ABCDs - Dear All.. India is changing..
One more contributions to the IFMR's jargon world. Well, one is popular with crossover cinema and if you have watched movies like Flavours or American Desi you might be familiar with the jargon ABCD which stands for American born Confused Desis. Well, these people look American, they dress American, they eat burgers and pizzas (or crave for that) and from the core of their heart they want to change the world. And to make the matter more complex they think that India is one place where they can find a lot of developmental work partly for two reasons -
1) The image of hungry India, poor India projected by the media world over. The BPOs have been projected like cheap labour all over the world and no one discusses that how BPOs are adding to the bottom line of the top MNC's. Else many US based MNC's have to close shops and then find peace in no other place than Himalayas. Koreans, Japanese, Chinese and now Indians are all set to take them head on. So it serves as an ideal destination for developmental work and perhaps they can reduce their cognitive dissonance by serving their ancestral land. Well, this is what I term as Mother Teressa Syndrome.
2) A little money goes long way here and this is one of the reasons that why people are attracted towards this country.
My little Story -
They come to this country with lot of suspicion and doubts. Like malaria, sketchy toilets, sketchy restaurants, water etc etc. I remember my MIT friends coming with 20$ mosquito nets which they never got a chance to use. We were carrying out some developmental work in Punjab in association with Design for Change at MIT and on a village trip, they wanted to interview some villager. Well, inspite of all the well built houses in that remote village of Punjab they chose to enter a small house with thatched roof to find a glimpse of hungry poor India but they were surprised to see fridge, air cooler, colour tele vision and other comforts in that small house. They gave me a puzzled look and I answered with a smile that " I think, India have changed dear". I can't say the same about a village in Bihar and Orissa but then for that matter there are still many misconceptions about this country.
Recent encounter -
Recently I read a blog post of one of the summer interns at our institute who is I guess an American born but of Indian origin. I laughed after reading her worries about Garnier Fructis Conditioner which she thought she won't be able to find in Chennai. Gimme a break! for god sake at-least you have to know that Chennai is a metro. I did my engineering from a village in Punjab and I was buying Garnier Fructis (almost all varieties) since last 4 years. What to say about such kind of worries perhaps India will become one of the most important markets for Garnier in next 3-4 years. Anyways all I can say to these people that "India have changed dear".
They have notions in their mind about inviting stares and attention and may be that feeling of supremacy or being the foreigner or special. You walk to a place like Sathyam cineplex or Mayazaal complex or for that matter any shopping malls, you will find people minding their own business and nobody stares at nobody. But if you walk with your consciousness weighing some extra pounds perhpas wherever you will go you will feel people are staring at you.
Anyways, its not like I am glorifying India it's just like there are always two sides to a coin or for that matter a city or a country. It depends which side you prefer to focus on. I can't ignore the pot holes on the roads but at the same time I couldn't ignore the expressways either. I am aware of the poverty ridden states like Bihar and Orissa but then there are Punjab and Haryana also. If you come with a mindset of that Indians are poor, India is conservative, under developed blah blah, you will see it all around. If you come with a mindset of adapting to a new culture, exploring a new side of life, you will find a lot of life around. This country truly is changing and I have been a part of it.
1) The image of hungry India, poor India projected by the media world over. The BPOs have been projected like cheap labour all over the world and no one discusses that how BPOs are adding to the bottom line of the top MNC's. Else many US based MNC's have to close shops and then find peace in no other place than Himalayas. Koreans, Japanese, Chinese and now Indians are all set to take them head on. So it serves as an ideal destination for developmental work and perhaps they can reduce their cognitive dissonance by serving their ancestral land. Well, this is what I term as Mother Teressa Syndrome.
2) A little money goes long way here and this is one of the reasons that why people are attracted towards this country.
My little Story -
They come to this country with lot of suspicion and doubts. Like malaria, sketchy toilets, sketchy restaurants, water etc etc. I remember my MIT friends coming with 20$ mosquito nets which they never got a chance to use. We were carrying out some developmental work in Punjab in association with Design for Change at MIT and on a village trip, they wanted to interview some villager. Well, inspite of all the well built houses in that remote village of Punjab they chose to enter a small house with thatched roof to find a glimpse of hungry poor India but they were surprised to see fridge, air cooler, colour tele vision and other comforts in that small house. They gave me a puzzled look and I answered with a smile that " I think, India have changed dear". I can't say the same about a village in Bihar and Orissa but then for that matter there are still many misconceptions about this country.
Recent encounter -
Recently I read a blog post of one of the summer interns at our institute who is I guess an American born but of Indian origin. I laughed after reading her worries about Garnier Fructis Conditioner which she thought she won't be able to find in Chennai. Gimme a break! for god sake at-least you have to know that Chennai is a metro. I did my engineering from a village in Punjab and I was buying Garnier Fructis (almost all varieties) since last 4 years. What to say about such kind of worries perhaps India will become one of the most important markets for Garnier in next 3-4 years. Anyways all I can say to these people that "India have changed dear".
They have notions in their mind about inviting stares and attention and may be that feeling of supremacy or being the foreigner or special. You walk to a place like Sathyam cineplex or Mayazaal complex or for that matter any shopping malls, you will find people minding their own business and nobody stares at nobody. But if you walk with your consciousness weighing some extra pounds perhpas wherever you will go you will feel people are staring at you.
Anyways, its not like I am glorifying India it's just like there are always two sides to a coin or for that matter a city or a country. It depends which side you prefer to focus on. I can't ignore the pot holes on the roads but at the same time I couldn't ignore the expressways either. I am aware of the poverty ridden states like Bihar and Orissa but then there are Punjab and Haryana also. If you come with a mindset of that Indians are poor, India is conservative, under developed blah blah, you will see it all around. If you come with a mindset of adapting to a new culture, exploring a new side of life, you will find a lot of life around. This country truly is changing and I have been a part of it.
1 comment:
well said..btw,garnier is out with sachets too..saw them in a really small departmental store last week..now thts taking india pretty seriously :)
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