Times of India (and me) on “Disenchanted NRIs”

Read an interesting article today that validates a lot of what we have been saying about India. This is an article in the Times of India called “Home Truths” by Amrita Singh. The byline says “For these disenchanted NRIs, India wasn’t what they thought it to be”. Apart from the usual misuse of the work NRI, and a few other minor points, the article is dead on. Let me outline the issues discussed there and add a few:

1. Lack of Work Culture: Most Indians don’t have any. Yes, there is that that tiny subset of Indians who do have it - they are fabulously successful people who compete on the global stage and even on that stage they are the best. I am sure you can name quite a few such people and perhaps you are one of them. But those are the exceptions. You only have to look around you in any office setting to see people doing “jack” almost all of the time. In Marathi we even have a name for it -it's called "Patya Takne". There are many reasons for this – not the least of which is our colonial heritage, but I’ll save that analysis for another blog, another time.

2. No respect for time: Let me add, no respect for others or their time. As Ms. Kuppam, a transplant from America says in the article “…nobody shows up on time, be it maids, drivers, vendors or contractors.” And I can add, colleagues, people you do business with or socialize with (not for long in my case). People will show up literally hours late and they don’t even apologize! Apparently it is expected if you are an important person. Bleaah!

3. A bias against people who have had global experience: Need I say more? Yes, everything bad is American, everything good is Indian – might well be the theme song of some people I meet. In fact, the only good things in America apparently are the Indians who have made it big, like Vinod Khosla or Indra Nooyi. It’s okay to be proud of India and its many achievements. But don’t confuse other Indians’ success with your own.

4. A culture of dependence: I have already talked about this in a previous blog – but you just cannot do without some servants. You can have all the appliances you want, but they might not work (and it takes weeks, sometimes months to get warranty service), or there might not be any electricity, or someone has to come visit (unannounced of course) or any number of things…. And as I wrote earlier, if I did not have a driver, my blood pressure would 900/800 or I would be in jail for killing people on the street.

5. Poor education: This deserves a whole book by itself, but teaching is still continued in the best schools the way it was when I went to school – rote learning, abuse thinly disguised as discipline, no teaching material beyond some very poor textbooks and on and on. And the bad schools (especially the new ones), the less said the better.

Now let me add a few of my own.

6. Corruption and greed: This is ruining the very fabric of society here and people here are too passive, too scared or too corrupt already to change anything. Again, this needs more space but maybe I’ll get into it in an upcoming blog.

7. Arrogance: Like I said, nobody here wants to hear any criticism, whether of themselves or of India or anything Indian. They think things here couldn’t be better. You want proof? I’ll bet you most Indians who read this will leave a lot of hateful comments on this blog.

8. No infrastructure: Last month we had 40 hour power cuts here. You head it right – 40 hours during the week, typically at the busiest times (since that’s when the load is highest) there is no power. The roads are a joke, traffic is a complete mess, and there is no public transportation. Most of it is because of corrupt politicians who are lining their pockets (see 6 above) and a passive population who won’t throw them out.

Well there is more, and I am exhausted by the negativity of what I wrote, but I guess it must be said.

Next time I will bring you something positive. Really, I promise.