Not that you care, but I almost named this post A Salmagundi of NPR. However, I’m smitten with the way some Desis say “potpourri”, so I couldn’t resist the allure of that word. Oh, how do they say it? Like so: pottu-puri
None of these stories feels substantial enough to merit their own post; what does feel significant is perking up FOUR times during Morning Edition, because there are four different sepia-colored stories! That’s almost a fifth of the program! Here is what I (and undoubtedly fellow NPR-phile-Abhi, as well) heard:
1) Moray Eels are toothy!
Scientists in California have reported that Moray eels have a set of teeth within a second set of jaws, called the pharyngeal jaws, that help them capture their prey.
Once the Moray eel secures its prey with its first set of jaws, the pharyngeal jaws reach up from its throat, grabbing and pulling the prey down through its esophagus.
One of you already has an itchy-trigger-comment finger, I know it, so stop it– the brown angle is a-comin’…
Rita Mehta is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of California Davis who studies the evolution of diversity in eel feeding behavior.
Like, whoa. Not only is there a female scientist to celebrate, this has to do with my alma mater as well! w00t Davis! We study Moray Eels!
“What we discovered is that the pharyngeal jaws of Moray’s have the greatest mobility of any pharyngeal jaws ever documented,” Mehta says.
There’s this legendary tri-Delt who might have something to say about that finding, but whatevs. Listen to all this and more (though it won’t include anything about the storied, jaw-less one), for yourself, here.
2) This is a story that some of you have submitted to the news tab:
Air travel has been hellish this summer. And Nepal Airlines was no exception. Technical problems with one of its two Boeing 757 planes has meant weeks of delays. Finally, the state-run airline turned to the gods for help. It sacrificed two goats to the Hindu Sky god Akash Bhairab in front of the plane, and afterward the 757 made a successful run from Kathmandu to Hong Kong.
I just quoted the entire piece, but you may find it here if you are being the desiring.
3) Turnabout is a great play for Wipro:
Indian software firm Wipro plans to open a big software design center in Atlanta. The Bangalore, India-based firm expects to hire around 500 computer programmers in the next three years. It’s a curious turnabout from the much more familiar story: a U.S. software company creating jobs in India. [NPR]
I’ve heard various versions of this news story, but until today, it didn’t occur to me that one of the biggest reasons for this is “National Security”. Now Wipro can work on U.S. Defense contracts, thanks to Amreekan yengineers who are also familiar with this country’s mores. Why that matters in a cube farm, you will have to tell me.
Finally, 4). Another recycled blurb about the “unpredictable” happening in the world of business. First, Wipro comes to America, now B-school grads are going to Infy in India! Like you didn’t already know that…
Hundreds of recent business school graduates from U.S. colleges are taking jobs in Indian companies. India’s second biggest tech company, Infosys, just hired 300 Americans to work in its Bangalore office. They say it’s more exciting than an entry level job in the slower-growing U.S. economy. And with a much lower cost of living in India, it doesn’t matter if they only earn a fraction of what they would make working for a tech company in Silicon Valley. [NPR]
Am I the only one who is starting to feel like they’re missing out, by being here instead of yonder and by yonder, I mean the country my parents left, because they thought America was all that and a bag of jackfruit chips? Anyone? Buehler?
Speaking of ABD’s living/working in India, has anyone obtained an “Overseas Citizen of India” (OCI) card ? I know that it is not a true dual citizenship (though people refer to it as such), but the info I am finding on the consulate web page is kind of vague. It says it gives the holder the same rights as an NRI with respect to “economic, financial, and educational opportunties”. Does this mean that an OCI card holder can work in India without any additional permits ? Has anyone gone through the OCI application process ?
Floridian,
Moving back or staying in US is deeply personal decision. There are no right and wrongs.
This said, I have lived longer in US than in India. Last year, I did talk to a MNC in India, but then got cold feet. But this said, I still keep that option open, and talk to people there for new opportunities.
However, my parents moved back to India after they were here in US, in late sixties (when this country was in its full glory, and India massively struggling). Most of my relatives moved back for many reasons – business, career opportunities (my father leveraged a new job from IIT(K) to U. Roorkee using American experience), home sickness, family property and its management, raising their children in a majority culture**, being with their larger family network. Even as early as 1940s when one of my uncle was in U. Minn.
Indian diaspora is tiny, tiny, tiny compared to Irish and Chinese diaspora.
They both are seeing a massive influx back to homeland, owing to Ireland and China becoming economic powerhouses.
Ireland has become from emmigrant bound to immigrant bound country. Nth generation Irish Americans are moving back. There is huge Irish Government machinery with a separate minister responsible these for the whole move back deal.
China has a new word (I am forgetting the word) for Chinese diaspora moving back. They are business persons, scientists, you name it. My sister-in-law’s sister and her family who are Taiwanese-American are in Shanghai. Their great grandparents or even earlier once lived in mainland China.
** I even have a friend who is Belgium who moved back to Europe from US (through a company transfer) when she became mother because she wanted her children to be grow up there. She wanted her kids to bike in Belgium woods and countryside, be with their grandparents, and aunts and uncles. So this has nothing to something special India/ South Asian culture. Most of the western Europeans often move back for children, in my discussion with them. Same holds for India or any country. There are huge plusses in that, I can vouch for it.
Does this mean that an OCI card holder can work in India without any additional permits ? Has anyone gone through the OCI application process ?
Yes, you can work, own business, etc. There are some restrictions, very specialized though.
I know several people.
The thought of this makes me ill. I’d hope that the type of non-desi American who’d move to India for career/cultural experiences would be open-minded adn considerate enough to not patronize such places (‘whites-only’). How stupid to go all that way just to sit around and look at each other. Are most of these non-Desi Americans, who go to work in India, white?
In the end I think its not so easy for ABDs, even long-distance nationalist types. I’ve lived abroad for periods. You realize how American you are in the absence of America.
46 Chachaji: “I was wondering if you would also care to elaborate on the lower productivity in ‘American settings’ in India that you mentioned in the thread on Gregory Clark some days ago, if I remember right, in the BPO enclaves in Gurgaon. I would be interested in whether this was a subjective observation, or whether you used some metrics, and either way, some details on what you saw.”
Read VINOD’s blog on SM July 18, 2007 Econ 101 Works
I have some metrics and a lot of anecdotal evidence. Vinod’s blog quotes a McKinsey study among other things. He knows Indian BPO and software from personal experience.
None of this would ultimately hold India back. India’s biggest asset is what economists call the Demographic Dividend. With nearly 70% of the population under the age of 30, the vast majority of the Indian population is currently at its peak of productivity and consumption, with several more huge population waves getting ready to feed the high productivity-and-consumption cycles over the next 50 years. Remember what the post WWII Baby Boom did for the US? Well, this is Baby Explosion, with positive economic outcomes guaranteed for the next 50 years as long as the other fundamentals, education, infrastructure development, continued global economic participation, remain in good shape. And why wouldn’t they?
Floridian, I agree, the demographic profile of a ‘young India’ is one of the biggest things in India’s favor, and in comparison, China does not have it. In fact, after 2030, the population of China will start declining, while India’s will continue to increase, according to the medium fertility assumptions of the UN Population Projection. So in 2050, India will have a population of 1.66 billion versus China’s of 1.41 billion according to these assumptions. But for people thinking of going, or going back, it is also the very thing that makes you bounce.
Demographic competition for resources and jobs will be strong, in fact ‘strong’ is a rather weak word for what is likely to happen. Of course, within India, different regions will do differently – Kerala will be different from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. So maybe you could find a good place to be in spite of everything.
It is normally said in India’s favor that it has democracy, but managing the democratic aspirations of such a huge population will present a real challenge, and might very well require fundamental Constitutional adjustments allowing both greater federalism and local confederations (such as Indistan or Dravidistan (the four Southern states) within India.
Count me in as another ABD moving to Desh. I wrote an essay about home when I was in the 6th grade, about being a foriegner at my home country, the US, and and a citizen of a strange land (India.) Now my children will grow up as US citizens in India. At least we will all share the feeling of otherness. However, unlike Meenu, we will not be moving to an expat enclave. We are planning to move back to our ancestral home, where we will be surrounded by people who weathered the license raj, and the fits and starts of globalization, and are making money now, but are priced out of the simple luxuries that were available to them in the 80’s. I’ll keep you all posted on the adventure.
all the best, lifelong
last year, according Indian embassy/ consulate, they saw a huge jump PIOs moving to India.
How could i have forgotten Israel in all the discussion. A significant % of Jewish Americans have dual citizenships.
The ones who move to Israel know their life will be not what is in Manhattan but they do it.
Ireland is also becoming a huge retirement community for Irish Americans, apart from business opportunities.
What do ABDs plan to do with ancestral property (if any) in India once your parents are gone? It would be foolish to ignore it and just leave it alone, since it represents real money (and if you ignore it, people will occupy it and that’s a whole other headache)…but dealing with it or trying to sell it would be very tough for the average ABD.
Amitabh,
I did this. SOld both properties left to me by my dad. Of course, I’m bonking myself on the head now. But, I had to take all of my annual leave for 2 consecutive years to accomplish this.
no ancestrap properties, although i bought a bunch of properties out there. was a $hitsh0w to buy. im sure it will be even more of a $hitsh0w to hold and sell.
What do ABDs plan to do with ancestral property (if any) in India once your parents are gone? It would be foolish to ignore it and just leave it alone, since it represents real money (and if you ignore it, people will occupy it and that’s a whole other headache)…but dealing with it or trying to sell it would be very tough for the average ABD.
I think if it is too precious and big, you go back to manage it.
One of my relative (he is a Wharton graduate, and worked for DuPont for long time), went back, took a job in India, and primarily to manage his property. His parents were still alive.
Same with politicians……one example is Charan Singh’s son Ajit Singh or for that matter ex- US marine son of Somalia’s warlord Adid.
My mom sold her land in Andhra in the late 90s since she felt there was nothing left for her to go to in India(my grandparents have both passed away). Talk about terrible timing. I tried to talk her out of it. Now that land is worth many times over. As far as Hyderabad, if you had land for the last 10 years, you hit the motherload. My cousins who settled in Hyderabad are minting money on real estate.
its a scary investment. trees dont grow to the sky.
People who had ancestral property in Malleshwaram, Bangalore have hit the jackpot. It is going in the crores just for the land. We looked at a site 60X 35 in Jayanagar. Very plainly he told us it was 98 lakhs and then closing costs which is almost another 15-20 lakhs. I just fainted right beside my husband.
All this talk of whether or not would one move to India, now or later reminds me of a curious trend. A number of non-indians – British, in majority from what I understand, have been quietly relocating to India in their senior years. One of the major draws – low cost of living so pension money goes much farther, easy hired help, good climate and relaxation in places like Goa. Check out indiamike.com – this is where I’d read a long thread about relocating to India. The folks here truly are India lovers, and you will find the best, most detailed info and comments about any/all aspects of India.
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All this gung-ho about “globalization/outsourcing = more opportunities” for everybody holds good only for “neutral” business/technology areas. There is a sizeable amount of high-end business (direct &indirect) in both neutral and non-neutral fields that will not be allowed to go abroad or have foreign “influence” for reasons like foreign ownership of critical infrastructure, security concerns and intellectual property issues. These will act as dampeners on globalization because very soon the desire by developing countries to rise up the value chain will hit a road block against such protectionism. So there will be lot ot turmoil and re-division of the world into blocs and cartels.