by Narayan
June 30, 2010 in Community News, Email Newsletter
Admissions for Foreign Nationals/Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs)/Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) under Direct Admission Of Students Abroad (DASA) Scheme for the Academic Year 2010-11 to National Institutes of Technology (NITs), IIITs and other premier Technical Institutions in India. Check http://www.dasanit.org
Read the rest of this entry →
by Narayan
June 26, 2010 in Community Debate, Regional Flavors, Uncategorized, Values & Culture Clash
Having grown up in a traditional South Indian family, I have been a proud vegetarian all my life. It is quite normal among most Indians in India and NRIs here to separate non-vegetarian food while accommodating vegetarians like me.
Once we were in a Pizza Hut. An NRI boy was serving and we ordered a Vegetarian Pizza. He promptly brought the Pizza. To our bad luck there were couple of pieces of meat. When we requested this boy to take it back and bring a new Pizza, he looked surprised. He instead asked us to take out the meat pieces and eat. We explained to him that we were vegetarians and do not do that, this only infuriated him.
This boy was either ashamed of telling this apparently weired request of his kind of people to the manager or he himself had no sensitivity to how Indian vegetarians feel when their food is mixed with non-vegetarian food.
In any country a business needs to know everything about its customer and their pet peeves to be successful. However, it was surprising to me that an Indian boy, who should have known more about the customs and habits of its fellow beings more than the American people was not privy to any of these details, instead he looked down upon them. This lack of sensitivity is an issue of upbringing or complete nonalignment of this boy from the cultural nuances of the Indian people. This is just one example of how our next generation would drift away from the subtler issues of cultural differences and become alienated from Indian culture and what its people like or dislike.
In the coming decades ascendancy of India as a economic super power will only benefit those kids that pay attention to details of our culture. If only they learn these nuances and become culturally fit, they can earn the trust of other Indians, do business and succeed.
What do you think?
by Narayan
June 25, 2010 in Values & Culture Clash
It is the general experience of many people that getting business from Indians is very hard. They are very particular about what they want and have enormous patience to do endless research. In the process they end up running sales people in circles. We can understand this nature due to larger population of India and lesser value for individual time. It is quite common in India for the government bureaucrats to send people from pillar to post to get any thing done. Are these attitudes or ‘values’ extending to NRI’s and the next generation? What do you think?
by Narayan
June 24, 2010 in Community Debate, Email Newsletter, Values & Culture Clash
Indian civilization has evolved over thousands of years. Many foreign invaders and immigrants rushed into India in its glory days. Most of them assimilated into the Indian culture. Many regional traditions, languages and customs survived even as people migrated from one part of India to the other for various reasons. It is a fact that people who migrated within India continue to speak their native languages or its mutations and retain their family customs for thousands of years without any inhibition or societal pressures to change. There is TRUE freedom in India. The cultural differences are acknowledged and appreciated through out India.
As Indians started migrating out of India, many of them retained their culture in different parts of the world during pre and post colonial worlds. However there is a stark difference between immigrants that went to Africa, Caribbeans or Fiji islands to those that immigrated to the West.
It is noticeable that Gujarati’s from East Africa and others have tried to retain their language, culture and customs, whereas most NRI kids lose appreciation for their heritage within a generation of living in the West.
Is this because there was a sense of superior feeling for our heritage among people who migrated to other parts of the world? Is the negative stereotype of India portrayed in Western media and their attitudes towards the developing world got anything to do with it in the West? Is it the object materialism of many Western people who worships richness acquired by hook or crook, or it is the arrogance acquired from long spell of richness that has lead to downplaying other cultures? In any case, this environment must have rubbed on our younger generation. Most first generation NRI’s come into this country with their heads high and with no inferiority complex to their beliefs and customs. That is not necessarily true for the next generation, which needs to live with the strange accents of its parents and at times ridicule of its culture. This situation may last until such time India stands to stay tall and shoulder to shoulder with USA, Japan or Germany.
These are the issues that need to be understood and debated. What do you think?
by Narayan
June 20, 2010 in Values & Culture Clash
NRI Parents: Translate “TAMSO MA JYOTIR GAMYA” into Hindi
NETIP Kids: Tum so jao maa, main Jyoti ke paas jaa rahaa hoon
