Views
Recent racial attacks on Indian students in Australia has some good news. I heard in TV channels and read in newspapers that many students are withdrawing their plans to continue their studies in Melbourne, Sydney, or other cities of Australia; but the bad news is that instead, they are opting for a UK or US university now. Why is this bad news? Simply because according to them, India still has nothing good to offer!
I am not against those who go to foreign countries to pursue further studies or in search for a job. The reason why I have such perception about these guys is that they blame it back on Indian conditions for their going to such countries. Recently I read about one Manoj Rege, a 32-year-old media planner in Sydney and how he discussed about his experiences with racism in Australia as told to Mitali Parekh in The Mumbai Mirror. The guy’s Australian girl friend didn’t find it good enough to roam around him when some of her ‘Australian’ friends were around. The guy was nearly scared to death by a mob a couple of years back. His friend returned back home one day with a cut on his head – someone randomly thew a beer bottle at him. Why? Because the popular perception of Indians is as victims of poverty or passive, servile employees. Locals often call these so-called NRIs by names as rude as ‘filthy Indian’. But, surprisingly all of these still doesn’t piss off the ‘Indian’ inside Mr. Manoj Rege, who still prefers staying in Australia over India because of India’s corrupt politics, inter-caste/religion fighting, the inherent nepotism, the government’s lack of foresight to plan and develop infrastucture etc. etc.
Interesting?
The guy prefers to be kicked off in his pants by some stupid Australian teenagers than to stay back in India – why? Because the Indian government is not doing enough for infrastructure. Wow!
Can I tell you the real reason why these guys prefer to stay abroad? Because, they can not do anything better in India than they are doing abroad. They would prefer cleaning Australian houses by becoming a stupid house-keeper than to do a call center job back in India. It is a fact that if you’re good enough, you will get a good job back in India with a pay that will be enough to feed your entire family and not just you – still if you prefer to go to the US, the UK, Australia or some other country with dollar pay-outs. Nothing wrong – seriously, it’s a wise decision if you take it on your own but I call it a stupid, selfish and a god-damn decision if you reason it over poor conditions back in India. If you blame it back on Indian conditions, you should know that you were no good here and that is why you preferred to leave to settle somewhere else.
A matter of fact:
“Do not inhabit in a country where you are not respected, cannot earn your livelihood, have no friends, or cannot acquire knowledge” – Chanakya, Niti-Shastra 1.8
Kunal Pandya
Kunal is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor and startup evangelist. He has helped build and scale up several businesses and products from the ground up. Apart from NCrypted, he serves as an advisory and is on the board of several of our client companies that we partner with.
The guy prefers to be kicked off in his pants by some stupid Australian teenagers than to stay back in India – why? Because the Indian government is not doing enough for infrastructure. Wow!rn
Do not inhabit in a country where you are not respected, cannot earn your livelihood, have no friends, or cannot acquire knowledge
This is an interesting post. I want to make some comments.
1. A little background: My dad moved to the US in the 1970’s and I was born in the US. However, I did study 3rd to 12th grade in Mumbai … so I have lived in the western world and the eastern world.
2. The western world is not that bad as you make it out to be. Sure, there will be 1 in 100 people who hate Indians … but back in India, you have the same problems … people from one region hate other people from another region.
3. I have never even once experienced any racism in the western world.
4. The traffic, poor infrastructure, pollution, corrupted politicians do not bother me at all! They absolutely do not bother me. What bothers me is certain aspects of the culture. For example, everybody worrying about what others are thinking of them and behaving to make others happy instead of themselves happy, people being afraid to speak their minds, people saying “yes” when they really want to say “no”. There is too much social pressure to conform.
5. With all that said, I love Mumbai and it is an awesome city.
6. I do not have any desire to change things and become a revolutionary. I just want to live my life happily and enjoy as much as I can. My life is too short to be spent on changing things and making a country better. I leave that for other people and I am thankful to the people in history who have made the world a better place. But I prefer to just enjoy the fruits of their labor.
7. Believe it or not, I think most Indian guys come to western countries so that they can do all the things they wanted to do, but were afraid to do in India, or were forbidden by their family. Examples include alcohol, staying out late, having sex. If Indian culture accepted girls and guys going out, having fun, drinking alcohol, having sex, being crazy, etc … I bet nobody would leave.
Bijal,
I’m not against those migrating to the West. For a matter of fact, Australia is on the east of India, so its not one of those ‘western’ countries with who we the Indians are so obsessed.
I’m not against anybody shifting to anywhere. What I’m against is that you move to a foreign country and you blame it on Indian local condition of not getting admission into your desired college, poor infrastructure, local riots etc. is sheer stupidity. Live anywhere in the world, it’s your choice, but don’t blame it on Indian environment being the reason for your shifting. It was your choice, boss, so face it anyway it comes now!
I just heard many of those colleges in Australia where majority of Indian students are studying got blacklisted by Australian government! These colleges were in far outskirt of the cities and did not have any legal license to run a college. They just opened up since many ‘hungry’ Indian students were willing to ask their poor parents to give away huge donations and fees to study in these Australian colleges and institutes. Wow!
Ive seen so many guys who dont lift a plate at their house , and dont help their mothers for housework in India but go to foreign countries and wash their dirty dishes . This is pure hypocrisy , then these dishwashing buggers come back to india and expect to marry a girl who'd wash his dishes and pay him a dowry with which he can repay his damn education loan. Indeed as any indian would say . its the kalayuga !
Ridiculous article i read so far.