In 2009, my wife and I were on a short holiday in
Switzerland. The day after we arrived, we took a conducted sightseeing tour of
Zurich. It was a cool, bright and sunny day. We got into a fancy looking bus
with large glass windows. Apart from my wife and I, there were a newly married
couple from Hyderabad - both IT professionals, a young couple from NOIDA with
two sweet little kids, a group of charmingly jovial Gujarati families and few other nationals,
mostly Japanese. It was a small bus and
half the seats were taken by Indians.
Each seat had an earphone with a choice of buttons on
a panel fixed on the back of the seat ahead. Each button showed a flag and a
language. One had the option of
listening to the running commentary in the language of one’s choice. The driver
introduced us to the function of the buttons. He was a friendly, middle aged
guy. He must have noticed that most of his passengers that morning were
Indians. After his short speech, he said with a chuckle, “Sorry guys, no ‘Indian’
button”.
The Japanese crowd enjoyed the statement; they would …
there was a button for their language. Their leader, with two large cameras
hanging from his delicate shoulder, gave us a broad smile. I smiled back and
said “Another five years at the most, you will find an Indian button as well”. The
young Indian crowd cheered.
My statement was prophetic! And, it did not take five
years. Five days later, we were in Lucerne, a city with breath-taking
surroundings. We took another conducted tour of the city. The seats have similar earphones and buttons
like the ones we saw in Zurich. Suddenly, my wife reacted with uncharacteristic
exuberance,
“Hey, look”.
“What?” I responded in surprise.
She pointed to a button in front us. Lo and behold,
there was indeed a button with our tricolour engraved next to it. Curious, we pressed the button. The effect
was magical. Far away from our shores, in an alien land that had no significant
historical ties with India, came a sonorous female voice through the earphone,
“Namaskar, Lucerne shahar-me aapka swagat hai”.
Honestly, I was pleased but not surprised. Just a few
days earlier, we were waiting for a train at the Interlaken rail station right
in front of a snack bar. The menu on display had a wide range of snacks like
sandwiches, croissants, cakes, cookies, chocolates, soft drinks, tea, coffee
etc. Just above the menu board was a prominently displayed handwritten sign
that read “Hot samosas available here”.
Indian professional are spreading far and wide led by
the young IT professionals. IT professionals, in particular, are conquering the
world like Alexander’s army. Other
professionals are not far behind. Earlier, the preferred destination was
USA. These days, young Indian professionals
are working at different industries in Europe as well, in Research &
Development and Design and Manufacturing. Two factors have made this possible;
firstly, a fast growing aging population in Europe and secondly, the availability
of appropriate human resources in India. India’s bulging population thought to be a
liability two decades ago turned out to be an asset. The current emergence of
Indians everywhere in the world can under no circumstances be termed as the
much feared “brain drain” of yore. On the contrary, it is a long term “brain
investment”. The penchant of educated Indians settling abroad is on a decline
these days. More Indians are returning home after a stint abroad, enriching the
nation with foreign currency and more importantly, skill, expertise and
technology. I met a young Indian IT professional last year in USA, successful
and well settled with all the frills of an “American Dream”. His firm statement
that he was planning to return home reflects the current mind set.
Middle East has been a favourite pasture of Indian
professionals of all categories since the 50’s. In the early 80’s, when I was
still new in this region, I was sent to Bahrain on a project on behalf of my
company in Kuwait. I was young and had no friends in Bahrain. I was in a hurry to get back. One evening, I
told my hosts to leave me alone in the office. I wanted to finish the task in
hand. I assured them that I could get a
taxi to return to my hotel. I finished
at 9 PM. It was a cold December night and I found one lone taxi at the stand. It
was an elderly Arab at the driver’s seat. My Arabic was pathetic. I hesitantly
approached the taxi. I made a lot of hand gestures and spattered a few Arabic
words I had picked up to tell him that I would like to go to Hotel Diplomat. The driver was smart, he understood and
gestured that it would cost me a couple of dinars. I agreed. He opened the
door. As he started the car he said, almost absent-mindedly, “aaj bahut
thanda hai bhai sahab, hum heating chalu karta hain, thik hai?”
He spoke fluent Hindi! In fact, Hindi movies run in packed houses in several
Arab countries.
A foreign ministry official was once asked about the
total numbers of Indians and people of Indian origin residing abroad. The
figure given by him was thirty million, roughly. Obviously he did not have an
exact figure. In response, a journalist
quipped, “Plus another half a million in different transit lounges all around
the world”. Yes, the number of Indians travelling has also increased
significantly. These days they travel with their laptops and blackberries. I
once met an old associate at London’s Heathrow absorbed on the screen of his
laptop early in the morning. On my query, he replied sheepishly that Bombay
Stock Exchange had just opened with a hike and he just booked some profit.
The Ministry of Overseas Indians Affairs has some
interesting statistics on its website. According to information available with
the ministry, Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and People of Indian Origin (PIO) are
scattered over two hundred countries across the globe, including some obscure
countries like Republic of Palau with 14 Indians and Niue with 3. There are 20
in Albania, 50 in Croatia and 10 in Dominican Republic. There are in fact 20 in
Cuba and 16 in Nicaragua. One might
wonder what these people do for a living. Unfortunately, the ministry is silent
on this aspect. I wonder where these people get their consular services from!
Philippines boasts of about fifty thousand citizens of
Indian origin. Their ancestors mostly went from Sind and Punjab. Sindhis are generally in business and had
migrated well before the country was partitioned. Though their original habitat
is not in India any more, they still proudly proclaim their Indian identity.
When Sushmita Sen was declared Miss Universe in 1994 in Manila, they declared handsome
discounts on all merchandise for a whole week!
There was an amazing scenario in April 2010, when
prime minster Manmohan Sigh and president Obama met in Washington DC. Singh was
being assisted by Jaideep Sarkar, a young dynamic officer of the Indian Foreign
Service. Incidentally, Obama’s principal
aid was Anish Goel, supposedly a rising star in US administration. The presence
of Indian-Americans in the current US administration is so strong, that
Pakistan government has been expressing its apprehension about the “Indian
lobby” influencing US global policy!
There was a strong rumour sometimes back that Bobby
Jindal, the governor of Louisiana might offer himself as a presidential or a
vice presidential candidate in the future.
Jindal subsequently denied the story albeit a bit mildly. However, members
of the Indian Diaspora heading governments far beyond the shores of the country
are not a rare sight. S.R Nathan has been the president of Singapore since
1999. Anand Satyanand is the current governor general of New Zealand representing
the Queen of England. Ms. Kamala Persad-Bissessar was elected as the first woman prime minister
of Trinidad & Tobago in May 2010. Mahatir Mohammad, the former prime
minister of Malaysia is of Indian ancestry; his grandfather migrated from
Kerala many years ago. Governments of Mauritius has been dominated by Ramgoolams
and Jagnauts for a long time. Nikki
Haley (aka Nimrata Randhawa) was the
Republican nominee in the South Carolina gubernatorial election, 2010 at the time of writing. Ujjal Dev Singh Dosanjh was the prime minister of British Columbia earlier in
the past decade.
I often wonder if the current quest for globalization
that the country has adopted is at all necessary. Because, slowly and subtly,
the rest of the world is getting Indianised. No wonder the most popular British
food now is Chicken Tikka Masala and it is official.
Jai Hind.
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