This is the question which all of us encounter almost every now and then. Sometimes everyday sometimes even multiple times a day. So what's the ideal answer to this question? I am writing this blog on the basis of my conversation with few old friends when we gathered together at my place few weeks back. One of them said fame, one said money, one said I want to do something which I honestly wanted to achieve at one point of my life. There were others too who were aiming towards opening a company of their own and never wanted to regret when they look back in life. My answer was altogether a different one which must have brought a shock on their face. It was peace.
In the race of life sometimes we churn around ourselves so much that we forget what are we aiming towards. I will tell you a story. There was a man who was earning a lot and was settled in US. He was VP of a multinational and had around 1000 employees working under him. In short he had name, fame , money and power. Oh I forgot to mention that one person was aiming for power too. One day he slapped his 8 yr old son. In reply what he got was, " I will sue you. I will take you to the court." Not to mention that this man being an Indian was broken from deep within after hearing this from his child. He took his bag and baggage and returned to India very soon. So the question still remains the same? Does the necessity of life is really money or should it be peace. Think about it. Does leaving your parents for earning million of rupees really qualify
for that? Do you want the same from your children? I am not from an NGO who is fighting against Brain drain but truly speaking I still have some respect for my country not because it's the country where my parents and I were born. It's because the culture is mine and all my relatives are here. I don't want to die at a place where my next door neighbor just shrug his shoulder and say, "Oh! Poor old man." It's still a debatable topic and nobody is perfect and so do I, but guys give it a second thought and see if you are really aiming for a good thing or are you just lost in crowd.
Rest in Peace.
6 comments:
Peace.... hmmm..... and what abt hard rock!!??? ;)
nowadays!! ghazals are on rocks...
Hmm. A thoughtful post and admirable indeed.. :)
Allow me to put some of my thoughts into comments.
I'll first talk about the top US manager who slapped his kid and then decided to return to India, prompted by how his child replied.
What the child said was about human rights. It was about his respect and dignity. In that that society is better than ours. And I go for such a better way of living and a better society and somehow find such better society more peaceful to live any day of my life.
The second thing is about parents. So many of my friends, with their spouses, live in Noida, Gurgaon, Pune, Bangalore, etc whereas their parents live about 100-500 Kms away from them. These couple earn about 60-80k pm and talk to their parents almost daily on phone and visit them about once a quarter. Their parents go to live with them often.
Then here is another of my friends (seniors) who did his MBA from a top notch US B school a few years back and now earns about Rs. 10 lac pm, lives in the US and with all this money still talks to his parents daily, and visits his parents in India once in a quarter. Also his parents go to live with him and his wife often. The infrastructure is great, society is far more open, logical, and respects human rights. Besides, he is at a position where he moves things. Parents also get to tour the world and live with him.
Somehow, I don't find those in India any better than him ! Children in both the situations can't visit the parents for every small illness. And for anything serious, children in both the situations would anyhow come to take care of their parents or take the parents with them. Oh! and as you know, medical facilities are much better in the US when you have the money too.
Thirdly, if a person from Noida dies in Bangalore, the neighbour, busy with his job and not much concerned with him anyway (happens in metros these days, doesn't it !) would inform his home and do nothing much. That's what they would do in the US too. Although you may be a little more active if a person of different nationality dies in your neighbourhood than what you would be when some of your own countryman dies.
I am trying to say that there is a difference between a search for peace and evasion & procrastination. If you read their speeches and articles, you would find that Steve Jobs, Larry Page, Seargy Brin, LN Mittal, Warren Buffet are at peace with them at the top Whereas Bill Gates, Anil Ambani, Jack Welch would strike you as some restless people at a similar position. It's all the person you make of yourself with all the education and introspection all these years who decides you own life..little else.
Please respond.
First thing first...thanks for putting your thoughts into this post.
Well Ankur it's a very subjective question. You are perfectly right in your saying that there is a difference between a search for peace and evasion & procrastination but then it depends on an individual whether he is having love for his home country due to his cowardness or genuine reasons.
Having spent around 25 years into Indian culture and then switching to American culture is a bit hard to swallow. That society is probably better in human rights but at the same time they don't have ethical and moral values. Put yourself into the shoes of a typical American child and try to feel when a father has more than one wife and mother has more than one husband. Sometimes even a live-in relationship. For them its normal because they have grown seeing such things and so do their parents and gradparents. But in case of Indians like us this thing results into what you refer to as ABCD(America Born Confused Desi).
Your second point is again very subjective. See relatives doesn't necessarily mean parents only. You can have millions of dollar and your parents with you abroad or probably you can visit them every quarter but that won't happen with your uncles and cousins. If you are in metors of India you definitely can take a 2 days leave and atten a family function of urs but that would be a bit difficult when you would settle down abroad.
Third point i.e. kissing death in alien country. I would say that Racism still exists bro. In America it may not be there and we have a lot of Indian faces seen very frequently but if you travel to country like Australia, they still have hatred for Asians. You must be knowing my batchmate who visited this country in his summer traing and he can probably tell you the crux of his whole tenure there.
Your last point is more than worth to give it a thought but my friend these guys are well known guys with high profile and lots ofmoney...they fall into top 10 richest persons of the world. I tried to draw a picture of normal educated Indian who belong to crowd.
I hope I have answered everything from my perspective. I would again emphasize on the same thing. It is a very subjective matter.
I understand you view point :)
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