THE INTERNATIONAL - International Indian

[ DEsH Aur DiAsporA ]
preferred destination for most Indians. Anil
Kumar, Managing Director of Dubai based
Futech Software Solutions, an Al Futtaim
group company, lived the American dream for
many years as a successful IT entrepreneur
in California’s Silicon Valley. Unlike many
Americanized Desis, here’s nothing phoney
about Anil, who combines the influence of an
Indian naval officer father, with sheer Indian
prowess and chutzpah. It is the typical story
of scores of middle class Indians, who easily
adapt to life in America and seize the kind
of opportunities that put them in the highest
income brackets anywhere they go.
Anil makes interesting points of
comparison between NRIs in the Gulf and
America. “Indians in the US desire to change
their accents and want become American as
opposed to merely adapting to the American
way of life. However in the Middle East,
NRIs are quite content to stay the Indian
course and live the Middle Eastern dream
without changing their attitude or accents.
But they do adopt this vociferous appetite
to save and accumulate wealth for the day
they return to India or retire,” he notes. “The
American desi, is quite happy to pursue the
Green card and meld into the multi- cultural
American dream.” Paradoxically Indians also
seem to Americanize themselves at a much
slower rate than other immigrants in USA
including the Chinese.
Anil and family have tried relocating to
India and found that after their 10 year stint
in America it was hard to adjust. “Especially
since we have an autistic boy; India we
realized is not very ‘disabled friendly,’ and
apart from some of the physical aspects, the
stares and questions from concerned ‘well
wishers’ (many total strangers), people just
don’t leave you alone.” We Indians are a nosy,
interfering lot and many of us could find it
hard to understand Anil’s stand when he
says, “Honestly we prefer being left alone,
which the West allows, plus the investment
and facilities for the challenged are pretty
well thought through and often more than
adequate. The school systems especially are
well structured for kids needing special care.
India is however far from ready on this front,
even with acceptance, so parents are left to
fend for ourselves and discover our own ways
to make arrangements.”
He is reluctant about going back even for a
Vinod Bhatia (second from left): The lack of exposure to the western world make Indians in India more narrow
minded than their counterparts in the Diaspora
vacation now, “India as a holiday has ceased
to be a passion, because you tend to need
another holiday to recover. Pampered as
I may sound, the Middle East is quite a bit
more relaxing and orderly if you are looking
for a break. Now we experiment with various
cultures and experiences, having racked up
visits to over 40 countries in our quest to be
global citizens.”
Assessing Indian ideas he is of the opinion
that, “A basic middle class value system
bound by years of subjugation has resulted
in a society that is aware and sometimes
shaped by an attitude of ‘what our family
and neighbours will think’. Indians tend
to centre their actions on the needs of the
‘family first’ and do tend to be relatively
less self-centred in one’s approach. Personal
integrity and the need to earn every cent,
spend wisely and of course saving for the
future is high on the agenda.”
Anil is totally inspired by his parent’s
views that the world was never meant to
have boundaries. It paved the way for his
acceptance and tolerance of every other
philosophy, race, religion, ideology and
the basic acceptance of another human
being the way they are shaped by their
experiences and backgrounds.
But what about the fact that we Indians
are a diverse bunch, how does he deal with
his South Indian roots for instance? “We
were brought up as ‘Indians’ and the South
Indian tag never really stuck. But speaking
four Indian languages (three being south
Indian languages), the bond of being able
to communicate and understand body
and verbal language of a fellow ‘Southie’ is
inevitably a good feeling,” he admits.
Yet Anil does not believe people are vastly
different, “We are pretty much the same if
we behave as though we are the same,” he
explains enigmatically. “If we put people
on a pedestal or look down upon them, the
experience is altered to that extent. We are
what we allow people to think of us. If we
blame our colour, and allow someone to walk
over us, we get trampled on. Those amongst
us who do not allow skin colour to dictate
the status quo, or allow bias of any sort to
permeate are the ones who are not affected.
Racism is just another form of discrimination
and as an Indian, I can’t just pick on race
based discrimination as a reason to be so
angry with the world,” he proposes, since
Indians can hardly point fingers at others.
“The rest of the world probably sees Indians
as, intellectual and nerdy, hardworking
and conscientious by and large, but I think,
Bollywood is the marketing machine that’s
buoying the Indian Diaspora, and IT is by
far the most recognizable contribution across
the world today. Many Indians unfortunately
still see things a bit more negatively, and
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