India Unbound
I read an article sent to me by my dad. Here is the excerpt and my thoughts.
“For decades, a significant section of Indian students' dream was to study in the United States and work there. And now, a 'reverse trend', albeit with a smaller number to begin with, may take shape with American students coming to India for learning.
An American delegation, led by Senator Michael B Enzi, and comprised of among others by US Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, is on a mission to India to study the educational system in India and how the country is able to churn out a large number of highly-skilled professionals.
"....As Secretary of Education I am anxious to see how you all and how others around the world develop human capital and talent. Certainly you (India) have done that and you are doing that. That's why so many industries and American companies are coming here to grow and expand," Spellings told PTI.
Spellings said the team was looking forward to learn about what India was doing on innovation and competitiveness.
Noting that India produces a large number of highly skilled people, she said: "That's one of the pages we want to take from your book...the high quality technical base, strength of the skills...your talent pool. We have work to do on that across our country as well".
According to her, India has a large and strong technical capability, while America's assets are in the areas of creativity, problem-solving and innovation.”
Thoughts:
America is waking up. It is doing what any country or a species would naturally do when challenged. Although America has become the Alpha member of the world society only recently (by “recent”, I mean about only 50 – 70 years), it has arguably been the most powerful country on earth for the past 30 – 40 years. And now, since, the late ‘90’s technology boom, it finds itself challenged by other countries in the area of academics. Indians, Chinese, Japanese are all coming to the USA in huge numbers seeking higher education. And with this happening, we are now seeing all the upper end jobs and technology jobs being either lapped up by immigrants here or outsourced to their brethren back in their home countries. Clearly, this is a challenge to the Alpha member here with Americans being either put out of job or facing very strong competition from alien nationals who have fantastic GPAs.
So what does America do? It cannot allow its entire working force to sit at home with no jobs. So it has now started to look at its competitors more closely. Countries like India and China which have consistently produced Engineers and Scientists by the thousands are coming under the microscope here. America will bend its mind to find out what is it that keeps these countries ticking? How can a so-called “third world” country like India pose a challenge to a world leader, an Alpha male in the pack?
Being an Indian, and having studied on both sides of the Atlantic, I have some insights into this question’s answer. Is India technologically more advanced than the USA? Are our educational institutes better equipped than American universities? Or is it just that Indians are more brilliant?
Well, sure there are some areas in which India is as technologically advanced as USA, and there are some Indian educational institutes which are better equipped than some American ones, and yes, there are a bunch of Indians more brainy than general American population. But is that the complete explanation? Look more closely guys, if that was the full explanation, the American teams would not have been in India studying us so minutely.
There is another, more subtle reason for this. It lies in the very fact of being born and brought up in India. By that I mean, it lies in the manner of upbringing that we receive as being born Indians. Guys, we have something there that is lacking in America and Europe. Something that pitches us in such a unique position in the world today that slowly the name India is becoming synonymous with “engineers, doctors, scientists, and booming economy”! I think it is time, we as the primary generation sat up and took a look at it.
Studying here in America, making a few American friends, and then working in this country has introduced me to some aspects of American culture, upbringing, social norms and unsaid rules. For instance, for all those who have crossed the age of 23-24, now realize that it was largely the time between the age of 18 to 22 years that molded us into who we are today. Sure, we changed a lot after that time too, but that was just adding more floors to the building of life – the foundation was laid in those crucial 4 years and in the 17 years before that. And it is here, in the very foundation that we differ from Americans, Europeans, Chinese…everybody.
During those 22 years of our life, most commonly, we live with our parents. We see first hand the behavior of our parents in close detail. The way they handle situations, the way they face hardships, the way they bring up our younger siblings, the way they respect their family ties. These events are not transparent to us. They happen right there in front of us, and slowly, surely and sometimes unconsciously, we pick up stuff, we learn things, our learning varies from learning from our parents’ mistakes, to downright copying their ways. So when we are going through that period of 18 to 22 years, we are learning and absorbing much, much more than what books and friends can teach us. We are actually learning the way of life.
When we are young and attracted to sports, TV and fun things, our parents ensure that we study. We all do not have our own personal bedrooms and certainly don’t have the right to close bedroom doors on our parent’s faces and expect them not to enter our rooms. Guys, this is an accepted norm in the families and right of every child in an American home, that kids (when they are in their teens) can close doors and do what they like in their rooms and their parents ought not to interfere, unless it is a grave matter. Hence, at a young age when kid’s minds are very malleable and ductile, they close themselves into their own world and protect their “privacy”.
Remember your childhood, your teens and your undergrad years. The importance of studying, learning, getting good grades and being a good student was taught to us since such an early age that by the time we came to undergrad, it had become second nature to study sincerely for exams and try level best to get good grades. Having seen the undergrad facilities here, in the USA, I can confidently say that leaving aside a few institutes in India, our undergrad colleges certainly did not have the kind of infrastructure, facilities, labs, professors and courses as they have it in the universities here. But yet, you go to any American university today and you will see a large fraction of the population to be Indians who can compete with anybody in the world for extraordinary GPAs. So what was it that makes us better at academia than the rest?
It is the things we learnt at home. We saw our parents facing hardships at work, sometimes we saw them getting sad because somebody who was more qualified was promoted over them. That taught us a few things. That taught us that the way to better life, to a rewarding career was educating ourselves to the extent where we are very well qualified to bag a great job. When they scolded us for not studying, it was never a personal rebuke, but a necessary act to help us face stiff competition in the educational field. As we grew, we realized what lay out there and what competition we were going to face and we studied harder and got better grades. Somewhere, unconsciously, good grades became equated with grand career.
American student doesn’t always think like that. He/she thinks about a career in sports, music, arts, dance etc much more easily and without hesitation of the sort an Indian kid would have. Hence, you will find that Americans take sports much more seriously in college and their universities don’t churn out as many engineers as ours do. Many Americans are still amazed when I tell them the number of engineers that graduate from our universities.
Sure, there are upsides and downsides to it. In the race to bag a good job and safe earning, we Indians may have lost out on good sportspersons (remember that boy/girl in your high school or college who was great at cricket or football or gymnastics?), or we may have stifled our great interest in music to be able to study hard and get good grades (remember that guy/gal in college who sang really well or played the keyboard real nice?). But then, you never get everything in life, and we all choose our primary target, which more commonly happens to be financial and academic security and superiority in India, while it is not the same in America.
The study team coming to India wants “to learn what India was doing on competitiveness”, and how it was able to “produce a large number of highly skilled people”. Well, it is our outlook towards life that makes us competitive. The ability to look at life in a bigger picture sort of way that we get by observing our parents, is what makes us mature. From observing the efforts our parents take to send us to good schools, we understand at a young age of about 20 to 25 years that if we educate ourselves, and get good jobs, we are going to secure our family’s future, and provide a better life for our children. That is what equips an Indian to be able to stand up to any kind of academic and professional task.
The point to be taken here is that, we Indians have a treasure which does not lie in our institutes and our world class research centers. It lies in a simple place called home. What the Americans have today that is better than us is good labs, good courses, good facilities. But guys, please note that what they have can be obtained within the time period of a generation, but what we have has grown over many generations. It is our turn now to ensure it is kept up and upheld.
This article is not meant to convey that we must stifle our future generations’ artistic endeavors. It only tries to bring out a point which we do not always consciously think about. It just tries to ask of the reader to hold on to a few Indian values and not give in fully to western way of life.
“For decades, a significant section of Indian students' dream was to study in the United States and work there. And now, a 'reverse trend', albeit with a smaller number to begin with, may take shape with American students coming to India for learning.
An American delegation, led by Senator Michael B Enzi, and comprised of among others by US Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, is on a mission to India to study the educational system in India and how the country is able to churn out a large number of highly-skilled professionals.
"....As Secretary of Education I am anxious to see how you all and how others around the world develop human capital and talent. Certainly you (India) have done that and you are doing that. That's why so many industries and American companies are coming here to grow and expand," Spellings told PTI.
Spellings said the team was looking forward to learn about what India was doing on innovation and competitiveness.
Noting that India produces a large number of highly skilled people, she said: "That's one of the pages we want to take from your book...the high quality technical base, strength of the skills...your talent pool. We have work to do on that across our country as well".
According to her, India has a large and strong technical capability, while America's assets are in the areas of creativity, problem-solving and innovation.”
Thoughts:
America is waking up. It is doing what any country or a species would naturally do when challenged. Although America has become the Alpha member of the world society only recently (by “recent”, I mean about only 50 – 70 years), it has arguably been the most powerful country on earth for the past 30 – 40 years. And now, since, the late ‘90’s technology boom, it finds itself challenged by other countries in the area of academics. Indians, Chinese, Japanese are all coming to the USA in huge numbers seeking higher education. And with this happening, we are now seeing all the upper end jobs and technology jobs being either lapped up by immigrants here or outsourced to their brethren back in their home countries. Clearly, this is a challenge to the Alpha member here with Americans being either put out of job or facing very strong competition from alien nationals who have fantastic GPAs.
So what does America do? It cannot allow its entire working force to sit at home with no jobs. So it has now started to look at its competitors more closely. Countries like India and China which have consistently produced Engineers and Scientists by the thousands are coming under the microscope here. America will bend its mind to find out what is it that keeps these countries ticking? How can a so-called “third world” country like India pose a challenge to a world leader, an Alpha male in the pack?
Being an Indian, and having studied on both sides of the Atlantic, I have some insights into this question’s answer. Is India technologically more advanced than the USA? Are our educational institutes better equipped than American universities? Or is it just that Indians are more brilliant?
Well, sure there are some areas in which India is as technologically advanced as USA, and there are some Indian educational institutes which are better equipped than some American ones, and yes, there are a bunch of Indians more brainy than general American population. But is that the complete explanation? Look more closely guys, if that was the full explanation, the American teams would not have been in India studying us so minutely.
There is another, more subtle reason for this. It lies in the very fact of being born and brought up in India. By that I mean, it lies in the manner of upbringing that we receive as being born Indians. Guys, we have something there that is lacking in America and Europe. Something that pitches us in such a unique position in the world today that slowly the name India is becoming synonymous with “engineers, doctors, scientists, and booming economy”! I think it is time, we as the primary generation sat up and took a look at it.
Studying here in America, making a few American friends, and then working in this country has introduced me to some aspects of American culture, upbringing, social norms and unsaid rules. For instance, for all those who have crossed the age of 23-24, now realize that it was largely the time between the age of 18 to 22 years that molded us into who we are today. Sure, we changed a lot after that time too, but that was just adding more floors to the building of life – the foundation was laid in those crucial 4 years and in the 17 years before that. And it is here, in the very foundation that we differ from Americans, Europeans, Chinese…everybody.
During those 22 years of our life, most commonly, we live with our parents. We see first hand the behavior of our parents in close detail. The way they handle situations, the way they face hardships, the way they bring up our younger siblings, the way they respect their family ties. These events are not transparent to us. They happen right there in front of us, and slowly, surely and sometimes unconsciously, we pick up stuff, we learn things, our learning varies from learning from our parents’ mistakes, to downright copying their ways. So when we are going through that period of 18 to 22 years, we are learning and absorbing much, much more than what books and friends can teach us. We are actually learning the way of life.
When we are young and attracted to sports, TV and fun things, our parents ensure that we study. We all do not have our own personal bedrooms and certainly don’t have the right to close bedroom doors on our parent’s faces and expect them not to enter our rooms. Guys, this is an accepted norm in the families and right of every child in an American home, that kids (when they are in their teens) can close doors and do what they like in their rooms and their parents ought not to interfere, unless it is a grave matter. Hence, at a young age when kid’s minds are very malleable and ductile, they close themselves into their own world and protect their “privacy”.
Remember your childhood, your teens and your undergrad years. The importance of studying, learning, getting good grades and being a good student was taught to us since such an early age that by the time we came to undergrad, it had become second nature to study sincerely for exams and try level best to get good grades. Having seen the undergrad facilities here, in the USA, I can confidently say that leaving aside a few institutes in India, our undergrad colleges certainly did not have the kind of infrastructure, facilities, labs, professors and courses as they have it in the universities here. But yet, you go to any American university today and you will see a large fraction of the population to be Indians who can compete with anybody in the world for extraordinary GPAs. So what was it that makes us better at academia than the rest?
It is the things we learnt at home. We saw our parents facing hardships at work, sometimes we saw them getting sad because somebody who was more qualified was promoted over them. That taught us a few things. That taught us that the way to better life, to a rewarding career was educating ourselves to the extent where we are very well qualified to bag a great job. When they scolded us for not studying, it was never a personal rebuke, but a necessary act to help us face stiff competition in the educational field. As we grew, we realized what lay out there and what competition we were going to face and we studied harder and got better grades. Somewhere, unconsciously, good grades became equated with grand career.
American student doesn’t always think like that. He/she thinks about a career in sports, music, arts, dance etc much more easily and without hesitation of the sort an Indian kid would have. Hence, you will find that Americans take sports much more seriously in college and their universities don’t churn out as many engineers as ours do. Many Americans are still amazed when I tell them the number of engineers that graduate from our universities.
Sure, there are upsides and downsides to it. In the race to bag a good job and safe earning, we Indians may have lost out on good sportspersons (remember that boy/girl in your high school or college who was great at cricket or football or gymnastics?), or we may have stifled our great interest in music to be able to study hard and get good grades (remember that guy/gal in college who sang really well or played the keyboard real nice?). But then, you never get everything in life, and we all choose our primary target, which more commonly happens to be financial and academic security and superiority in India, while it is not the same in America.
The study team coming to India wants “to learn what India was doing on competitiveness”, and how it was able to “produce a large number of highly skilled people”. Well, it is our outlook towards life that makes us competitive. The ability to look at life in a bigger picture sort of way that we get by observing our parents, is what makes us mature. From observing the efforts our parents take to send us to good schools, we understand at a young age of about 20 to 25 years that if we educate ourselves, and get good jobs, we are going to secure our family’s future, and provide a better life for our children. That is what equips an Indian to be able to stand up to any kind of academic and professional task.
The point to be taken here is that, we Indians have a treasure which does not lie in our institutes and our world class research centers. It lies in a simple place called home. What the Americans have today that is better than us is good labs, good courses, good facilities. But guys, please note that what they have can be obtained within the time period of a generation, but what we have has grown over many generations. It is our turn now to ensure it is kept up and upheld.
This article is not meant to convey that we must stifle our future generations’ artistic endeavors. It only tries to bring out a point which we do not always consciously think about. It just tries to ask of the reader to hold on to a few Indian values and not give in fully to western way of life.
posted by Viraj Datar | 6:05 PM
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