‘Hello’ from the other side…
I recently watched a Malayalam movie ‘Adu Jeevitham’ -’The GOAT LIFE’. A tad slow but a story worth narrating. A young lad who goes offshore to try his luck at a better life. He falls into the wrong hands(or a deliberate arrangement) and lands in a God forsaken arid desert having to tend to sheep and be at the beck and call of his masters. He lives the life of a slave for a few years until he finally escapes. He is then helped by a few Samaritans to get back to his homeland.
The story not just reminds you of how fortunate you are of belonging to the country that you do and that everywhere else you will always be a secondary citizen, it makes you appreciate the simple pleasures of life and your ‘taken for granted’ freedom more. Many such individuals leave their homes in search of a better life either in terms of money or opportunities. That could necessitate migrating to a completely foreign land or changing states within the same country.
Dad was one such migrant back in the day who left his hometown in Kerala to try his luck in Mumbai. Opportunities were scarce where he hailed from. He set foot here, struggled it out, earned his law degree and slowly over time established himself in the new city. Respite also came for him in certain ways after marrying mom. There are plenty such examples. When I recently heard Dr Vellumani’s(the founder of Thyrocare) interview on a podcast where he mentions about how he met his wife when he was a nobody and the one thing that stood out to him was his would be wife telling him “ I want to feel like a mighty daughter in law in a small household than being a smallish person in an affluent household.”, it reminded me of mom and the sacrifices she made for dad.
When you initially enter a new place, there is always some amount of hostility. Not all people are always forthcoming and welcoming. Many a times you have to fight for your rightful place and have balls of steel to stand your ground and build yourself up. Dad would narrate many such stories where he had to fight it out.
Earlier in those days, people were hostile towards migrants where they made it a point to call you out as the outsider if you started flourishing. In contrast, most places in the country today are more welcoming. My mother would always remark to me “You won’t survive Kolkata without me”. My take on the matter is simple. My constitution allows me to work and flourish anywhere in the country. Every part of the country is as much mine as it is theirs. Even when it comes to the world, if the concerned government allows me to work and flourish in their part of the world and as long as I abide by the rule of the land, it is nobody else’s business where I choose to make a living.
Maybe that is one of the reasons why people speak of the American dream. America has always been a land of the outsiders. The current settlers, at least the majority of them (both the Caucasians and the African Americans) are technically outsiders. There might be very few aborigines left. It has always been a melting point of ethnicities where only hard work, innovation, merit found opportunities. They will welcome anyone who helps them prosper and in turn allow them prosperity. America realized this not only on a macro scale but also on a micro scale. They not just nurtured big businesses but also gave impetus to individual talents.
Most people in Mumbai who do big and small businesses are or were migrants technically speaking. Whether that is the huge business conglomerates or the movie industry, they all migrated to then Bombay once upon a time. Just like the South Indians are known for their intellectual abilities, the Gujjus and Marwaris are known to be the economic powerhouse of the place they reside in. Take the CEO’s of the big tech companies in USA, most of them have foreign roots.
You need a healthy amalgamation of talents for a place to grow. The wise understand this. The rest get stuck in tribalism(caste, ethnicity, creed, skin color). That is why in my opinion affirmative action is detrimental for progress. You earn your place on merit or make yourself capable of earning it. Shortcuts never work in the long run. They neither work for the individual, nor for the organization and definitely not for the country. There should be no dearth of opportunities for anybody but the outcome has to be earned.
When my ex roomie and junior would tease me with a ‘Jai Maharashtra’ translating to ‘Glory to Maharashtra’ every time she crossed paths with me, I always smiled and responded with a ‘Jai Bharat’. Today, I would want to expand the horizons of my mind even further and wish for the world to rise and shine as a whole. May the best talents flourish.
Jai Bharat and glory to the world.
