From: rrp@cbnewsg.cb.att.com (rakesh.r.patel)
Subject: Re: INDIAN CULTURE - Subservient
Organization: AT&T
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 22:27:31 GMT

In article <1992Nov17.202105.28368@csrd.uiuc.edu> ghosh@sp1.csrd.uiuc.edu (Sanjoy Ghosh) writes:
>
>I don't really care what you sound like.  I am more interested in what you 
>actually say.  If the socialist attitude of holding open examinations for
>public sector jobs is a problem what do you call the well-known phenomenon 
>of universities in this country not even looking at resumes not from Stanford, 
>CMU, or MIT.  What do you call the fact that someone from Iowa, no matter 
>that his IQ is actually better than Einstein's, has his resume tossed in 
>the garbage without a second look. 

The socialist attitude is that only the government can cure the people's 
problems. Open exams is OK with me. You mistook my point, I said that it India
wants to grow and compete, let the private sector grow, not government.

What company is this?? I don't know about academic circles but from what little
work experience I have, I have encountered many people from schools other than
those you mentioned. It is not as restricted as you make it sound.

>That is what I meant by being in the right place at the right time.

What is meant by being in the right place at the right time, is, by a stroke of
luck, you are walking down the street and a bag full of money lands at you feet.

An another example, would be say, next monday, IBM said they were hiring 
people only from Iowa, and as luck would have it only Iowa grads showed up.
>
>>Why are you assuming that since the departure of the ~1 million Indians to
>>the US, India is hopelessly lost. 
>
>Isn't it?  Lost that is.  Isn't that the drift of all the free-enterprisers 
>with their pie-in-the-sky schemes to make India realise its true potential 
>if only...

What's the point??? Is India dead in the water without it expatriate geniuses
or not??
>
>It is equally arrogant to assume that all of us in this country are impotent
>fools who can never help achieve what most other Asian countries have. 

Equally foolish as, perhaps,  to assume that no one else is equally as
capable as those who left India. I

>The 
>number of jobs in India is not a pre-ordained constant like the speed of light.
>It can be increased, enabling those who couldn't get jobs earlier to get them 
>now.  There is also no ceiling on the amount of talent that India can use.  
>Its not like we are bursting at the seams with  talent.  You have perhaps 
>heard of NRI parks and so forth.

Again, what is the point? Jobs can only be created with a vigorous private 
sector. If the job pool shrinks, even people from the best schools won't 
get a job. 

>>I never said that. I think you are giving the million that left too much
>>credit as to how important they are to India's development. India's problems
>>are much more serious than a million people leaving. It is that socialist
>>cesspool that likes to call itself the largest democracy in the world.
>
>That was really very helpful.  And making statements like that is the
>most anybody can expect someone who had the good sense to leave to do
>for India.

I don't see people emigrating to India. Don't you think if India got it's act
together, they would want to migrate to the US. Please, I have had enough
of all these Indians, who left India at the first opportunity, feeding 
everyone else their pie-in-the-sky dreams of how they shall lead her into
a new golden age or something. I don't have anything against people 
migrating to the West, but I have to check my wallet  when they say that
they did it just to help India out of the goodness of their heart. India
would do much better to straighten itself out first, without putting all
its hopes in the expatriates. A very few are going to come back. They might
put their money in the NRI accounts if the return is good enough.
>
>>Do you think every Indian or Asian in the US is a member of the 
>>intelligentsia?  Hardly. I think you better take a good look around, off that
>>campus and see what most Asians do? A higher percentage of them are in the
>>hard sciences and professional jobs, but by no means a majority of them.
>
>And what contribution are they making to rejuvenating Indian culture?
>May I remind you once again that we, Prof Parikh and I, were talking
>about Indians contributing to improving Indian minds not Indian pocketbooks.

Rejuvenating??? I didn't know that Indian culture was in decline.  Besides,
how much, realistically, can be expected in the way of contributing to the 
Indian culture, living in the west. Plese give me ONE example made to Indian
culture by an expatriate, living in the West. 


Rakesh Patel