Patriot missive

This post started off as a comment to divster's article and as usual I ended up indulging myself. I am extremely apprehensive about posting this. But I guess I'll go ahead anyway. I guess the brickbats wont affect me since I am the doppelganger. (heh heh heh)

Frankly I think most of the decisions about settling down are based on the sole issue of money. I guess there are a lot of people with values, but my incurable cynicism and the incredible statistics tell me that this is not about patriotism or family values or anything like that. We live in a time when patriotism really has such little meaning. The historical background for feeling a sense of patriotism is gone and the seamless globalization prevalent nowadays is not helping the cause. Coming to "being close to the family". There is a tremendous contradiction there. All through the sixties and seventies when India was going through turbulent times, the NRI return percentage was close to zero. In fact, people were even tempted by family et. al to try their fortunes abroad. India was abandoned as a sort of hopeless place for the development of an enterprising individual. Cut to the 21st century, where by some slingshot of fortune, a certain Manmohan Singh and the undying "Indian spirit", we have been catapulted into a position of power and potency. Urban India can compete with many cities on a wide range of counts.

Put yourself in an NRI's shoes. Here in the US, you are a second rate citizen, just another of a plethora of rich people. If you come back to India, because of the multiplicative factor of 42, you can answer all the questions of life and realise your dreams. You will be treated like a king. You can enjoy all the clubs and pubs and parties and be hailed a great patriot, the saviour who has come to deliver us. And this is just the minor reason. The major reason, of course is that the most promising emerging market is in India. If you ever had the slightest idea about starting a company, the place for enterprise is India. You can be CEO of some company which does exactly what a 100 companies around the world do, but because you have experience with the Indian market, you can harness every sixth customer in the world.

And then you can decorate this fully (though I hate to use the word) "selfish" pursuit with things like family values. All through the article thirty something wives harp about their children getting a shot of culture(like it was possible). Like their once in a lifetime pilgrimage to India is going to save their souls from purgatory. I would like to ask any of these people if they could live away from the metropolitans, say in a place like Agra or something. Can any of these parents or their children actually embrace "true" Indian culture with its restrictions and all. Methinks not. They are back here because the socio - culturo - economical landscape has changed so much that it is very close to something in the US. And you can still hear grumbling noises within. The "schools aren't upto the mark", "do they hit the children", "is this water boiled", "we dont go to the temple cos there's religion everywhere". The truth really is that urban India has afforded a false environment in which these people can live exactly like before, but I am sorry to inform them that this is not INDIA.

I guess I have been caustic as usual but the truth is its a really complicated issue especially with the amorphous meaning of patriotism in our times. I personally think that we really should not make a big deal about people who are making a glorious return. In fact it was quite funny when, about a year ago, the US and Indian government hailed the Indian american community. That, I feel epitomised the meaninglessness of patriotism in our times. Two countries had no regrets about citizen traffic since the cash registers were ringing on both sides. The individual today is pretty much the same. Like Frank Zappa said, " We're all in it for the money".


P.S. Frank Zappa also said " Rock journalism is about people who cant write interviewing people who cant talk for people for people who cant read."