Of course
gone are the times when only the riches could afford to go abroad or be able to
send their kids away to a foreign country mainly ' The Americassss'. I mean of
course still it's a dream for the masses in India but retrospective things have
changed especially for bustling metropolitan crowd from cities like Delhi, Bombay,
Bangalore etc. With the massive growth in the purchasing power of Indians in
the recent times, rich becoming richer and evolution of the financial sector
wherein banks are no more so stringent about giving loans to students who wish
to pursue their higher education abroad, there has been a tremendous and
multiplying surge in the numbers of students venturing overseas. And it's just
not the students, numbers are equally higher for immigrants and professionals
as well. But as obvious as it may seem, why such a never ending trend? Aren't
we happy to live here in our own home country? Aren't there enough job opportunities here? Is our standard of
living and quality of education so bad or let's say competitive that sustainability
becomes difficult and its drives us to step away? Or because it's a family trend or let's just
say it's a badge that we want to flaunt (don't we Indians just love doing that
anyway)? Or is the whole socio-political and economic environment in this
country ?(which has been legendarily corrupted, since god knows when) But whatever the reason be, increase in
brain-drain hasn't stopped and I wonder on my own personal front and because of
my own personal experience, if given an opportunity why wouldn't an individual
go? Reasons are repetitive and have been
heard of already, better job prospect, better standard of living, better
educational facilities etc etc and of course 'Dollar' and 'Pound' has its own
charm!!! (not sounding bombastic, rhetorical and pretentious). But of course everything has its own pros and
cons, grass isn't always greener on the other end. Competing in another country
for everything amongst its own country mates is a challenge in itself, cases of
racism is prevalent everywhere(but don't we have that in our own country as
well) etc. Yes of course being away from one's home country has its price tag
attached, we are away from our family and friends, we sometimes miss the hustle
bustle, miss the festivals( as a matter of fact I think Indians abroad are more
Indian than Indians in India) etc. But at the end of the day given the
professional world we are in, what would bring bread and butter to our table,
our patriotism or the better paying job? What would make us happy, pollution,
power shortage, water shortage or a better standard of living where one can
even drink water from the running tap?
Of course
cribbing and just complaining won't solve any problems, we can have endless
discussions and endless debates but at the end of the day we all know what the
problems are, which if not acted upon soon and rectified, will continue to stir
problems for our nation.
