. There is happiness, contentment, mental peace, a sense of belonging
and togetherness. People are happy in a simple daily meal. There is nothing
else that they want. There is satisfaction and contentment. Westernization
is surreptitiously stealing this spirit from India ...
After having lived in the US for more than four years, my heart craves for
the 'emotional bonding' with home country, to be with people around me to
whom I can relate to. Some of my fellow beings are able to cut these ties,
very comfortably and 'westernize' themselves, thus becoming self-proclaimed
proud Americans. I wonder how they nourish themselves with their roots cut
and how they are going to raise their kids in the messy society. Is money
that important? Do they think about their old age when their children would
disown them? Do they think how many times laws can prevent them from different
treatment due to the skin color?
Yeah, America has been successful in selling itself as a land of opportunity
and liberty to the rest of the world. Opportunities, which entice brains
from all over the world to forget their patriotism and serve America for
the love of money and liberty where as soon as you step out, every move of
yours is tracked by video cameras.
End of contribution #2: Courtesy Narendra Singhal
(wins SECOND prize)
Contribution #3a: Phoren Experience
In the good old days, the charm of being in the software industry was that
one had ample opportunities to travel abroad. I too got couple of opportunities.
The first perdesh travel came with UK, England in particular. Even before
the visit, the first shock came while visiting the UK consul for visa. I
saw a dedicated queue just for Indian Gujaratis - not only that - there was
a Gujarati interpreter assisting the British counselor by translating into
English what people had to say. By Joe!
Within three days, I was in Woking, a town southwest of London. It
was Sunday. We had a Ford Mondeo, a petrol card (both company paid) and my
Indian license. It came as a happy surprise that Indians were allowed to
drive in UK with Indian License - not even an International License is required,
for the initial 6 months. The boring work of bug-fixing had obviously taken
a back seat. As everyone in UK we went to Southall, which is referred to
as ‘home away from hom’e. It was another shock as there were more Asians
than pherangis in sight in Southhall. Asians had made all effort to make
Southall resemble Indian city. Local businessman on footpath had tapes of
Hindi Music barking at us, one could find loads of litter on roads; people
ignored traffic signals at crossings. On the positive side one could buy
Indian buffet dinner for 5 pounds, get all kinds of Indian curry powders,
garments, pandits for puja.
Office life in UK, and in particular my company, was a bit peculiar. Pherangi
colleagues would come and meet us as if we had known them for years, but
then the next we interacted with them was with a ‘Bye’. There was minimal
interaction, once in the morning with ‘Hi’ and other in the evening with
‘Byeeee’. We were also required to sport formal suit complete with a tie.
It was so boring sitting in front of the computer sporting a suit and a tie.
The British food was even more boring. They use potatoes in place of rice.
I could not come to terms with the fact that they could consume cold chicken
and also that every other British dish had potatoes in it.
Anyways, I survived the UK trip by munching on Mac-D burgers, visiting mandatory
places: Madam Tussauds Museum, House of parliaments, Big Ben, London Eye
(a giant wheel with about 60 ovals and each oval having capacity to accommodate
50 people), Tower bridge, Parliament house, Swami Narayan temple, Trafalgar
square, Piccadilly Circus, Harrods, Watching change of guard at Buckingham
Palace, ad infinitum. We also visited a couple of cities like Bath and other
not-worth-mentioning cities. I survived on Hindi films shown on BBC Channel-4,
and by taking solace in the fact that Indians had reached places in UK and
that Chicken-Tikka was pronounced as UK’s national dish by Tony Blair and
that Indians were the highly educated among other immigrants and that Indian
were helping the economy by helping create new businesses and thereby new
jobs.
The second chance to travel came with Germany. Germany was calling Indians
especially in IT field. Germans had gone to lengths to make the flight carrying
Indian programmers coming on the Green Card a pleasant experience. There
was place for 10000 working people but was answered by only 50% people out
which approx. 20% were Indians. The Germans had thoroughly prepared for the
welcome. To make their new foreign colleagues feel at home from the start,
the employees of a few software companies went through an intercultural training
session.
And they were ready with facts: Indians eat rice and take their shoes off
before entering the house. And how Indians greet each other by saying ‘Namaste’.
The Germans did exactly the same when they met the first lot of Indian programmers,
but were stunned by the response. The Indians greeted them with a friendly
‘hello’ and shook hands.
I was the only Indian working for the company in Germany. There were no foreigners
either. It was an all-German company. I was single, had no friends when I
arrived in Germany. I had questions abound. Are they racists? Would they
be friendly? Can they understand me? I had no German speaking lessons. To
top it all, there was the now famous sentence ‘Kinder statt Inder?’ (‘Why
not have children instead of Indians?’) It later turned out that it was a
political gimmick. Germany used to be and still is, though on decline, the
economic engine of Europe. It is followed by the UK and France. The problem
with Germany is that there is negative population growth. Meaning that the
German population is decreasing and according to an estimate fifty years
down the line it could be only 75% of what it is today. So what is the solution?
Do they call immigrants (which could dilute their culture and language) or
reproduce more. Divorce rate in Germany is close to 50%; moreover people
do not want to marry as Live-in relationship is socially accepted. For official
purposes they have 5 categories: Single, Married, Widow(er), Divorcee and
Living-partner. The German government has put forth various schemes where
in a Single person pays the highest amount tax followed by Living-partner
and so on. People with kids pay the least amount of tax. Education in Germany
has been made totally free so that people do not think that children are
a burden. Even university education is free including free travel in buses
and trains for students. These facilities are also extended to foreign students
studying in Germany.
I had made my mind that I would stay in Germany for a few very good reasons.
Firstly, the work I was going to do was interesting. Secondly, I was going
to a town called Aachen, which was situated on Western German border and
was bordering Belgium and The Netherlands (nice and inexpensive opportunities
to move around) and thirdly I probably would pick up a new language. It was
winter when I reached Germany, but there was very little snowfall. By night
I was well settled into my one room apartment. I was all alone and the first
instinct was to find some one resembling an Indian. I was staying in these
big apartment blocks and hence the best way was to go to the front door of
each building and read each name to spot an Indian. By the time I was checking
few names a group of Indians arrived. It was birthday of one of them and
he invited me over for dinner. Within minutes, I was into the Indian group
and we were chatting as if we were old buddies and were meeting after years.
His was a typical flat: furnished with a sofa, two settee (which did not
go with the couch), and a table, all of which was picked up from neighbourhood
who had put the stuff for the Municipal Corporation to pick up. He
also had a TV, chest of drawers and closet picked up from flowmarket (a second-hand
market run by citizens).
While in Germany I got a lot of chances to move around in different countries.
People in Germany are normally supposed to work for 8 hours. If one works
for more than that he\she can claim either a compensatory off or money. This
is traditional style of working in Germany. Though workplace rules are changing
fast these days. But I had the pleasure of 40Hrs work-week. There are official
30 holidays apart from national holidays and Saturdays and Sundays. Cool!
The holidays meant that I visited a lot of places. I share with you some
interesting experiences.
The Netherlands: Literally translated it would mean ‘Low Lands’. Most of
The Netherlands is below sea level and most of it is man made by reclaiming
land from sea. This means that there are lots and lots of pumps, working
24x7, around The Netherlands pumping water back into sea. The people here
are among the most open and non-conservative I have ever met. They are very
helping and extremely friendly. They are also very good at English, one reason
being that they see all the Hollywood films and TV serials in English (unlike
in Germany were all films are dubbed in German before they are screened).
This country is also called Holland which is a misnomer as Holland is just
one of the states in The Netherlands. Sell\ purchase\use of some of drugs
have been legalized here. It is also the first country to make euthanasia
legal. These people are also called Dutch. And one very peculiar thing about
Dutch is that they love the orange colour. It will reflect in every other
thing whether it is the national flag or the colour of house or main colour
for cricket\football team.
Spain: As one moves south in Europe, people start looking darker, they also
are not good at time keeping, they eat spicy food and the language they speak
start sounding a bit harsh. This statement is not entirely true but yes it
fits more or less. In Germany I was used to waiting at bus stops where there
would be electronic boards displaying the time of arrival of about 10 next
buses. During my entire stay in Germany there was not even a single occasion
that buses would be delayed. It was different story in Spain. While on a
bus stop I could not find any timetables or electronic boards. So I inquired
with a fellow-would-be-passengers. The answer resembled a typical Indian
answer to this question. ‘The bus is expected anytime within next 20-25 minutes’
Luxembourg: This country is one of the smallest in the world. Probably a
little bit bigger than NCR. Luxembourg itself is too small to create a self-sustaining
internal market. They, like Swiss, are involved international banking and
financial services. The capital has the same name as the country and is an
interesting place to visit.
Belgium: If your are traveling by train you could cross the whole of Belgium
starting south to north in less than 6 hours. Belgium is famous for a lot
of things. It is known as the Diamond Capital of world, and the diamond business
is controlled either by Jews or by Indians. Here I got a rare chance to see
traditionally attired Jews. They sported traditional black dress with black
hat and were all sporting long beards and all had long hair. Their sideburns
were strands of hair sometimes extending until knee. Brugge is city worth
mentioning. It is the most beautiful and preserved city. Belgium is also
world famous for crystal, lace and chocolates.
Fancy European Words: I was astonished to know that French Fries originated
in Belgium. There is an array of words starting with ‘French’ and have nothing
to do with France. It is said that the English coined these words in order
to deride French. Take for example French Cricket (an informal form of cricket
where the batter’s legs act as the wicket), French Leave (unannounced departure),
and French letter. In the UK I learnt that a boffin is a doctor and a bobby
is a policeman.
Regarding traveling I would like to mention two peculiarities. One that traveling
in Europe can be extremely cheap if your are traveling by economy airlines
like Ryan-Air. They would happily take you from Germany to Scotland just
for 40 Euros. Though I did not get a chance to travel Ryan-Air because of
the strings attached. I got a chance to cruise on German highways (commonly
known as Autobahns). Germany is the only country in the world to have no
speed limits and it is common to spot people cruising at 170-200 kmph. And
also it is common to spot non-Germans sporting tee shirts having boldface
sentences ‘I survived the Autobahn’.
Among other things Beer is an important and integral part of German culture.
There are about 5000 different brands of Beers in Germany and one could spend
a whole lifetime and still not taste each and every brand of beer. What is
peculiar that when I was taking German language classes we had an entire
lesson dedicated to Beer. It explained the various kinds of beers served
in various parts of Germany. Also almost each brand of Beer had a distinctive
glass in which it is served. Another peculiarity is Oktoberfest or Beer festival
where thousands gather in München (Munich) for a week for a wild beer
party. During the Football World-Cup, the matches were telecast in
conference room in office and Beer was served in working hours and was on
the house.
Germans call their country Deutschland and the language they speak is Deutsch.
It is also the official language of countries like Liechtenstein, Luxembourg,
Switzerland and Austria. Talk of Germany and no mention of Hitler. Impossible.
The notorious and abominable dictator Hitler was born in Austria and caused
the deaths of millions of Jews. Today Germans feel ashamed of Hitler and
see him as a blot on German history and wish he never existed.
I had a gala time in Germany; I made lots of friends and did not have even
a single incidence of racism directed towards me. The only negative was the
exorbitantly high tax rate in Germany. Which could be as high as 50% (including
pension, social security, mandatory health insurance, etc.)
End of contribution #3b: Courtesy Alhad Wakankar
(wins JOINT THIRD prize)