Is it really worth it?

Is it really worth it?

The pains of staying away from your loved ones, the street you grew on, the city which gave you the sense of belonging and the country you are so proud of and will always be.

I have been staying outside India for the last 5 yrs, if not more. Most of this time I had been in Australia, and recently I have moved to USA. But which ever country I have been in, there is one feeling which has never left me - 'Is it really worth it'? Are these countries able to offer me so much which makes it worth living away from my people. Not that you don't have your people in these countries, you have lots and tons of them. But the feeling is never the same and will never will be.

A decade earlier, countries like USA, UK, and Australia had much to offer, which India could not. Fancy Jobs, high paying salaries, comfort of sophisticated cars, high-tech gadgets, glittering malls and rest. Career opportunities in western countries were far better then what we had back then. Even to pursue higher studies a student did not have many choices. But I am afraid to say there is not even a single point from my list I can keep, which India does not have to offer in comparison to countries overseas as of today. India's fast-paced economic boom has brought a sea of change in the way western countries and the MNC's look at India. Foreign investment has been growing exponentially in India; all the major companies of the world have their offices in multiple cities of India. Companies line up outside the doors of the B-schools, so that they are the first to pick from the lot. Recruitment has been its been peak for all the other graduates as well. Flashy car bands like BMW, Mercedes, Rolls-Royce have their dealers in the big cities. Malls bigger then what they are in these western countries have already opened, even in the B-grade cities. The salaries have been growing in double-figures for last many years. The ratio of American to Indian salary used to be 10:1 approximately. Slowly and steadily the gap between those two numbers has been reducing.

So what is it that is making me stay away from my country?

I guess this kind of feeling comes out only at times, and especially when I am away from home on Diwali :)
Have a safe one everyone.

Places visited in 2008

Melbourne , Australia
Sydney , Australia
Kolkata, India
Mumbai, India
Jaipur, India
Delhi, India
Bangkok, Thailand
Taipei, Taiwan
Auckland, New Zealand
San Francisco, USA
Portland, USA
Bangalore, India
Ahmedabad, India
New York, USA
Interlaken, Switzerland
Lucerne, Switzerland
Zurich, Switzerland
Atlanta, USA

Did BUSH really win in IRAQ?

I fail to understand which side of the coin should I look at. America started invading Iraq some 5 yrs back, threw Saddam Hussein from his dictator rule some 4 yrs back, and prosecuted him infront of a camera phone some 3 yrs back. And now Bush has started ordering his troops back, after about 4000 American army men and thousands of Iraqi civilians are dead. America pumps more then $100 billion of tax payers money into Iraq every year. Few months back, I cared a damn about this figure since I did not contribute towards it. But after my move from Australia to USA in July, this figure disturbs me. America has spent more then $2 trillion dollars in Iraq towards rebuilding the country, but really, to make their point i.e USA is still a "Super-Power" and it can poke its nose in anyone's business or should I say anyone's country. Money spent in Iraq every year / Number of people in America paying tax, gives a figure which is the 'amount every tax-payer pays in a yr to re-build Iraq'. The amount is approximately $ 1650 a year. Why am I not surprised? I am pretty sure, every American family and 'Aliens' like me will have a better use for $1650 each year than blowing up buildings and people in Iraq.

But, what I do not understand is where is the government getting the nerves to still spend this money in Iraq? Being in USA now for the last few months, has allowed me to have a first-hand feel of what America is going through. All I read in the paper day after day, is about the crisis and how to handle such an uncongenial situation. People are losing their jobs, the Unemployment fund is getting depleted in every state, people do not have money to pay for their medical treatment, and even if they have the money to pay for it, they are complaining of not being able to drive to the medical centers because of the gas price being too high. Is it only the people who are feeling it, doesn't the Congress get the point? If they do, then how are they still able to pump millions of dollars each day into Iraq.

Guess, I am deviating from my point here. The point I was trying to make is, that has USA really achieved anything in these last 5 yrs of invading IRAQ. I would say, its a point worth pondering upon.

What has got me thinking is the news all around about the recent progress in Iraq. Death tolls have reduced, though every now and then there are some people willing to test the mightiness of deadly bombs , killing themselves and others with them. But progress continues in Iraq, albeit slowly. Iraq is moving towards having an Electorate, although the move from Dictatorship to Democracy is going to be an interesting one. Countries like U.A.E, Bahrain and China are pumping in money in trucks for reconstruction projects. Needless to say, these countries have vested interests in doing so, but nonetheless it's towards building the country and eventually for the Iraqis. Iraqi cities like Najaf and Mosul are under much better control, then what they were few years back. New schools, hospitals, roads connecting the key cities, airports are being built. With the tremendous oil resource in the country, it will not be long before oil-thirsty nations start putting their money in Iraq to quench their thirst for more and more oil. All these measures are going to reinvigorate its economy and bring Iraq back into the map.

But would all this have been possible without Bush invading Iraq????

- Namit

Aloha

Why am I here? Don't worry I am not gonna ask those philosophical questions to you, I am just asking myself why am I 'at the site blogger.com and what made me create my own blog'. Well, to answer the first question, I am at blogger.com because of Larry Page and Sergey Brin i.e co-founders of the site google.com. I searched for a good blog site at google, and this is what I was transported to. And to get to the next question, I had been thinking for quiet sometime to penn down the random thoughts I get every now and then. I think the reasons to create this blog are much more then this, but to start with, I fathom its a good enough reason.

OK, so stay tuned. There are many more interesting blogs to come.

-Namit