I am an Indian, and have spent most of my life in India. The only time I have gone out is for short work related trips, and even they were mostly professional in nature. Yes we in India have a multitude of problems to deal with, from a corrupt administration, where we have to bribe people to get everything done, to bad roads, traffic jams and power cuts. And if you stay in Bangalore, you have to put up with paying a fortune to stay in a rabbit hole, which you have to call a home. Oh yes poverty, communal clashes, riots, crime, pathetic public transport, dirty cities and one can keep going on and on. But does life in India suck?
One common refrain I hear from people abroad is that the West offers better career opportunities and growth. Well that could have been the case in the 70’s and 80’s when a stagnating economy and low growth, forced many to migrate abroad. But due to globalization, we have equally good career opportunities in India also. I can vouch for my example, I started off with a small IT firm way back in 2000, and today I work for GE. And no I am not an exceptional genius either, in fact my academics are very average. But today if you work hard enough in India, and prove your worth, companies do recognize it, and you can have a good career growth. And unlike earlier phases where only IT field had good opportunities, nowadays you have equally good career opportunities in other fields too like banking, insurance, travel, retail. Of course if you believe in measuring career growth in amount of $$ u earn, I cant do anything about it. And yes if you are speaking of bossism, politics, groupism they exist in every company in the world. Companies hire all types of people because they need expertise and you end up with an assortment of both good and bad. I mean I really don’t feel, that migrating to West for issues like career growth makes any sense now. I would rather work in a reputed firm in India, rather than doing coolie work for a techno sweat shop( yeah they call them consultants) in US.
Yes in the West, you do get better exposure to the world. But almost every MNC sends people on assignments abroad. Also with communication reducing distances around the world, you can be sitting in Bangalore, and chatting with people in Boston or Brussels to resolve issues. You have email, chat, video conferencing, and what not? Again coming to the talk of global exposure, does a person who interacts with a client through email or phone or communication have less exposure than a person who actually interacts with the client. There could be but not to a very significant extent. Once upon a time, world class practices were not easily available to Indian companies, but with easing of regulations, almost every Indian company is acquitted with the latest trends and practices. Let me be very honest, I don’t at all for a moment, buy the theory, that a person working abroad, is more brainy or more efficient than a person working in India. In fact I have myself worked with some of those smart alecs in US, and I was thankful that we didn’t have to suffer their brains and ego here in India.
That brings me to another issue, that of money. Yes the dollar has more value than rupee. And what you earn in dollars is significantly more than what you earn in Rs out here. But one sec, do the people really enjoy that money they are making. I might be earning much less than people out here abroad, but if I want to go for a movie with my family or I want to have a dinner at a restaurant, I wont spend time trying to factor how much dollars it would cost, and how many equivalent Indian rupees that would be. I don’t need to try to learn how to cut my hair or cook food, because there are many saloons and low cost messes, where I can get my hair cut or have good Indian food, without paying a fortune. And regarding financial status, its not what you are earning, but how you manage it that’s more critical. If you are able to manage your finances well, and invest your money properly, you can still have a comfortable life in India. And you might be earning in dollars, and you might be making a fortune, but if you don’t manage it properly, doesn’t in any way makes the least difference. Yes maybe I cant buy expensive cars, huge mansions and fancy toys for my kids with what I make in India. But I can give my children a decent education, get proper medical treatment and an equally good life in India.
Comes the question of quality of life. Ok now what do you mean by quality of life? I haven’t yet had a satisfactory reply, because it means many things to many people. Yes India might not have casinos, stripper joints , but yes, that doesn’t in any way lessen the quality of our life. We have theatres where we can watch a movie without paying a fortune for it. We have parks and beaches, yes they are badly maintained and dirty, but still we can go and relax there. On weekends we go out with our families to a movie or dinner or maybe another relative’s place. And its not that we are frogs in a well either, most of us are well acquainted with what’s happening in the world thanks to Internet and cable TV. We have bookshops and libraries where we get really good books. And yes if we need to go on a holiday, we have lot of good places in India, we have beaches, hill stations, historical places, pilgrimage centers. Yeah maybe the hotels suck, but we still enjoy our trips, and have fun there. Yes maybe if quality of life you mean beaches with bikini clad babes, glitzy casinos and such stuff, I am afraid, India is not the right place.