As it is January 9 today, is it not but normal that the theme of our blog today should be the NRI. Now let me explain the "affect" bit of the title of our blog. Whether as a verb or as a deverbal noun, 'affect' primarily means 'have an effect on/make a difference to'.
In 1915, on January 9, for instance, after spending more than two decades in South Africa, Gandhiji returned to India, a major factor that affected the freedom movement. Hence the biennial celebration of the 'pravasi bhartiya diwas' to remember how the non-resident Indians can change the very destiny of india.
'Affect' can mean touch the feelings of, move emotionally. The NRI's no longer create this affective ripple. For one thing, unlike the sixties to eighties, when there actually was brain drain, it is no longer so. Post the Y2K scare, any software could land you abroad. In fact, a few enterprising souls got themselves years-long experience certificates for software packages and languages introduced world-wide just a few months ago! The 'Oracle-ar' affect, for instance!
'Affect' can, moreover, mean infect. None is any longer thus affected, no, not even the brokers in the marriage market because it is already an open secret that most NRI's lead a middle class life there, what with additional disadvantages such as the do-it-yourself praxis there, not to mention the loneliness and very heavy taxes and racial slurs.
In other words, no longer is the NRI status magical. Just look at the sheer numbers of both the white collar and blue collar workers. Eight to nine millions in the Middle East, some four to five millions in the USA, some one point eight million in the UK, two to three millions in South-East Asia, one point six million in Canada, and some seventy lakhs in Australia. These absolutely non-inflated numbers do not include the indentured labour, in Fiji or Trinidad, now 'norm'alised as natives after generations.
What with the (r)evolution in/of the communication technology, especially after the Corona online onset, there indeed is a global Village effect. Instead of haunting cultural ghettos there as the ABCD, that is, the America/Abroad born(e) confused desi's, many prefer the 'made in India' lifestyle!
I can speak a little authoritatively on these themes because I taught at the post- graduate level a two semesters long, eight credits strong paper entitled "Immigrant Literature'. Great fun and intellectual excitement it was to thus unravel theoretical structures/strictures through interesting texts, to relate them to theoretical models world wide. We all, excited students and their equally enthu/energy-efficient teacher, loved the in-depth analyses which I constantly contextualised through the framework(s) of other immigrant experiences.
Thus have I known in quite some detail the dreams that light up, the nightmares that fire back and the stars that dazzle the daylight (out) of the NRI experience, which does create not merely financial fertility back in the motherland, but quite a veneer as well of the soft power of India(s) in the other(ed/ing) land!
Pratima@ The Browning glorification of the "Ah, to be in England now" variety is now easily possible, what with the 3-D/4-D access to most all life experiences the 5G way!
Quote of the day: "To be an immigrant, good or bad, is about straddling two homes, whilst knowing you don't really belong to either," asserts Nikesh Shukla.
Word of the day: native A 'native' is a person born in a specified place or associated with a place by birth, whether subsequently resident there or not.
Let us learn grammar: We must use the definite article 'the' with every abbreviation. The UK, the US, the UNO, the BRICS, the DHFL, the FC, the BMCC, the SPPU, for instance.
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