To live in INDIA or ABROAD ?

 TO  LIVE  IN  HOMELAND  OR  ABROAD ?

 Writer : Dr. T. Rama Prasad                                                                                        

         Some anxious parents and some ambitious youngsters ask me this question.  

This question digs up deep sociological ramifications, for those few who have that choice. For most of the toppers in academics, highly developed countries seem to be the destination, especially the US, the citadel of freedom and equality.  Settling abroad may have tremendous benefits on many fronts though it may be associated with adverse impacts on many issues pertaining to family, society, values and culture.

It may sound very well when people roll off the tongue glib phrases and talk with an air of pride about our culture, society and relatives.  They strongly say ‘no’ for living abroad. But would they pay bills and give money when it is needed ?  Of course, they may extend a lot of sympathy when adversity strikes, free of cost and without bearing the cost !  Are our relatives going to live forever ?  Or are we going to live forever ?  Let us live wherever we feel happy and homely during the short journey on this planet. This is the philosophy of some.

It is a matter of personal comfort level -- psychological, physical, professional, financial, cultural, etc. -- that should be the deciding factor.  Everyone lives inside one’s own circle of circumstances. Hence, the matter is beyond debate as is the case with faith.  There would always be an obvious clash in philosophy and reality.  Given how different tastes are, recommending one or the other is always a fool’s errand, and the foolishness is multiplied  a thousand fold when reality is replaced by concept-level abstraction.

         Some like to live a very detached and isolated life.  For them, it matters little whether they live in Delhi or Dallas.  Some like and enjoy to be at every ceremony and get-together of every relative and friend ...  such ones feel miserable abroad.

Finally, listen to Steve Jobs.  He said: "Listen to your heart and live accordingly.  Let not others decide what you should do, because others wouldn't live your life.  You have to live your life."  --  T. Rama Prasad

Some go abroad for more money and economic progress, some for better living conditions and quality of life, some for more job satisfaction and career advancement, some for academic and professional excellence, some to be free of workplace politics and the stress, some for the feeling of superiority of living abroad and the luxury of it, and so on.  Many go for the mix of all these.  Finally, the rightness of a decision depends upon the prioritisation in the mindset and the balance of one's own thinking.

THE  ROSY  SIDE

             Many of the Indians who visited or living in the West, Australia or such countries would think that this question is like: “TO LIVE IN HELL OR HEAVEN ?”  That is the way the situation is perceived,  or at least projected generally.  Many of them, on their return from the heavenly and glitzy ambience to motherland, expressed that they have the feeling that they landed back in a land of garbage. India conjures up the spectre of poverty,  pollution, beggars, godmen, filth, squalor and skeletal children in their minds.  These people are blissfully happy to live abroad what with all the excellent working conditions, exemplary educational institutions and admirable systems in place to promote goodness of quality of life.

THE  FLIPSIDE 

 But all do not feel it this way.  Some just live abroad under duress due to economic compulsions.  Some hate to live a very frugal life without servants and cooks, as they can’t afford to employ them though the pay packets seem to be hefty. Only 'very rich people' in those very 'rich' countries can afford to have such domestic personnel. Our NRIs have to make meals, clean homes, care for children, all by themselves. And they have to do perfectly the strictly programmed work in their offices. Some hate that stressed life.  Some are worried about their ABCD (American-Born Confused ‘Desi’) children. And some hate to live in the alien culture and atmosphere and yet pretend to project that they have  an exciting and luxurious life there.  Some become mental wrecks after going there.  And some are happy to be back and settle in homeland with all the luxuries of  servants, cooks, dhobis, gardeners, drivers, etc.  Some even like the noisy gossip in public places, blaring loud speakers, honking horns, unruly children, chok-a-blok traffic, ‘bajji’, ‘masal vadai’ & ‘chat’ vendors on pavements, hawkers on roads, disorderly gatherings in ‘kalyanamandapams’, and even the air pollution and  the smell of auto exhaust !  Back in “free” India ! This “freedom”is absent in “The land of free !”  The photo below depicts the level of pollution in India.  The players were wearing masks in 2017 to protect themselves from air pollution (The Covid virus was unknown at that time, in 2017 !!  I added this sentence in 2022).

Sri Lankan players wore anti-air pollution masks on the field on the second day of the third cricket Test against India in New Delhi on December 4, 2017

(“American-Born Confused ‘Desi’ – ABCD” – is a term used to refer to Indian Americans / South Asian Americans born and brought up in the US and to describe the psychological state of many second-generation Indian Americans / South Asian Americans who struggle to balance values and traditions taught at home with attitudes and practices that are more conducive to the majority white culture. There is another related acronym: CAD – Confused Americanized ‘Desi’.  It refers to people of South Asian / Indian origin who are born and living in the subcontinent but tend to follow western lifestyle and values.  Some of them read books  while on the toilet seat. In this context I remember one humorous article.  “A ‘metrosexual’ patient can be defined as one who talks, walks, laughs, coughs and sneezes like an American.  He has set foot in the dreamland – America   (never mind if it was only to sit on the bench between breakfast and lunch and catch the next return flight).”   To read the full article and to savour the wry humour peppered with insights click on www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/dealing-with-a-metrosexual-patient/article4154323.ece  .)

WHAT  FOR ?

            Many go abroad with the idea of earning and saving a substantial amount of money and returning after some years.  But ‘the returning’ doesn’t happen in most of the cases due to circumstances – lack of good working environment and financial prospects back at home; cultural and educational problems of children;  disparity in quality of life;  perception of loss of status.  Some go there for good quality of life with good jobs.  Yet, some go to developed nations for the excellent facilities for  academics,  research or professional progress, not for money. .  For them everything else, including remuneration and lifestyle is secondary.  Hence, what  is written here under this topic is mostly not applicable to them as their focus is on scholastic achievements, academic advancements or professional satisfaction.

LURE of MONEY and everything that goes with it

GOOD  or  BAD ?

            Life is a matter of compromises, a matter of mindset and a matter of taste.  One has to decide according to the dictates of one’s prevailing circumstances.  Whether it is a good decision or not depends on what one likes and what one doesn’t.  It is not debatable. 

          The issue has two components -- material and mental.  Human life is a very complex one.  Material and mental issues can't be strictly compartmentalised.  For example, the money sent to family members back at home can buy sites, apartments, gold, etc. and give immense satisfaction to the receiver and the sender which may even improve their physical health indirectly.   It all depends on the mindset.  The material gains may offset negative psychological impacts.

          And, the human being is the most adaptive creature ... look at our politicians .. most of them adapt to changing political equations.  Once one settle down abroad, everyone adapts to the changed circumstances.

Is this the height of economic compulsions ???

STERIOTYPE  PROJECTIONS

There is an interesting article --  http://masedimburgo.com/2014/06/04/17-things-change-forever-live-abroad/  --  exposing how the human mind reacts, interacts and settles down in the circumstances of living abroad.  Impressions are not easily erasable.  Stereotype projections are common --  Americans are obese;  French are snobs;  Indians are dirty  (Did not the US Vice-Consul, Maureen Chao utter the words “dirty dark tamils” ?  Did not the Republican presidential frontrunner - 2016 - Donald Trump mocked Indian call centres ? The same man in his presidential race in 2024 declared that all the millions of illegal immigrants in the US would be deported.  He said that they eat the natives' pet cats and pet dogs !   Did not the Republican governor of the US state of Maine, Paul Le Page said that Indian workers are the “worst” and the “hardest” ones to understand and that one has to get an interpreter to talk to an Indian ? – THE TIMES OF INDIA, April 26, 2016).  Cultural prejudice is nothing new.  When a native American says  “I know all about India;  I have watched Slumdog Millionaire;  You speak Indian ..”  our 3 million Indians living in the US may not reflect a bit though some of them are CEOs of corporations such as Google and Microsoft.  Heads of some countries look down upon immigrants as unwanted elements.   The Indian perception of developed countries and their people may not match the reality.  But merit is recognised and respected there.  And the Indians mind their work and do not generally get into conflicts for the fear of losing the job.  As such, generally, the question of discrimination does not arise for the humble worker. 

NATIONALISM

In general, some of the views expressed, based on Indian cultural values, against settling abroad are encouraged and tolerated by nationalism.  It cannot be gainsaid that some of the views may be subjects of jingoistic celebrations about what is great about Indian culture.  Sometimes this jingoism keeps our critical eye blind to the rotten realities back at home. 

“FOREIGN”   STATUS

And on the other hand, the ‘green pastures’ abroad are sometimes unduly foregrounded and idealized out of perspective.

When their kid says “Ba Ba Black sheep,” our modern ‘supermoms’ and ‘superdads’ go into a trance of wandering in Washington !  The utterances  “Daddy,  Mummy,  Ta Ta,  Bye Bye”  make them feel  “foren” !  Some of them develop intense belief of delusional proportion that they identify a ‘non-resident Indian’ in their offspring!  They are seduced by the land of luxury and materialistic perfection. Often, it is the parents’ wishes that drive the children away into alien cultures and countries where independence is valued much and relationships are more fragile and tenuous.  The snobbish parents often take pride in telling everyone that their children are educated at Wharton or Kellogg school !  It is commonplace thatpeople who live abroad paint a very rosy picture about the amazing systems and the luxurious life there, and justifiably so.  They say that corruption is unknown there.  Some dismiss it off as a glib talk with a snobbish mind and even quote about corruption in the US citing the link: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/americans-more-afraid-of-corruption-than-terror-attack/article7767596.ece 

Don't be carried away with the impression that everything abroad in developed countries is perfectly fine.  They all have the inevitable commercial motives ... even in the medical field -- read the 'Scribbling' titled "Modern Medicine : the Good, the Bad and the Ugly" on this blog to know a bit about it.

HIGHER   STANDARDS

The standards of living, system efficacy, education, working conditions, landscape, ambience and, not the least, the level of remuneration abroad are of a high order and woefully low here what with all the filthy living environment and foul politics in workplaces.  The root cause for all this is, of course, the ‘poor’ economic status of the country which prompts people to look beyond its boundaries.

 All the same,  money is not the only determining factor. We know of so many of our brainy people who came back to settle down in the native country, but had to go back out of frustration due to lack of recognition to their merit, lack of professional satisfaction, workplace politics, corruption at all levels, deplorable hygiene, filthy environment, low quality of living, increasing levels of crime and violence, low compensation, etc.

BOOMERANG   GENERATION  SYNDROME

Curiously, there has been a changing pattern from the “Empty Nest Syndrome” (‘Better Health Channel’. 2010, ‘Empty Nest Syndrome’) to the “Boomerang Generation Syndrome” (problems connected with adult children coming back to parents’ homes – for various reasons, including shrinking job markets abroad)  has been on the increase during the past one decade.  The Census Data for 2008 showed that as many as 34% of the age group of 18 to 34 years belonged to the ‘Boomerang Generation’.  This is in contrast with the figure of 22% a decade earlier.  And, surprisingly, half of such reunions are reported to have conflicts related to untimely hours and non-involvement in house-keeping by children (Cohen et al., 2011, The marriage and family experience, 11^th edition).  

VARIED  OPINIONS

 Opinions vary very widely on this issue.  For example, look at this:  A father says "My children are well settled in US / Europe / Australia."

At this, one comments:

"How lucky you and your children are ! On cloud nine !  What a quality of life and affluence! Huge cars.  Palatial dwellings. Grand lifestyle with lavish lives ... with funds to build ostentatious palaces back in our country ! Great escape from slogging in filthy India, what with all the dirty workplace politics and frustration. High degree of work experience and immense professional satisfaction ...Free birds, crossing continents !  Congratulations."  

           Another comments:

"How unfortunate !  What a miserable, materialistic, lonely, kitschy and tense life, like birds in golden cages located oceans away, having only 'virtual' / ‘Skype’  relationships !  Just for money !... Even with that money, can they afford to have servants, cooks, drivers and gardeners ?  Can they afford to attend and enjoy the various events like weddings, birthday parties, anniversary get-togethers, etc. of kith and kin in the homeland ? Do they have social and religious amalgamation which provide a lot of face-to-face interactions ? Which economically average Indian son in developed countries can afford to invite his parents to have expensive surgeries, medical treatment or health check-ups ?   Of course, the son invites them when his wife becomes pregnant, for personalised service, babysitting, economy, etc., but only to be put on the next flight to India when they become ‘expensively’ ill ! Of course, the son advises them to have all the health check-ups and the necessary surgeries done before leaving India. Now, where are those crème de la crème world class hospitals in developed countries about which they talk so glibly and eloquently about ? They are out of their reach. Why should they live a second class citizen life, perhaps, also with racial discrimination ? And, how to cope up with “Empty Nest Syndrome” here ?  Condolences.  Free birds in a huge golden cage in the "land of freedom" !  

          Isn’t that a bit ironic ?  There is a strange dichotomy about this which is difficult to understand. One can understand the dichotomy of views, if one sees through different radars of vision.  Both are correct in their own thinking, perception and valuation.  Oxymoronic ?

A  MATTER  OF  TASTES

  Tastes and opinions greatly differ, indeed! One likes white cars, another black ones.  One may like a huge house with a small garden and another a small house but with a huge garden all around. Human mind is a very complex one.  What is ‘right’ for one may be ‘wrong’ for another and vice-versa.  It all depends upon the tastes, needs, mindset, situation and how one looks at things. Ultimately, one has to decide according to one’s own mindset, circumstances and judgement.  It is not like choosing when wedged between pizza and pasta.  Some get caught up in vacillations, not due to lack of discretion or perception, but out of outcomes of minor scuffles that ensue while disciplining their minds.

 BALANCED  DECISION

We can't find fault with the children as they have their own agenda, career ambitions and economic compulsions, what with all the tightening of immigrant facilities and the pink slip hanging like the Damocles’ sword.  Some say that, to their misfortune, parents get a raw deal when children settle abroad.  For details read: www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/parents-or-the-pot-of-gold/article4085771.ece .                     But, one has to hasten to say that these children who crossed the Atlantic, generally, ensure excellent care for their parents materially in India through "foreign exchange", very much more than what their counterparts in India can do, or by themselves if they were to be in India except for the psychological comfort that they are nearby.  After all, they have gone there for better quality of life, better prospects, recognition for merit, professional opportunities, job satisfaction and monetary benefits. These good-minded and well-caring non-resident Indians may not always be in a position to cater to the non-material needs due to the distance, job obligations and other constraints. Though they may have a wistful longing for what they have left behind, there is a sense of success and achievement by moving out of the boundaries of their country.

COMPATABILITY

And, one who can’t adapt to their type of living and mindset may feel like a fish out of water.  Relationships, even personal, are said to be more formal and fragile there.  Their socio-cultural and personal attitudes, and their moral values may not be palatable to some Indians.  Some of the parents living there are worried about the socio-cultural and marital problems that their growing children may have to face in future especially when they live in a country like the US, a country where individual preferences are valued much and relationships are more fragile; where the not uncommon live-in relationships are not much frowned upon by their society or law; where permissiveness is pervasive; where arranged marriages (just 10 per cent) are anathema; where more than 50 per cent of marriages end up in divorce; where about half of the families are ‘fatherless, single-parented or unwed parents with children; where 41 per cent of the children are born to unwed mothers (PEW Centre;  Human Rights Council of UNICEF).    

BEST  OF  BOTH  WORLDS

One  author wrote: “… But if you already have a secure source of good income and living with family in India, think twice before making your family go through a drastic change in their lives. Think of what you are about to give up, and how long it will take for you to get “settled” in a new country where you can’t afford to have servants, cooks, drivers, gardeners, et al …”  Most of the rich people and many of the higher income groups in India do not prefer to live abroad because of the ‘important person’ identity in the native land, valued social contacts, immovable assets, psychological feeling of having the immense wherewithal for any purpose, and personal luxuries (which include very obliging personal service personnel – house-maids, gardeners, watchmen, dhobis, labourers, attendants, drivers, cooks, etc. whom we can’t dream of hiring abroad without being an aristocrat). And some would like to enjoy the money power with which they can even flout rules and laws with impunity in India. And, merrily, the super-rich would take a month of every year to tour around the world to be in the category of those who enjoy the best of both the worlds.   The aristocrats may have a villa in Manhattan and a palace in Rajasthan. They think that India is the best place to live in, if one has sufficient money.  We have a merry mix of many things here while abroad they have only a monotonous material perfection !

And remember, this is not a huge general issue for the most in India, as the chance or choice of getting a job abroad is not there for most, because a very minute minority of the intellectuals have the merit and calibre to qualify for a placement in advanced countries.  Notwithstanding, Indians are ubiquitous – as the joke goes, Neil Armstrong was greeted with a cup of tea by an Indian tea stall when he set his foot on the moon !

HAPPINESS 

Happiness is a state of mind, irrespective of whether one is in homeland or abroad; with a joint family or with a nuclear family.  It all depends on the mindset and the people concerned.  For instance, curiously, nowadays, some economically well-off elderly couples do not want interference in their day-to-day lifestyle by their children and hence prefer to stay separately in their own home or in ‘old age’ housing units.  For the same reason, youngsters also are preferring to live separately as nuclear families.  To know one perspective about home, go to https://nvsr.wordpress.com/2015/12/12/home-is-not-but/ .

 IN  A  LIGHTER  VEIN

And, here is a gag on American culture !

The lady on phone:    Good Morning,  Mr.Clinton,  I want you to meet me tomorrow.  You are the father of one  of my kids.  

The Man:                  Are you Angelica? ...  No?  Mary?  ...  No?  Eve?  ...  No?  Lexi?  ...  No?  Tara?           

The lady on phone:  I am the teacher of your son David.  I want to discuss about his progress in studies.  

 

                                 “We are what our thoughts have made us,

So, take care about what we think;

Words are secondary, thoughts live, they travel far.”

---  Swami  Vivekananda

April 25, 2022

Today (April 25, 2022),  I happened to see the following post on WhatsApp.  It is interesting and giving the perspective of one who lived in the US and analysed the subject.  --  T. Rama Prasad.

"Is Settling in USA worth it for Indians.?

By Venkat Ankam.!!

Lives in Fairfax VA.!!

Let me portray the typical life cycle of Indians in the USA with their living conditions and then I will let you decide whether settling in the USA is worth or not.

As an Indian immigrant in the USA, I have been asking myself this question for a quite long time. The reality is 95% of the Indian immigrants are settling in the US and only 5% of the immigrants are going back to India. I wondered if the “Major chunk(95%) of people settling in the US are making a wise decision or the small chunk(5%) of people going back are making a bad decision?” So I asked this question to my friends and colleagues from the 95% category but I could not get any subtle or profound answers. It looked like people are just following the crowd or falling into the trap, and not be able to go back later in life. So I did my own research asking specific set of survey questions to different age people. So let me share my findings.

First of all, why do Indians migrate to the US? One single answer for this question is scope for higher income, savings, low stress and a happy life without any common issues we experience in India. Now let's see how these objectives are met during the life cycle of these Indian immigrants. Let me use the word NRI to describe them better.

My survey was limited to NRIs in the field of science and technology who are mostly in working class and also to a few business class NRIs as well. I took ratings on a scale of 0 to 10 (0 is low and 10 is high) for earnings, savings, stress levels, family relationships and happiness from different age categories with their typical activities in their life cycle. I realized that not every NRI in the US opens up because of ‘private space’ concept. So I chose people I have good relationship with and who are really open and can share feelings of their life. The Survey was conducted with a casual talk/discussion rather than a professional way of conducting surveys.

Based on the survey results and experiences shared by participants, I categorized the life cycle of immigrants into four different generic phases (Transform, Settle, Growth and Suffer) as shown in the graph below. Every person’s life is different so the depicted life cycle or living conditions may not apply to every NRI. It may vary for few people and life events may overlap between phases. This might be totally different for the new NRIs coming to the US because of longer green card wait time and ever changing immigration policies.

Now let me describe these phases with typical life events.

Transform Phase (21 to 28 years): This an excitement phase which starts right from India after getting the US visa. One tries to get to know the culture of the US, what to do before and after entering the US and starts living the American Dream. Parents feel proud of this great achievement by their kids and start making big expectations and hopes. Starts sharing this news to neighbors and relatives and throw a big party as if their kid already succeeded in life. Arrives in the US without the awareness that he/she broke generations of living together and unity in their families. Typically nobody think or care about how life will be in the US after 40s, 50s or 60s in this stage. One gets really amazed with the best infrastructure of America and starts loving it. Gets used to American life style with few hiccups. Starts making some money and will have parties, shopping, vacation trips and realizes that life is very comfortable in the US. Transfers money to India to support family and talks to relatives and friends and shares the greatness of America. Parents will start looking for a bride/groom. Starts green card process to continue living in American dream.

NRIs are very happy in this phase with lots of excitement and joy that American life brings in.

Settle Phase (28 to 40 years): After a couple of trips to India, gets married and spouse arrives in the US. Couple is very happy in the beginning with vacation trips and parties. Realizes that expenses are higher than living as a bachelor. First baby arrives and parents and in-laws visit America. Advances in green card process, switches jobs and moves to new locations. Second baby arrives and then visits India with kids. Realizes that their parents are not quite happy staying alone in India. Also realizes that India has changed a lot and quite expensive than ever. Thinks that they may not be able to fit in India and also India is not a right fit for the kids. NRIs usually decides to go on the path of settling down in the US with a backup plan of going back. Buys Town Home/Condo and switches to luxury cars. Realizes that single income is not really sustainable in the US. Wife decides to do a job instead of getting bored at home. So Income doubles, savings doubles but stress levels go up. Green card arrives and they feel relaxed of immigration issues. Vacation trips becomes hard with little kids so no big vacations.

Happiness level comes down due to missing family relationships and not able to take care of aging parents.

Growth Phase (40 to 50 years): Moves on career ladder and starts making big bucks and also start making big bucks from secondary sources of income like stocks. Some might start a startup company or any business. Usually pretty busy with kids school and extra curricular activities. Buys a single family home and moves to a bigger home. Kids are grown up now so vacations are back. Parents are not able to visit because they don’t like to stay in the US. Also parent’s health will become a big concern. Makes few arrangements for parents in India but they are always temporary. Few realize that their friends in India have made more money in India than them. Realizes that they need to focus more on health aspects so starts some physical activities to keep their body fit.

Higher income, higher savings and most successful phase (professionally) for most people but happiness level further comes down because of lack of relationships.

Suffer Phase (Above 50 years): Kids usually finish their high school and go to a college. All savings will vanish in kids college education. Kids finish their education and start their job at a different place in the US. The couple is alone at big home away from parents and away from kids. They cannot think of going back because of kids and setting up everything from scratch in India would be a daunting task. Whenever they visit India they clearly see that family relationships are faded away because of settling in US. Most people thought that early in growth phase would have been an ideal situation to go back to India before kids enters middle school with a mind set of going back in settle phase.

Most people expressed that “We got everything we wanted in life, but we lost all relationships”. Some people expressed concern like “I wish I knew the downsides or effects of immigration later in the life”.

Starts indulging deeply in social and charity activities to keep them busy and also for social recognition. Usually takes up American citizenship in this phase while some takes up in growth phase only.

Works until 65 years of age to pay off mortgage and retires at the age of 65. After 65 years they start getting social security and healthcare benefits from government. But they continue to work in some retirement jobs to keep them busy or to earn some extra income for unknown expenses.

Just to summarize, life is happy in the beginning but happiness tends to fade away and brings suffering to life after 50s. Materialistic culture of America makes you a successful person professionally and materialistically, but deserts your life. One interesting observation during this study — most of the people who immigrated to America had no plans to settle in the US and most of the settled ones said, “We are not sure we might go back”.

Every NRI looks like a happy person from outside but everyone has a dark side story to tell from inside of their heart.

Life in the US rotates around profession, immigration process and kids. NRIs tend to “sacrifice their life for kids of next generation.” Kids seems to be happy with no complaints about life as they are in young age; the second generation, Indian-Americans, will have friends but might not have family relationships too? So they might end up in the same boat after 50 years age? Needs further research…

Thanks to my friends, colleagues and elders from community who humbly shared their deep thoughts from life for this small write-up and also helping me to make a strong decision to go back to India.

Hope this helps. Everybody’s requirements are different. So just a make a firm decision to settle here or to go back based on your own requirements and priorities, not based on what other NRIs are doing.

Update: Thank you Quorans for overwhelming response. I think this post has gone viral — 97K views, 3.7K upvotes and ~700 shares in 1 day. This clearly indicates that most NRIs are in this dilemma. Received 101 comments so far, 80 with positive sentiment, 9 with negative sentiment and 11 with neither positive or negative sentiment. My observations from these comments.

People who expressed negative sentiment are still in transform phase in US or few youngsters in India (Probably with American dream)

Interestingly this was found to be true for other immigrants/expats too, not just Indians.

Most of them expressed a feeling that this is a problem for the first generation of immigrants. Later generations will not have such problems. Need to research this further.

Many people who expressed positive sentiment felt that situation might be similar in India as well."

Finally, I repeat, listen to Steve Jobs.  He said: "Listen to your heart and live accordingly.  Let not others decide what you should do, because others wouldn't live your life.  You have to live your life."  --  T. Rama Prasad

THIS  IS  AN  ABRIDGED  TEXT  OF  MY  ‘SCRIBBLING’.     FULL  TEXT  WILL  BE  POSTED  LATER.   --  T. Rama Prasad