Hum to aise hain bhaiya

For those who didn’t understand the title, it simply means (Sorry, but that’s the way we are). :)

Every single person who joins the software industry has a dream to go onsite and earn some big money. People fight, connive, back stab and push people down to get the opportunity to go onsite. OK, agreed, people go on merit as well. But the previously mentioned scenarios do happen a lot. When I joined WASE, I had no such aspirations. I am a person with limited aspirations, and I expected only to be able to perform well... I guess that is a starters dream.

As time went by and I saw people whom I taught tools, planning to go onsite as a tool expert, after a couple of days of working on the tool in our tools lab, the pangs started. The thought then was, if they can, why can't I. The thought died down quickly as I didn't want my onsite dreams to affect my studies. Then my fellow waseians started to go onsite and came back richer, but my heart was still in studies [yeah right]. I didn't want to fail :). Also, my onsite aspirations were more in terms of being able to tour the world, and hence I had my sights on the Consulting role.

Most people, whom I met, said that onsite is not as interesting as it seems. I didn't believe any of them. What could be wrong with perfectly managed traffics, low crime rates, booming or steady economies, high level of education, perfect landscapes? I mean, what could go wrong? Boy, I was going to be proven wrong.

As soon as I got out of WASE, the itch started, I got a much better salary than I used to get as a waseian, but my wants increased. I wanted more. More money. And since I was done with my studies, there was nothing stopping me from seeing the world, was there?

Well I got my dream role in consulting and also got placed in a country people dream to go for a holiday or for their honeymoons, Switzerland. When I saw my deputation letter and read from our internal website how much the expected expenditure would be for a month, I immediately started calculating as to how much I was going to save... I realized soon that it was a wonderful opportunity to roam around Switzerland. Make the best of it. I always wanted to go for a world tour and I saw this as the first step. I couldn't wait to go....

Well, I landed in Switzerland on the 20th of May 2008. The clouds were clear and I could see city quite clearly from the air... large empty roads, with minimal traffic. Surprisingly, the thought that stuck me is not what I had presumed. I never thought, "Wow empty wide roads, no HOSUR road traffic here". All that I could think of was "Its seems so lonely". I was expecting Sourav to be waiting for me at the airport to receive me in the unknown and lonely county, but still a sense of grief and sadness hit me. I was missing India, I was missing my family, I was missing my friends, I was missing my bike, I was missing the Bangalore office. Heck, I was even missing the Hosur road traffic, and all this even before I landed.

Well I landed and was taken aback by the organised way everything was handled, and a new thought entered my mind. "Why can't my India be like this? What does it lack? Does it not have the resources or the capability to come up like this"? Like every young Indian might think, I started cursing the politics and beaurocracy of India which has made us a second world country. Given that the maximum scientific community in major countries is Indian and most of the brilliant minds driving the growth of other countries is Indian.

It has taken me several months (almost 3) to realize what makes us different from others.

1. Discipline: The discipline in countries like Switzerland is so high, that I have hardly seen children cry. Even dogs don't bark. Can one imagine such discipline in India? I know, if as a child, I did not cry, I would have died... If I had a dog and it didn't bark, I would take it to the doctor immediately. But no sir, not here, no dog barks and no kid cries in Switzerland. Let me give you a good side of the discipline here. There are automated ticket counters on almost all stations in Switzerland, but at the stop at Rhine falls, there is just one board, "Please take a ticket at your destination station", and people actually take tickets. Would that ever work in India?

2. Zombies: The processes and standards in Switzerland are so strict and so much inculcated into the minds of the people here, that they seem to be incapable of free thought. Not that they can't, but they are so comfortable in their templates and guidelines and rules that they hardly think of other possibilities. Majority of the people believe that their ancestors have done everything that could be done right and just follow the rules blindly. Without the free and lateral thinking, to me they are left as zombies.

3. Population: The population of this country is very small and hence tagging and tracking every one is a very simple task. [Yes, every person who is a resident or has come into Switzerland is tracked]. When applying for a new house, the owner may as well tell you where all you have stayed from the day you entered Switzerland.

Take just points 2 and 3, you would know why there are low crime rates and no social hassles. Add point number 1 and the growth automatically comes in. The secret is not such a big secret, but why can't it be replicated in India, I would again say the same there points.

1. Discipline (or the lack of it)
2. Zombies (that is what we are not. Every one is a big thinker. Everybody thinks, why in the hell should I do what others tell me to do.)
3. Population (Oh we have plenty of that one)

Given all these comparisons, anyone would say, that India is a place which people would dread to go to, would never go back to or would never want to visit. But the truth is exactly the opposite, every Indian who comes out of India; dreams of the day when he would have fulfilled his monetary needs and go back to India and every foreigner dreams of visiting India. Why? Because there is something in us that makes us tick.

Given all the problems that we have, we are slowly becoming one of the biggest threats to other countries. Indians are everywhere; we are spreading like a virus in every corner of every country. We are desperate and yet we tick, we move on. Churning like the gears of some large machinery. Each gear in itself, not making any sense, but together going where others are struggling to reach.

So tell me friends, who among you who are currently onsite, do not dream of coming back to India? Who among you who have been outside, had not been haunted by the thoughts of India? Would I be right in saying, "Mere desh mein 100 mein se 99 beiymaan, phir bhi mera bharat mahaan"? And although we ourselves may question ourselves on where we are reaching and what are we doing... When someone asks us the same, 95% of us would reply (even though we may know that we are on the wrong side) “Hum to aise hain bhaiya”. And that my dear friends will never change………