Fresh off the plane: New NRIs move to Mumbai
You know you're an NRI when...The children of non-resident Indians (NRIs) growing up in the 1970s through the 1990s did not have an easy life; either in the country of their birth or the country of their ancestors.
Between two cultures, they felt like misfits almost everywhere.
Visits to India during the three-month-long summer vacation meant coming armed with childhood comfort food like orange tang, cookies and candy. Families in India expected the Western-born children to be like their kids, speaking Hindi and blending in with everyone right away. On the other end of the spectrum, back in the United States, my classmates would want to know all about my visit to that foreign country called India.
I had to explain to all (teachers included) that our families did not live in jungles, nor in huts made out of mud and the preferred mode of transportation was definitely not an elephant or a tiger.
Working [in the United States] is no longer a challenging proposition. Mumbai, on the other hand,...— Serena Vora
Happy to be the center of attention as a child, I thoroughly took advantage of the situation and let my imagination run wild. I would very gently let slip that my pets in India just happened to be monkeys and camels.
Unfortunately, not all Indian American children found themselves on the amusing side of this dual-identity crisis.
We were a group that semed to be split. One half had no problems with our dual identity and culture -- we were very proud, in fact. The other half was India phobic. They were embarrassed to display their culture amongst non-Indian friends and didn't wish to connect with their relatives and the culture back in India.
Now thanks to the Internet as well as globalization, everyone knows that a country called India is not just the land of the Taj Mahal. Flourishing Indian businesses and the Bollywood explosion has helped put India on the map of global culture. The same kids whose parents had to drag and bribe them to attend Indian functions are now up to date with Bollywood gossip. It has now not only become "cool" to be Indian, but trendy to use that Indian-ness to maximum advantage.
What are you, crazy?
When I moved to Mumbai four years ago, everyone thought I'd lost it.
To give up earning in dollars and living in the richest country in the world in exchange for the chaos that is Mumbai sounded like borderline insanity to Westerners and Indians alike.
I won't lie. It was definitely not easy; the first six months were in fact horrible and it took a long time to adjust to the Indian working style. To come from an organized way of life and responsible work ethic to pandemonium was a shock to the system; in spite of being familiar with India due to numerous visits.
The flip side was that once I got past the initial adjustments, I also got the swing of things. Like they say, once you make it past the first six months, you're set to stay in Mumbai for as long as you like.
In the book, "Marrying Anita," the author Anita Jain makes reference of her moving to India, calling it a 'reverse journey', something so many of us can now relate to. We are no longer the few odd balls "returning to the motherland" and people are actually envious that we live here.
From aspiring filmmakers and NGO volunteers to corporate honchos, people from all walks of life are coming (back) to Mumbai. Even in this global recession, India has managed to bounce back sooner than the Western countries, thanks to a strong domestic market. This makes it much easier for people to find opportunities in India versus the United States where working is no longer a challenging proposition -- the systems are in place and you know what to expect -- barring the fluctuating stock market.
It's like working on an assembly line in a factory -- there are no surprises. In Mumbai on the other hand, things change on a daily basis, and predicting anything is impossible. You learn to deal with all kinds of situations. Everything is hands on over here; the tunnel vision syndrome doesn't exist. You are expected to do anything and everything and you get trained to handle various situations.
After having worked and lived in India I think one can easily live anywhere in the world.
