A lot of discussions going on the media - social or otherwise about the appointment of Indian origin Parag Agarwal as the CEO of Twitter. He is only 37 years old. The achievement of the IIT Bombay Alumnus and Stanford PhD holder is definitely praiseworthy, though many have used terms like "divorcing", "ditching" his motherland for greener pastures for him. In the jungle of social media everyone is entitled for his or her opinion. Not to be left out here is mine.
Years back, an Odia officer from IFS (Indian Foreign Service) was posted in America in one of the several Indian Consulates. During an interaction with him, the gentleman narrated to me an interesting episode of his own.
Per the Foreign Ministry rules, he was entitled to bring a Domestic help - an euphemism for servant from India to the United States. So he brought this semi-educated, married young man with his family back in his village in Cuttack, thinking he would be least likely to elope or escape with the thought of his family back home in back of his mind. Or so he thought.
The officer, a bachelor, spent long days and evenings at work, often eating outside and attending diplomatic parties. Having nothing to do at home in America, getting bored watching TV in those days sans cell phones and social media, his "helping hand", popularly known as CHAKARA TOKA in Odia helped himself by going around the city.
Slowly he started getting a taste of the American life and got hooked to it. One fine morning he simply absconded without informing his employer. Our IFS Babu (Officer) anticipated that his fellow Odia must have melted away, gobbled by the gargantuan city as an undocumented illegal immigrant, doing some odd jobs.
His suspicion turned out to be true. One evening he was in an Indian Restaurant where he saw his ex-helping hand mopping the floor. No sooner their eyes met than the later turned away and fled. Our officer bro chased him for a while, calling his name at top of his voice, that he is going to forgive him and his folks in Cuttack are now a worried lot.
It had no effect on the CHAKARA TOKA, as he vanished into the labyrinth of the parked vehicles. If the officer wanted he could have followed up with the local authorities to trace him out. But he let him go, allowing his co-villager pursue his American dream. He walked back gasping like the Cheetah on National Geographic Channel after failed chase.
The Odia escapist may never have gone back to see his family ever again. Due to expiry of his Visa and lack of proper document, he could have forever settled down here as one of the estimated 12 million illegal undocumented workers in America, about half a million those are of Indian origin. No question he fell to the desire to stay in the Coke land by hook or crook. Thus ended the story of the Officer and the Gentleman from Cuttack.
That was the saga of an illegal immigrant. But there are a lot of legal and successful Indian diaspora all over the globe doing well in Technology and Business fields at different level. Brain drain will continue as long as there are wrong people in wrong places (an IT Minister of Odisha didn't know what Microsoft is), a huge population, caste based reservations, nepotism, reward of mediocrity, ignoring meritocracy, lack of growth and opportunity. Adding lure of more money, a sense of adventure and accomplishment by going abroad will continue to drive the brain drain.
The tribe of the likes of Parag Agarwal (CEO of Twitter), Sundar Pichai (CEO of Google) and Satya Nedula (CEO of Microsoft) is bound to grow. It will only keep on growing irrespective of what people think, say, comment or troll about them on social media. As more and more such folks are trolled more often, it will keep me reminding Kishore Kumar's iconic song from the movie AMAR PREM - "KUCHH TO LOG KAHENGE, LOGON KA KAAM HAI KEHNA " (People will always say something, there job is to say).
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