Today is the NRI Day, though sans the usual fanfare. Actually, with our friend Corona around what with newer variants in its armory, the very concept of nation has become complicated, given the compulsory home or otherwise isolation, visa restrictions, and so on. Once a person leaves the Indian shores, difficult it is to guess when you would get to see her/him again.
The NRI is a complex identity even otherwise. During the British regime, there were "brown sahib's". The newer version thereof is the NRI. Most of them are more Americanised/Europeanised than the Americans/Europeans themselves. The fun is in the U.S./Europe, they are more Indian than all of us put together. Most often, they stay, operate, are comfortable in the Indian ghetto's, can never merge with the locals, even in the second generation. They remember, unlike us, every possible ritual in all the minutest details. It is an attempt to carve an, and/or hold on to some sort of, identity, I suppose
This tendency is more remarkable in the post liberalisation days, I would say. Earlier, the cream of India used to go abroad, the best minds. Unlike the brain drain, now it is the money power. Extremely ordinary students who could not really do well even in India started going abroad because parents could afford it. Once there somehow, they kept on hanging on despite the pink slips. In a way, they do contribute to the Indian economy through their investments, especially in the otherwise gloomy real estate industry. Most often, they buy flats here to be rented on rather plush charges.
How they are surviving there, especially during the corona, is anybody's guess. There has to be lot of concrete data regarding it, right? They need to be helped, I suppose, as all the issues regarding profession, must be prominent there, too. On this Pravasi Day, this is hoping they all are safe and sound.
Pratima@pravasi or niwasi, an indian is an indian, needs the motherland as the support, I suppose.
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