birbal
December 14th, 2003, 01:47 AM
There has been lot of discussion on this site relating to the consequences of leaving homeland in search of prosperity, peace, and happiness and at times finding none of these. I feel some of these posts may confuse younger members of the site at the most critical point in their lives. I would like to add my "two cents worth" based on my experience and observations.
Throughout the human history people have left their homelands in search of better life (mostly meaning material rewards). Most of Indians today including all Jats are not true natives of the country as our ancestors came from somewhere else. Of course, for thousands of years those who came to India did not need to go anywhere else again because India was the land of opportunity. Even at the time when India was falling apart in 1750, it produced more manufactured goods than all of the European countries combined (Paul Kennedy - Rise and Fall of Great Powers). In fact, India and China accounted for 75% of the world's manufactured goods at that time. The domination in this regard was even greater in the previous two thousand years or so.
Now the situations has reversed and after 250 years of decay Indians and Chinese are leaving their homelands in search of better life.
The question arises: is there better life in the West? The answer is simple - for some only. Having said this I try to analyse the risk-reward scenario and at least try to determine who are the likely candidates to find this better life?
Based on my experience and observations I can say that if you are academically smart, willing to work hard over a sustained period, capable of handling adversity, lack political connections or unwilling to use such means to advance your career, and not willing to fit in a system where one can not live without bribery and corruption then you are better off in the West.
I remember reading an article in Time magazine many years ago where the reporter stated that although corruption exists all over the world it is only in India and Pakistan that a parent can proudly say my son makes Rupees 1,000 a month in salary but has Rupees 10,000 a month income from above (ooper ki income). I am not trying to take a moral high ground here but only saying that many of us just can not do that and sleep in the night. After being the first person from my area to make to the IIT Bombay I refused a govt job and became a Lecturer in BITS Pilani. One of my relative said 'kya bewakoof ho, humne socha engineer banoge, masterji ban gaye". I felt it was better to get out and when I look back and count fortunate events in my life, the first is getting in to IIT and second is leaving India.
At the same time I know thosands of Indians (as I used to be a political organizer for Liberal party in Canada for many years)who came to North America under completely false expectations. Most of these people with university degrees drive taxis, work as cleaning staff at airports, run small corner grocery stores and do other menial jobs. Once while I was going door to door campaigning for a friend I met this disgruntled Indian and I asked him his problem. He was an Engineer from India but could not pass some rather simple examinations to get the Professional Engineering designation in Canada. He said in frustration "saley kahte hain tum first class nahin ho. Arey haramzado agar hum first class hote to yahan aatey?" I told him with equal annoyance that if you could not pass those simple examinations what do you expect?
Life is dynamic here. There are very few permanent jobs other than tenured professors, but those who can cope with adversity have no difficulty in riding out the economic cycles. I have experienced the impact of economic cycles more than once. I did my Masters thesis on the design of ablating tiles used on the space vehicles (the ones that caused the speceship explosion recently) funded by NASA and saw my career evoparate as the aerospace industry collapsed in 1971. I moved to petroleum engineering after the 1973 energy crisis and after the recession in oil industry in mid eighties I became a professor of mechanical engineering. It is commonly agreed that people in North America have to change careers three or four times in their life.
There is no ideal place in the world and every culture has strengths and weaknesses. The advantage a first generation immigrant has that he/she has choice to take good things from both cultures. The usually talked about belief regarding the second generation (American Born Confused desi) can be disapproved just by looking at the domination of Indian and Chinese kids in academic achievements.
At the same time I would like to warn all potential newcomers that you will have to live with discrimination. But let us be realistic and see that the discrimination on the basis of caste and religion in India is worse than racial discrimination in North America. Also, as the saying goes "there is no free lunch" and you will have to work very hard all your life. Finally, happiness is a state of mind and it has no correlation with economic well being.
Birbal Singh
Throughout the human history people have left their homelands in search of better life (mostly meaning material rewards). Most of Indians today including all Jats are not true natives of the country as our ancestors came from somewhere else. Of course, for thousands of years those who came to India did not need to go anywhere else again because India was the land of opportunity. Even at the time when India was falling apart in 1750, it produced more manufactured goods than all of the European countries combined (Paul Kennedy - Rise and Fall of Great Powers). In fact, India and China accounted for 75% of the world's manufactured goods at that time. The domination in this regard was even greater in the previous two thousand years or so.
Now the situations has reversed and after 250 years of decay Indians and Chinese are leaving their homelands in search of better life.
The question arises: is there better life in the West? The answer is simple - for some only. Having said this I try to analyse the risk-reward scenario and at least try to determine who are the likely candidates to find this better life?
Based on my experience and observations I can say that if you are academically smart, willing to work hard over a sustained period, capable of handling adversity, lack political connections or unwilling to use such means to advance your career, and not willing to fit in a system where one can not live without bribery and corruption then you are better off in the West.
I remember reading an article in Time magazine many years ago where the reporter stated that although corruption exists all over the world it is only in India and Pakistan that a parent can proudly say my son makes Rupees 1,000 a month in salary but has Rupees 10,000 a month income from above (ooper ki income). I am not trying to take a moral high ground here but only saying that many of us just can not do that and sleep in the night. After being the first person from my area to make to the IIT Bombay I refused a govt job and became a Lecturer in BITS Pilani. One of my relative said 'kya bewakoof ho, humne socha engineer banoge, masterji ban gaye". I felt it was better to get out and when I look back and count fortunate events in my life, the first is getting in to IIT and second is leaving India.
At the same time I know thosands of Indians (as I used to be a political organizer for Liberal party in Canada for many years)who came to North America under completely false expectations. Most of these people with university degrees drive taxis, work as cleaning staff at airports, run small corner grocery stores and do other menial jobs. Once while I was going door to door campaigning for a friend I met this disgruntled Indian and I asked him his problem. He was an Engineer from India but could not pass some rather simple examinations to get the Professional Engineering designation in Canada. He said in frustration "saley kahte hain tum first class nahin ho. Arey haramzado agar hum first class hote to yahan aatey?" I told him with equal annoyance that if you could not pass those simple examinations what do you expect?
Life is dynamic here. There are very few permanent jobs other than tenured professors, but those who can cope with adversity have no difficulty in riding out the economic cycles. I have experienced the impact of economic cycles more than once. I did my Masters thesis on the design of ablating tiles used on the space vehicles (the ones that caused the speceship explosion recently) funded by NASA and saw my career evoparate as the aerospace industry collapsed in 1971. I moved to petroleum engineering after the 1973 energy crisis and after the recession in oil industry in mid eighties I became a professor of mechanical engineering. It is commonly agreed that people in North America have to change careers three or four times in their life.
There is no ideal place in the world and every culture has strengths and weaknesses. The advantage a first generation immigrant has that he/she has choice to take good things from both cultures. The usually talked about belief regarding the second generation (American Born Confused desi) can be disapproved just by looking at the domination of Indian and Chinese kids in academic achievements.
At the same time I would like to warn all potential newcomers that you will have to live with discrimination. But let us be realistic and see that the discrimination on the basis of caste and religion in India is worse than racial discrimination in North America. Also, as the saying goes "there is no free lunch" and you will have to work very hard all your life. Finally, happiness is a state of mind and it has no correlation with economic well being.
Birbal Singh