The American Dream

Back when I was in high school, one of my favorite teachers asked the class a de-facto question, 'What do you want to become in life?'

Well you know the possible answers, "Doctor, Engineer, CA, Lawyer" etc. But one of my friends surprised us by explicitly stating, "I just wanna goto the US, get a job and settle down in life!". It sounds kind of shocking, isnt it? But isnt this what so many of us have been doing for decades now??

It has also become very common for elders to have a strong negative opinion about going to US. Its selfish, you lose your cultural and moral values, you prefer profession over relations, its brain drain, you get detached from your country, essentially you get spoiled...

So what makes US so special and attractive for the youth? Is the motivation to go abroad plain selfish? Can patriotism and giving back to your motherland happen only when you are standing on its soil? Do most of us do anything at all for our country whether we are working in some MNC in India or abroad?

Do all people living in the home country have the best of their personal lives with all their cultural and moral values intact? How many of us have remained with the whole family in the same city where we were born throughout our lives? It takes 36 hours from Mumbai to Chennai by train. You will reach there earlier if you take a flight from New York.

People say its highly unfair that you get all your education in India, sponsored by all sincere tax payers in the country (though its a minority its their money that funds public universities! - my sympathies for them) and finally end up working for foreign companies and pay taxes to foreign governments. Sounds bad right? But we need to realize that its the NRIs who bring invaluable dollars(and other currencies too) back home! Its this inflow of foreign currency into the Indian banks (regulated by RBI) that boosts the value of our Rupee in the international market! So please dont accuse the 'selfish' NRIs all the time!

At present, Indians are settled in almost every corner of the world. No matter which country you goto you are bound to bump into a Desi. We are there everywhere! (Well, so are the Chinese!) People who left our country have fought the toughest battles and achieved so much in every aspect of life and made the presence of India be felt globally! We work in every big Multi-National Company there could possibly be, do astounding research in every ground-breaking research lab you could think of, teach at the best universities in the world, lead big projects in International Banks! Does it make you feel proud?

We have sent a clear message to the world, 'We are here to stay!' and this has happened only because the best of our talents - able administrators, skilled researchers, enterprising entrepreneurs, industrious CEOs and last but not the least, all the hard-working souls from India have been contributing to the progress of the nation, both from inside and outside.

To make your home the best, you need to do two things,
1. Clean up and organize the inside
2. Go out, look at other homes and give back what our home still lacks in.

Lets do the same for our homeland! People have started. All that we need to do is lend our hands!

Think about it...

And the next time someone says going to US is just for self-centered personal gains, direct them to this blog!