Have you noticed a unique video trend? Well, even if you cursorily browse through the YouTube, you get to note/know such trends. One such trend is bad-mouthing the realities of the lived American life. You would find loooong videos that reveal the reality of the American pay cheque.
Often, due to the conversion rates, the American salaries appear huge. Even if one stays in tax h(e)avens such as Florida, even then the other multiple taxes, the huge EMI's, the insurance payments, and the general very high cost, forget standard, of living drill a huge hole in the pocket. Although their people back in swadesh think that they are rolling in money, they have pathetic savings. The only exception is a DINK couple.
Well, the American economy is in doldrums. The inflation rate is very high there. So it is a question why legal/illegal immigrants flock there. I suppose, it could be the compulsory basic minimum payment practice there. Anyways, jobs are fewer there, and people are paid pittance even in the I/T.
Of all the emigrants, the most interesting in my opinion are the students. To get an American post-graduate certification, you have to shell out circa fifty lakhs. Unfortunately, moreover, most students (and even job aspirants) who go there these days are not of the 60's/70's variety, that is, the IIT topper types. In India itself, they would be mediocre students. Yet they choose to go there against such huge investment. Even an educational loan, too, needs some assurance which would be the family property!
Would they get, forget good, jobs there? One of our close acquaintances whose daughter is a Ph.D from John Hopkins, and she was a rank holder here, always tells stories of how her daughter's jobs are fit for mere minimal survival. If such students, who went there with high hopes, come back, they would be misfits here, too.
Well, the sad saga reminds me of my M.A. students whose hold over English is minimal. They come from poor or middle class rural families. Given the empty PG degree, they do not want to go back to fields. Most educational institutions demand lakhs and lakhs for a permanent position. What future do they have?
Equally pathetic is the story of those preparing for the MPSC/UPSC. If an alternative back-up plan is not ready, after some six attempts, they are nowhere!
Hence the need, I suppose, to dream, but with open eyes! What say?
Pratima@ "A dream is just a nightmare with lipstick," says Toni Morrison.
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