Saturday, May 10, 2008

Hypocrisy of Indian students

These days we come across many Indian students wanting to go abroad for further studies. Nothing wrong with that. But while some of these students return back home after finishing their further studies, most don't choose to return. They take up a job there, rent an apartment or if their mommies and daddies are rich, buy homes in suburbs there, and lead their lives there. A significant chunk of the latter type say they don't want to come back to India because India is oh-so dirty and filthy and USA or whichever foreign country they go to study is oh-so clean, etc.

It's quite sad that these people who were born and brought up in India - their motherland - should speak of their home country in such degrading manner. After spending around 20 years of their lives here, after just two months into their stint abroad, they start liking everything and anything about foreign countries. Suddenly, they find all the world's faults in India only.

The worse part is that they equate settling abroad with success. In other words, they think if you want to achieve true success, go to USA and settle there! This is one of the most ridiculous philosophies. Didn't prominent Indians like the Tatas, Birlas, Ambanis achieved success despite living and worked in India? Are they all mad? With all due respect, there are many Indians who have settled in US and drive taxis or work at gas stations. That's hardly success, but nevertheless a job is a job. Somebody's got to to do it, and I respect that. But to term going to US with being successful in life, is ridiculous. You can be as successful in India as you can be anywhere in the world.

True, the quality of life in some of the developed nations is much better than in India. Here, you cannot get most of the things done without greasing people's palms. Infrastructure has crumbled and discipline is beyond repair now. But at least people working for the Indian economy do not feel that with their money, their government goes about attacking other nations and being a world bully.

No nation is a perfect nation. Every country has its positives and negatives, including the developed and developing ones. It's how you lead your life and what you do, matters. Now whether you sit in India and do that or even Somalia or choose to settle in some of the affluent nations, it doesn't really matter. How clean your surroundings are does not tell a person's character and true worth. Indian students wanting to go abroad and thinking of settling there should remember this.

Even people studying in prestigious institutions like IIT dream of settling abroad. Here in India, education is still a privilege. As per my estimates, at least 80 per cent of India's population must be illiterate or could not afford education. Affluent urbanites that get quality education do not want to put their education to use in India - and therefore return something back to society - but are more interested in settling abroad. My solution: Cancel the Indian citizenships of students that work abroad for more than five years and choose not to return to India, thereafter. I doubt whether this is feasible, but if they don't want their motherland, the motherland shouldn't want them, too.

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