Do you browse a number of blogs on a regular basis? Do you regularly visit news websites and wade through the scores of articles? If you answered yes to either or both questions, and you are not using a web feed reader, you should continue reading this post. If you are already using a feed reader, you don't have to read further.
What is a web feed?
A web feed is a special file which lists the headline and summary of content posted to a website. The headlines and summaries are usually listed in chronological order of the posting.
More information: Web Feed on Wikipedia.
What is a feed reader?
The raw web feed looks something like this on your browser: Libran Lover's Web Feed.
A feed reader is a software application which reads the web feed and displays it in a way that you can read easily. A feed reader has a few nifty features including the ability to "subscribe" to a large number of webfeeds and keeping track of what items you have read and have not read. Feed readers are also called as aggregators.
More information: Aggregator on Wikipedia.
Web Feeds and Emails - A Comparison
Suppose every time new content is posted to your favorite blog or news website, an email was sent to you. Suppose the subject of the mail is the title of the blog post or news item, and the content of the mail is the summary (usually the top few lines) or the entire contents of the blog post or news item. Would this not make it much easier for you to know of updates to your favorite websites? It is certainly easier than visiting every website and checking for updated material... especially if you are a person who regularly visits a dozen or more websites. A web feed of a website is a file which contains a list of such emails about content posted on that site.
Suppose you had half a dozen web-based email accounts, and you had to log on to a different website to access each email account. Would that not be a pain? This is exactly what you do when you visit a different website to check each one of your favorite blogs and news sites.
Suppose it was possible to have emails from all your email accounts routed to one place, to one website. This is exactly what a web feed reader does with content from your favorite websites. You can access and browse through a large number of web feeds on one website or screen.
There are web-based feed readers (Eg: Google Reader) as well as feed reader software that you can download and install on your computer (Eg: RSS Bandit). The difference between a web-based feed reader and a feed reader application you install on the computer is similar to the difference between web-based email and an email application (like Microsoft Outlook). The latter is much better than the former (as of now).
The feed reader I use right now is a free installed-application called RSS Bandit. It has really made my life easier. Click here for screenshots of the application and decide for yourself if it might be of use for you.
More feed readers: List of Feed Readers on Wikipedia.
Saturday, February 25, 2006
Friday, February 24, 2006
Good mentor and a good team
A good mentor and a good team are two invaluable things to have at the work place.
Today, we had the project status review with managers, leads and our project team, for the project I have been leading since July last year. We have completed the system testing. We will complete regression test by the end of March and then implement.
I was quite happy with how the review went. A few people came upto me after the review and expressed their appreciation. That made me happier.
A large part of the credit goes to KathyG, my mentor, and the rest of the team. I just kept it all together and on track. KathyG, was the project manager who did the initial project plan, estimation and kick-off. She then guided us at some important stages in the project. That set a great foundation for the rest of the work which followed. The team is experienced and mature, and most of the time they only need to be told what to do and when. They figure out the best way to do it on their own.
It is indeed highly helpful to have a good mentor and a good team at work. I hope I will always have those two through my career.
Today, we had the project status review with managers, leads and our project team, for the project I have been leading since July last year. We have completed the system testing. We will complete regression test by the end of March and then implement.
I was quite happy with how the review went. A few people came upto me after the review and expressed their appreciation. That made me happier.
A large part of the credit goes to KathyG, my mentor, and the rest of the team. I just kept it all together and on track. KathyG, was the project manager who did the initial project plan, estimation and kick-off. She then guided us at some important stages in the project. That set a great foundation for the rest of the work which followed. The team is experienced and mature, and most of the time they only need to be told what to do and when. They figure out the best way to do it on their own.
It is indeed highly helpful to have a good mentor and a good team at work. I hope I will always have those two through my career.
Friday, February 10, 2006
Last day with my first company
Today is my last day with the first company for whom I started working full-time in my life: W Technologies (referred to henceforth as W). Being in the young Indian IT industry, when I started with them on 12th August 1997, I never thought I would stay with them for eight-and-half years! Makes me nostalgic.
I am moving to a new company from Monday, Feb 13th, 2006. From a core-IT company with more than 40000 employees, I am going to a company which has only around 6500 employees! My new company is not even in the IT business. So, the number of IT people in the company is probably around 400-500 only! It will be interesting trying to be a bigger fish in a smaller pond. We shall see how it goes.
I have mixed feelings about leaving an India-based company and working for a US-based one. I hope it all works out in the long run. It is definitely starting to work out in the short term because I am starting at a pay-level which is 50% greater than my W pay. And no, I am not getting a spectacularly high salary. It is just that my W pay has been lousy, to put it mildly.
- We were studying at home for the final exams of my bachelor's degree course when one of my friends came home and mentioned the newspaper ad for a training program through which W accepted B.Sc. degree holders as 3-year trainees, after which they became employees. If my friend did not happen to mention that ad, I might not have joined W! Interestingly, three years previously, when I was joining my college for the B.Sc. degree course, a lecturer in the Electronics department told me that if I joined the Electronics or Computer Science courses and scored well, W had a program through which they would take me as a trainee. I did not heed the lecturer's words and joined the Physics, Chemistry, Math (PCM) course, simply because the Electronics or Computer Science courses were relatively more expensive. I thought I would do an MCA (Master of Computer Applications) after my B.Sc. Thankfully, during those days, W took non-Electronics and non-Computer Science graduates for its training program, as long as Math was one of the subjects. It no longer does that.
- When I joined W, there were less than 5000 people in the company. Now, there are over 40,000 people. It has been an exponential growth.
- During those days, W was so small that everybody in the company and their families could get together in one place (Bangalore Palace Grounds) for a celebration.
- During those days, everytime someone completed 5 years in the company, an email about them would go out to the entire company. The email would congratulate them and briefly describe their career. Invariably, almost all of them would be at project management or higher level! One of my colleagues used to say that after 5 years in W, even a dog would become the project manager! These days, 5-years-in-W emails are sent only to the vertical/horizontal to which an employee belongs. One rarely comes across a project manager among them. Most such people are at the team lead level, usually onsite.
- I came to the US in Oct 2001. After that, I never worked for W at the offshore center in India. At that time, Electronics City office of W was not as big as it is today. I have never worked in that office. When I visited there in recent years, I felt quite lost with so many strange faces. I have been away in the US for so long and so much has changed in those years that, I am quite alien to the current workplace culture of W.
- I am relatively happy with my career in W. Every assignment I have had has always been better than the previous one.
- Strangely, I have had a good or great relationship with almost none of the supervisors to whom I directly reported in W! The relationships could at best be described as neutral. The only exception to this is Mala, with whom I had a good relationship.
- It is quite true that employees are loyal or not loyal more towards their managers than towards their companies. This is the main reason for me to quit W. Of course, there are some policies and processes in the company which allowed me to be treated unfairly, but I think a fair and mature manager would have easily neutralized those policy- and process-gaps. In my case, the manager did not do it despite my explicit feedback. In fact, he actively piled onto the unfairness.
- In contrast to my W managers, I have had great success with managers in the client companies, for whom I worked through W. I have always been able to quickly establish a great working (and at times personal) relationship with them. My W managers have recognized this as my special forte. (They even offered an onsite account manager position to me last year in Canada. I turned it down because I felt that the compensation they offered for the position was not fair!)
- From mid-2000 until now, I have almost never directly worked for a W manager from the functional perspective. I have worked in roles which were always independently reporting to the clients. My W managers only received feedback from the clients and filled my appraisals. I have greatly enjoyed this independence and that is one of the reasons I have been able to establish good rapport with the clients. The downside to this is that, most of my W supervisors have never had a complete picture of the good and bad things I have done at work nor about my strengths and weaknesses. They have mostly received second-hand information, at best.
- Despite spending eight-and-half years with the company, I have been in love with only one girl in W! That is something of a rarity for me because I am a sucker for romance and prone to falling in love quite quickly. With so many girls in W, most people would think I would have a longer romantic history in the company. But I don't. And, I still resent losing that one person. (This has zero reflection on how I feel about the others I fell for after that one W girl).
I am moving to a new company from Monday, Feb 13th, 2006. From a core-IT company with more than 40000 employees, I am going to a company which has only around 6500 employees! My new company is not even in the IT business. So, the number of IT people in the company is probably around 400-500 only! It will be interesting trying to be a bigger fish in a smaller pond. We shall see how it goes.
I have mixed feelings about leaving an India-based company and working for a US-based one. I hope it all works out in the long run. It is definitely starting to work out in the short term because I am starting at a pay-level which is 50% greater than my W pay. And no, I am not getting a spectacularly high salary. It is just that my W pay has been lousy, to put it mildly.
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Flying Under the Glass Ceiling
Note: Most of this post pertains to the Software Career Soldiers, the people who work in big software companies, the code factories.
The Peter Principle of management is stated as, "In a Hierarchy Every Employee Tends to Rise to His Level of Incompetence".
I have a corollary to that: Every employee is competent only upto the limits of his assignment/organization.
I also refer to this as Flying Under the Glass Ceiling.
Over the years I have seen many bright people stuck in assignments which use only a fraction of their potential. Most of them do a great job on their assignments. But I always wonder what more they would have done if only they had the opportunity to do something bigger. Would they have been successful if they were on a bigger and better assignment? Would they have achieved more for themselves and for the company? Are these people flying under a glass ceiling which limits the heights to which they can fly?
What if the guy who is so good at testing other people's solutions, was in the team which actually designs solutions? What if the extremely bright and creative guy was on a team designing user interfaces, instead of slogging on a job which monitors nightly batch billing processes? What if the guy who is always fantasizing about future technologies and spotting innovative opportunities, was actually working in the innovation department instead of the application maintenance department?
In big technology companies, in the code factories, people are randomly assigned different tasks with little or no regard to their inherent skills, competencies, interests. This is especially true at the junior levels, specifically with fresh graduates. Bright young people are picked up from colleges and randomly assigned their first projects and tasks. For many people, this first assignment sets the tone to the rest of their careers. It will define the path along which their careers and lives will go.
It is amazing that young people don't usually have a say in this crucial first step of their careers. No one looks at them and their resumes to assess what skills and interests they have to match them with suitable assignments. The assignment decisions are probably arbitrarily made by someone (in HR), who knows the candidates as little more than fresh names to fill body count requirements of projects.
In the initial year or two of the career, there may not be a big difference in the pay scales and the market values of the people who are doing different types of entry-level tasks, in different technologies. However, as more time passes, the type of experiences and technology skills that are on a person's resume make a major difference in how much s/he is paid in the company, what the person's market value is, what opportunities s/he has in the industry, etc. They have a major bearing on his/her career's quality and life experience.
So, every step, every task, every assignment, every year in the career of a person is highly important in determining the rest of his/her career and life. One can never afford to take on or dismiss anything simply because it is just the first assignment in their career or just a short assignment. As such, it is very important to take an active part in decisions and choices that affect one's career. It is also important to be aware of what is happening in one's own project, department, company and industry.
When we are young, we may not be so worldly-wise. We may not have the smarts needed to negotiate with supervisors, managers and HR people to give us the kind of assignments which help us achieve our short-term and long-term career goals. We may not even have well-thought career goals. When we are working in a big company, it is easy to get comfortable and complacent in the structure, order and process inherent in such organizations. We may even be lulled into a false sense of security thinking that the big company has so many diverse projects, so many different activities going on, and it would be easy to change over to something exciting if we get bored with what we are doing now. And perhaps, most common among tech-workers, we may get so caught up in the work we are doing right now, we may not give much thought to our long-term career objectives. Five years may pass in a flash, and we may find ourselves in a place which is far removed from what we had dreamed of or what we really wanted. Affecting a change at this stage might be tougher.
An army needs brilliant strategists and tacticians who can conceive winning battle plans. It needs smart and effective leaders to execute those battle plans and ensure a win. It needs specialists for special assignments behind enemy lines. It needs skilled people who can do reconnaisance on the enemy from the forward-most positions of the battle lines. An army also needs cooks, drivers, guards. Everyone cannot be a battle planner or field commander or a commando. The cooks, drivers, guards are also important to win the battle. This is true in all industries including the technology industry. As far as your company is concerned, as long as the battle is won, the profits are rolling in and there is no screw-up, nobody might really care if you are assigned the task of a battle planner or a commando or put on guard duty. When there is a screw-up, they could simply fire you and replace you with somebody else. So, it is imperative that you take an active interest in deciding what type of assignments you work on and what turns your career takes.
Every assignment we work on, every project we are assigned to, every company we join comes with its own glass ceiling. There are limits to how much one can achieve, how much one will be challenged and encouraged. This is not bad in itself. This is the nature of things. When we sign up for an assignment or join a company, almost nobody will tell us where exactly the glass ceiling is. So, it is upto us to carefully assess at each step where the glass ceiling is and ensure that it is high enough that we can fly as high as we wish.
When it starts to appear that you could fly higher than the glass ceiling, it is time to look for another place where the ceiling is higher. When we feel that we are not challenged enough, our competencies are not used effectively, our assignments do not require the best of us, we should do something about it. Nobody else will.
Related:
Software Career Soldiers Vs Software Mercenaries
Epiphany of an IT Coolie
Demand the best possible salary from your employer
The Peter Principle of management is stated as, "In a Hierarchy Every Employee Tends to Rise to His Level of Incompetence".
I have a corollary to that: Every employee is competent only upto the limits of his assignment/organization.
I also refer to this as Flying Under the Glass Ceiling.
Over the years I have seen many bright people stuck in assignments which use only a fraction of their potential. Most of them do a great job on their assignments. But I always wonder what more they would have done if only they had the opportunity to do something bigger. Would they have been successful if they were on a bigger and better assignment? Would they have achieved more for themselves and for the company? Are these people flying under a glass ceiling which limits the heights to which they can fly?
What if the guy who is so good at testing other people's solutions, was in the team which actually designs solutions? What if the extremely bright and creative guy was on a team designing user interfaces, instead of slogging on a job which monitors nightly batch billing processes? What if the guy who is always fantasizing about future technologies and spotting innovative opportunities, was actually working in the innovation department instead of the application maintenance department?
In big technology companies, in the code factories, people are randomly assigned different tasks with little or no regard to their inherent skills, competencies, interests. This is especially true at the junior levels, specifically with fresh graduates. Bright young people are picked up from colleges and randomly assigned their first projects and tasks. For many people, this first assignment sets the tone to the rest of their careers. It will define the path along which their careers and lives will go.
It is amazing that young people don't usually have a say in this crucial first step of their careers. No one looks at them and their resumes to assess what skills and interests they have to match them with suitable assignments. The assignment decisions are probably arbitrarily made by someone (in HR), who knows the candidates as little more than fresh names to fill body count requirements of projects.
In the initial year or two of the career, there may not be a big difference in the pay scales and the market values of the people who are doing different types of entry-level tasks, in different technologies. However, as more time passes, the type of experiences and technology skills that are on a person's resume make a major difference in how much s/he is paid in the company, what the person's market value is, what opportunities s/he has in the industry, etc. They have a major bearing on his/her career's quality and life experience.
So, every step, every task, every assignment, every year in the career of a person is highly important in determining the rest of his/her career and life. One can never afford to take on or dismiss anything simply because it is just the first assignment in their career or just a short assignment. As such, it is very important to take an active part in decisions and choices that affect one's career. It is also important to be aware of what is happening in one's own project, department, company and industry.
When we are young, we may not be so worldly-wise. We may not have the smarts needed to negotiate with supervisors, managers and HR people to give us the kind of assignments which help us achieve our short-term and long-term career goals. We may not even have well-thought career goals. When we are working in a big company, it is easy to get comfortable and complacent in the structure, order and process inherent in such organizations. We may even be lulled into a false sense of security thinking that the big company has so many diverse projects, so many different activities going on, and it would be easy to change over to something exciting if we get bored with what we are doing now. And perhaps, most common among tech-workers, we may get so caught up in the work we are doing right now, we may not give much thought to our long-term career objectives. Five years may pass in a flash, and we may find ourselves in a place which is far removed from what we had dreamed of or what we really wanted. Affecting a change at this stage might be tougher.
An army needs brilliant strategists and tacticians who can conceive winning battle plans. It needs smart and effective leaders to execute those battle plans and ensure a win. It needs specialists for special assignments behind enemy lines. It needs skilled people who can do reconnaisance on the enemy from the forward-most positions of the battle lines. An army also needs cooks, drivers, guards. Everyone cannot be a battle planner or field commander or a commando. The cooks, drivers, guards are also important to win the battle. This is true in all industries including the technology industry. As far as your company is concerned, as long as the battle is won, the profits are rolling in and there is no screw-up, nobody might really care if you are assigned the task of a battle planner or a commando or put on guard duty. When there is a screw-up, they could simply fire you and replace you with somebody else. So, it is imperative that you take an active interest in deciding what type of assignments you work on and what turns your career takes.
Every assignment we work on, every project we are assigned to, every company we join comes with its own glass ceiling. There are limits to how much one can achieve, how much one will be challenged and encouraged. This is not bad in itself. This is the nature of things. When we sign up for an assignment or join a company, almost nobody will tell us where exactly the glass ceiling is. So, it is upto us to carefully assess at each step where the glass ceiling is and ensure that it is high enough that we can fly as high as we wish.
When it starts to appear that you could fly higher than the glass ceiling, it is time to look for another place where the ceiling is higher. When we feel that we are not challenged enough, our competencies are not used effectively, our assignments do not require the best of us, we should do something about it. Nobody else will.
Related:
Software Career Soldiers Vs Software Mercenaries
Epiphany of an IT Coolie
Demand the best possible salary from your employer
Thursday, February 02, 2006
NRI Nationalism
Rang De Basanti is probably the most popular Indian movie on the Internet ever! The blogosphere and message boards are full of this movie discussions. A blog search for Aamir Khan returns almost exclusively pages talking about this movie. A guy named Gopal Srinivasan on the Fans of A. R. Rahman Yahoo Group has posted 12 compilations (No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, No. 4, No. 5, No. 6, No. 7, No. 8, No. 9, No. 10, No. 11, No. 12) as of Feb 1st, each with links to blogs or webpages about Rang De Basanti, totalling dozens of links. Clearly, Indian nationalism is the flavor of the moment in online discussions, Rang De Basanti its favorite dish. Now is a good time to talk about NRI Nationalism.
In terms of sheer decibel-levels, the nationalism dialog and rhetoric of Non-Resident Indians (NRIs)is much louder than that of resident Indians. This is true regardless of where the discussion/debate is happening - in person, in India, in a foreign country or on the Internet. The average NRIs, especially the younger ones who have gone abroad in the past 15 years, tend to be more obviously nationalistic than the average resident Indians.
A Indian resident friend recently had the following succint comment/description about NRI nationalism: nothing to do and so much net and all that des mania! I immediately jotted this down when I heard this, because I was amazed how close to the truth it is. Let's discuss my friend's observation in reverse:
des mania: The rising trends in recent Bollywood movies targetting the sentiments of NRIs and having nationalistic themes are not the only ones which feed the des mania of the desis abroad. In countries like the US, there are Indians in large numbers who organize socio-cultural and religious events. These are powerful reminders to the immigrant desi of what s/he is missing, of the wisdom and beauty in India's culture and traditions.
so much net: 'net' refers to the Internet. An average person in the US, has greater access to a faster, better Internet experience than the average person in India. The Internet is a wonderful resource which brings you information and news from a large number of sources, about any topic you might be interested in. India is definitely a topic of interest for the NRIs and they go to the Internet for news and information. Result? The NRI reads and gathers a larger amount of information from a greater variety of sources on the Internet, than an average Indian whom might read just one or two newspapers and magazines. I have often come across NRIs who are more informed about issues and happenings in India, than people who reside in India! This is personally true for me - after coming to the US, I peruse more Indian news than I did when I was in India. More important than news reports in newspapers, are the in-depth analyses, the opinions of a diverse group of columnists and of course, the bloggers! This easy access to so much information about my country, makes me highly aware and mentally/emotionally involved with the affairs of the nation.
nothing to do: This is an exaggeration, of course. Indians abroad are as busy as people anywhere. However, Indians abroad, the ones who are away from the large set of family, relatives and friends they have in India, have greater time to miss India. We go through pockets of alone times here and there, when we think of families and friends in India, recall with nostalgia the past years when we lived in India, remember all the exciting, exasperating, irritating, good and bad things about our country. Absence does make the heart grow fonder. Homesickness can be a really powerful feeling. Almost equally powerful is our awareness of the changes happening in India these days. India is changing rapidly, almost year to year. For NRIs who are physically far, these changes are very prominently visible, when they visit India after gaps of 2-3 years. India is one of the most happening countries in the world and it is hard not to want to be a part of the action. Sometimes our yearning for our country is not much different from our yearning for a separated lover or partner or child. It is very real and very deep.
All these factors influence and enhance our sincere interests and emotions for our country. They naturally contribute to the decibel levels of the NRI nationalism.
It is interesting to watch the reaction of resident Indians towards expressions of NRI nationalism. Sometimes the resident Indians join the NRIs with enthusiasm. But often, they have indifferent reactions. They don't really share the nationalistic enthusiasm of the NRI. There are also times when the resident Indians get irritated and antagonistic towards the NRI. The residents' attitude is something like: "You guys left India in search of greener pastures, you abandoned the country. Why are you making so much noise now about your love for the country? Why are you talking about the issues of the country? What gives you the right to talk? To criticize the country you left?"
The first time an Indian abroad hears such words, s/he is stunned and stung! When s/he left India to go abroad to study or work, s/he probably never thought of it as abandoning the country. After all, people within India leave their families, cities and states to study or work in another place. Can they be accused of abandoning their families and states? Does moving away from the family diminish one's love for the family? So, why should an NRI's love for the country be suspect?
It is true that there are some NRIs who have a very negative attitude towards India. But then, one can find such negative people within India also. In most cases, an average NRI's criticism of India and things Indian, is quite valid and harbors no malicious intent.
One of the first things we notice when we visit a developed country is, how things should be done. We notice it everwhere - how streets should be maintained clean and pot-hole free, how traffic should flow at intersections where there are no lights or cops, how public toilets should be clean, how a cop should be courteous and efficient instead of being a corrupt leech out for your money, how citizens can participate in local governance, how local politicians feel obligated to work for the their constituencies, how everyone is held accountable, how the court system is swift, how a single woman can feel safe living/travelling alone in most places, the list just goes on and on and on.
When we stop for a moment and think how things should be done, and how they are actually done in India, we can't help feeling a sense of shame, of unhappiness, discontent, dissatisfaction. This is a good thing. Out of this angst, something good will come. But before the good comes, the angst has to be expressed. Criticism is the first and easiest way to express it. If we did not love India, we would feel no discontent, no angst. We would not bother to criticize.
I don't have anything more to say on this subject at this time. Over and out.
In terms of sheer decibel-levels, the nationalism dialog and rhetoric of Non-Resident Indians (NRIs)is much louder than that of resident Indians. This is true regardless of where the discussion/debate is happening - in person, in India, in a foreign country or on the Internet. The average NRIs, especially the younger ones who have gone abroad in the past 15 years, tend to be more obviously nationalistic than the average resident Indians.
A Indian resident friend recently had the following succint comment/description about NRI nationalism: nothing to do and so much net and all that des mania! I immediately jotted this down when I heard this, because I was amazed how close to the truth it is. Let's discuss my friend's observation in reverse:
des mania: The rising trends in recent Bollywood movies targetting the sentiments of NRIs and having nationalistic themes are not the only ones which feed the des mania of the desis abroad. In countries like the US, there are Indians in large numbers who organize socio-cultural and religious events. These are powerful reminders to the immigrant desi of what s/he is missing, of the wisdom and beauty in India's culture and traditions.
so much net: 'net' refers to the Internet. An average person in the US, has greater access to a faster, better Internet experience than the average person in India. The Internet is a wonderful resource which brings you information and news from a large number of sources, about any topic you might be interested in. India is definitely a topic of interest for the NRIs and they go to the Internet for news and information. Result? The NRI reads and gathers a larger amount of information from a greater variety of sources on the Internet, than an average Indian whom might read just one or two newspapers and magazines. I have often come across NRIs who are more informed about issues and happenings in India, than people who reside in India! This is personally true for me - after coming to the US, I peruse more Indian news than I did when I was in India. More important than news reports in newspapers, are the in-depth analyses, the opinions of a diverse group of columnists and of course, the bloggers! This easy access to so much information about my country, makes me highly aware and mentally/emotionally involved with the affairs of the nation.
nothing to do: This is an exaggeration, of course. Indians abroad are as busy as people anywhere. However, Indians abroad, the ones who are away from the large set of family, relatives and friends they have in India, have greater time to miss India. We go through pockets of alone times here and there, when we think of families and friends in India, recall with nostalgia the past years when we lived in India, remember all the exciting, exasperating, irritating, good and bad things about our country. Absence does make the heart grow fonder. Homesickness can be a really powerful feeling. Almost equally powerful is our awareness of the changes happening in India these days. India is changing rapidly, almost year to year. For NRIs who are physically far, these changes are very prominently visible, when they visit India after gaps of 2-3 years. India is one of the most happening countries in the world and it is hard not to want to be a part of the action. Sometimes our yearning for our country is not much different from our yearning for a separated lover or partner or child. It is very real and very deep.
All these factors influence and enhance our sincere interests and emotions for our country. They naturally contribute to the decibel levels of the NRI nationalism.
It is interesting to watch the reaction of resident Indians towards expressions of NRI nationalism. Sometimes the resident Indians join the NRIs with enthusiasm. But often, they have indifferent reactions. They don't really share the nationalistic enthusiasm of the NRI. There are also times when the resident Indians get irritated and antagonistic towards the NRI. The residents' attitude is something like: "You guys left India in search of greener pastures, you abandoned the country. Why are you making so much noise now about your love for the country? Why are you talking about the issues of the country? What gives you the right to talk? To criticize the country you left?"
The first time an Indian abroad hears such words, s/he is stunned and stung! When s/he left India to go abroad to study or work, s/he probably never thought of it as abandoning the country. After all, people within India leave their families, cities and states to study or work in another place. Can they be accused of abandoning their families and states? Does moving away from the family diminish one's love for the family? So, why should an NRI's love for the country be suspect?
It is true that there are some NRIs who have a very negative attitude towards India. But then, one can find such negative people within India also. In most cases, an average NRI's criticism of India and things Indian, is quite valid and harbors no malicious intent.
One of the first things we notice when we visit a developed country is, how things should be done. We notice it everwhere - how streets should be maintained clean and pot-hole free, how traffic should flow at intersections where there are no lights or cops, how public toilets should be clean, how a cop should be courteous and efficient instead of being a corrupt leech out for your money, how citizens can participate in local governance, how local politicians feel obligated to work for the their constituencies, how everyone is held accountable, how the court system is swift, how a single woman can feel safe living/travelling alone in most places, the list just goes on and on and on.
When we stop for a moment and think how things should be done, and how they are actually done in India, we can't help feeling a sense of shame, of unhappiness, discontent, dissatisfaction. This is a good thing. Out of this angst, something good will come. But before the good comes, the angst has to be expressed. Criticism is the first and easiest way to express it. If we did not love India, we would feel no discontent, no angst. We would not bother to criticize.
I don't have anything more to say on this subject at this time. Over and out.
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