While chatting with a friend who was debating whether or not he should pursue his Ph.D. degree (or any higher studies, for that matter) in India, the topic turned to the changing conditions in India (or more appropriately, the change in observable behaviour of Indians – since I don’t presume to know all conditions in India).
Much is made in newspaper articles, media, and in social circles about the alleged reverse brain drain. I say alleged, simply because I don’t want this article biased in either way – I do have an opinion about the brain drain situation, but that’s for another day and another time. Here we shall simply assume that there does exist such a thing as a reverse brain drain (without debating its veracity – or definition for that matter).
You might have noticed a steadily increasing trend in media reporting two major themes:
- Prominent/Successful people of Indian origin returning to settle down in India after having achieved fame/success abroad.
- The young generation of Indians not leaving India after getting prominent degrees, as used to be the “hip thing” back in the 80′s.
What bothers me most is the complete disregard shown to those who really caused about this change. Surely the change is in India that makes people want to come back or remain here; which is far more likely than America or Europe having become an unsuitable place to live in (last I heard, India has gained shopping malls and multiplexes, rather than Europe or America losing them). Correct me if I am mistaken, but in my personal opinion, this change was brought about not by those who are coming back today, but by those who never left 30 years ago!
Someone had to live in this country when the cream of our country was leaving with much fanfare and praise. Someone had to improve the conditions. Someone had to build multiplexes and malls. Someone had to build airconditioned seven-star hotels. Someone had to build the 1 lakh car that many (if not most) Indians will afford. Every year, media praisee those from the premier (and in many cases, tax-payer-funded) institutions of the country hired abroad. We conveniently ignore to report on those who stayed back and brought about a change here – in this country – to make it suitable for our elite to come back and live in.
Where is the praise to them? What have we done to encourage them? When we write an article praising youngsters studying in India for higher education, why can’t we spare one line to say, “thanks to the heroes who toiled for 30 years to make India a great place to live in…”? When we comment on the great people returning, why can’t we add the line, “thanks to the people who worked through hardships to bring multiplexes, and malls and air-conditioned homes, and water and electricity and flyovers to our cities…”?
So far as I have seen, I don’t know many (if not any) who returned from the US to live in a village or even a non-metro (although I do know Americans staying in villages for volunteer work.) Let’s face it, they didn’t come back for travelling in public transportation and to have only one hour of tap water every day.
For some reason, our culture loves redemption stories; always has. We completely ignore people who are just doing good work – I don’t say that we criticise them, we simply just don’t care. However, take a guy who goes on the wrong path initially and years later chooses to turn towards the rigth path? We love him! We praise him! He’s like a God to us. Lest we forget that wrong path and right path are completely subjective to begin with.
I think it’s time we did justice to all that “traditions” and “philosophy” and “family” and “loyalty” crap we like to boast in front of westerners. Let’s stop speaking and show it for once! Let’s see some respect for those who made this a great place to live in. Someone brought about this change in India – it wasn’t just physical – it was also psychological. Someone stayed here and worked hard to change the attitude of people.
I think we can all spare at least one newspaper article, or even a small one-liner when discussing reverse-brain-drain amongst peers, in praise of the heroes who made it all happen!
I cannot agree more. No one bothers about the score of pepople who stayed back and made the change …
Comment by Anonymous — May 18, 2008 @ 4:57 pm
Whenever the subject of brain-drain comes, one point that I always think about is, does it matter that much to be *living* in a particular place to do good deeds for the humanity. Is it bad to think about the whole of mankind than to think about your own tiny country? I mean, If you work at say Google, improved their search, or reduced Google’s power consumption (energy is the prime priority of everything today), or whatever, the list goes on. Is it not better for the whole humanity? Why just think of your own country? I am not saying, don’t be patriots and all, but its not that bad to think for the humans as we can see them on the pale blue dot. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot)
Comment by omkar — May 19, 2008 @ 12:42 pm
Thanks to Archis for the wonderful and much needed article. Its our responsibility to pay tribute to all such people who made the change in India, although I think they least care about it and are “self-rewarded”.
To Omkar’s comment, when you work for Google, Its Google who gains the most out of your work. Its American ecomomy which gains the most. If you are concerned about doing good deeds to to “humanity”, why don’t you think of the poors in rural India?[May be because they cant pay you for your service but Google can pay you high packages].
Comment by rajarshi — May 19, 2008 @ 2:48 pm
Omkar, I agree with your comments. That’s precisely why my article makes no mention of “patriotism”.
I am not praising them pointlessly – but only in response to the praise those who come back to India get.
If we don’t say anything about anyone, I’m fine with it. But if we’re going to praise those who came back to India to live in the multiplexes today, then I say we owe it to ourselves to double the praise for those who built those multiplexes yesterday.
Comment by Archis Gore — May 19, 2008 @ 3:43 pm
rajarshi,
Money? who said anything about money here. I am mentioning Google because I am a programmer, thats what I am good at, thats what I can do best. Thats *my* way of helping others. Why do u have to go to some village and help the poor, and not solve energy problem of the world? Why one deed for humanity is better than the other? I am talking of “the pale blue dot” here and you talk about money. Do you think all Googlers work at Google because they pay more than others. Many Googlers are multi-millionairs and don’t have to work for the rest of their lives, but still they do. You know at one point, you need a strong reason, justification of your existence, I don’t know whether you have reached this stage.
Archis,
I don’t think you get my point here. lets forget about India for a second. Think global. The more important problem you solve, the more number of people will get affected. Building multiplexes isn’t even close to solving huge problems like power consumption. We shouldn’t just solve problems, we should solve important problems. Why indulge in a game of praising this and that, because those people who do something good for someone doesn’t necessarily looking for your praises. They feel it needs to be done and they do it.
This guy is good because he built a flyover *in India* and that one is bad because he *went to US* and reduced the energy consumption of Google (saving millions of watts daily worldwide). Why this bias? As if *anyone* who goes abroad is BAD and who comes back is a GOOD person and should be praised. Then because we are praising them (who are back) we should double-praise the the ones who are already here, right?
But my question is why curse the ones who went abroad (to work on a meaningful problem ,of course), in the first place??? Get my point?
Comment by omkar — May 19, 2008 @ 6:16 pm
Omkar, I’m sorry but I think you don’t get my point.
When did I say it was bad to go abroad at all? Heck no! I’m not saying *anything* like that.
Remember, I’m opposing that very line of thought here. And remember too, I didn’t begin the game of praising. I’m reacting to the game of praising our media is doing – trying to ask them to stop it, and if they won’t, asking them to at least play it fair.
Comment by Archis Gore — May 19, 2008 @ 6:49 pm
Just for closure, I’d also add that as I mentioned in the article, “right vs. “wrong” depends greatly on our own point of view.
Moreover, you must allow everyone the freedom to their own definition of “important problem”. Perhaps for Raj, educating hundreds of children in schools is an important problem and I tend to agree with him. He doesn’t disagree that lowering Google’s Data center energy usage is an important problem too.
The difference in both the problems is may not be so much qualitative as it certainly is quantitative. Google’s saving of energy saves them power bills instantly, gets good press, etc. Sticking yourself in a village trying to teach hundreds to read and write has no reward.
However, the “problem” you speak of does apply to rural India as well. You may not have noticed (thanks to the 30 years of work by heroes), but India has a major power crisis too – and one that’s a lot more complex than Google’s. It’s nation-wide and it’s hurting people daily. Anyone wanting to figure out how to save energy has a better problem to solve here, than in Google. Now if someone’s staying in India for solving this big problem, you’re saying we shouldn’t praise them?
Comment by Archis Gore — May 19, 2008 @ 7:16 pm
Omkar,
I really like your statement “the more important problem you solve, the more number of people will get affected”..in my opinion we should also try to attack the problems which affect the ones who “most” needs a solution.
Who uses most of the Google applications? Who are the clients Google target? What is the aim of Google? Is Google wanting to solve energy problems of the world? How “much” can you contribute to the basic problems of your country from working in high-tech companies abroad?
I have some questions which may or may not relate to the topic of discussion – Why are the organisations which work on some very basic problems like education, health etc are “non-profit” organisations? Everyone on earth knows about Google and people are proud to say I work in Google. How many NGO’s you have heard about? When you hear someone say I work in a NGO, whats your reaction in contrast to someone saying I work in Google?
I am not trying to put any rigid opinion and only expecting some true answers and trying to undertand them.
I think you are amongst the lucky who explores “justification for existence”. I think majority of people still “struggle for existence”?
Archis,
I completely agree to and appreciate your last comment.
Comment by rajarshi — May 22, 2008 @ 3:43 pm
I am already impressed. You like Perry Mason!! Wow!! Can i borrow the ones that i dont have / have not read yet….
As for Archis’s… i’d say the right way would be Archis’…
Comment by Ambica — May 23, 2008 @ 5:50 pm
and jane austen too… hmmm…
Comment by Ambica — May 23, 2008 @ 5:51 pm
Good entry. I agree with the point and think those who stayed back are more important than those who left and now want to come back. Frankly, any deed for the betterment of our society is a good deed. No one can rate it better than any other. I would not stop myself of saying that the corrupt politicians are good too. Without them how in this world would be have a job of cleaning to do? What do we do with those 1.2 Billion people, they need some work? May be changing the country is one such job, it needs people and more over in numbers, so why not? I think instead of running behind this fractured Western world why not just do one thing, work at our strengths and just change our country for the better. I am in US as of now and believe me I miss India for its randomness, its naivety, its unpredictable surprises I just love the life back home. I don’t know if those reading back home will understand it… But well I am eager to do my bit in a few years. My education should be done and I should be back where I belong! As for people who left being called elite, I disagree, and would like them to be treated as normal citizen. As for the hype created by media I dont think one should give too much heed to such stupid media hypes. One who wants to change something will work irrespective of media coverage, those who come for show will only sit on a TV show (for a short time). So, take it as a entertainment medium for those half billion who spend most of their life in front of TV and get going with our job(of changing the country). That being said I do agree that those who stayed back deserve the pat and recognition but it will be unfair for media to just do social service without business, and it will be unfair on media’s part again to just think of business and neglect the people who gave them the ability to do this business. As for the balance, it will be struck by people realizing the hype and reality.
…
Comment by Atul Kulkarni — May 24, 2008 @ 12:43 am
The problem today is even those who live in india has forgot their responsibility, students consider going abroad as an option for career not bcoz they want to come back after study to serve country or any other mobel cause that india really strive for but for pay package that is gonna b offer after staying abroad or studying their. They do not even give a thought to country and its conditions. Staying in india is not just enough today, we need to realise the right path for india as we must follow our culture and also serve to poor atleast 1 day in month. We must respect our culture , countrymen and consitution before expecting those who have actually left india.
Omkar u r right when u r saying about viwing a world as a whole but maximum blinds , 2nd highest poor are in india and u can not serve them from us or wherever u r. India needs to be robust from root- education at primary level,mental blockage of rural people socially and then only we can contribute to our nation or humanity.
I just want to share a fact
“those who leave india ,even leave indianism so ddo not expect that heart touching bond for us from them; just co-operate who are really working at grassroot level little or more no matter”
Comment by Hetali — June 17, 2008 @ 2:21 pm