Living overseas! Something that a large percentage of Indians would love to sign up for any day – some for the lure of the money, some for the experience and some, for the quality of life that one can get living overseas. I am one of those that had this dream for a while. Having missed out on an opportunity to do my Masters degree in the States nearly 13 years ago for probably the most silliest reasons in hindsight, an opportunity to go and work overseas was something that I’d sign up to even in the deepest sleep.

My current employer presented me with an opportunity to move to London pretty recently. Having been there several times and spent a fair amount of time, this was something that I said yes to without a thought.

People who have been through the motions will tell you how the process is slow – the selection to the decision making and then the eternal wait for your paperwork. As frustrating it can get, I waited for what now seems like an eternity to get it all wrapped up. Jumping to catch the first available plane out, I showed up here with bag and baggage.

My first realization was the fact that I was on my own – a business trip where you can’t care less about anything material is very different to the fact that you need to fend for yourself for the word go when you are on your own.

Coming from home, we tend to take a lot of things for granted – A vehicle to commute on your own, often 4 wheels, large spacious houses, the value of which we hardly seem to realize back home, Family – how many times have we stopped to think about them when living with them?, last not least, the domestic help that we consider a given – from washing clothes to cleaning dishes, needless to mention, the houses too!

I started missing home in no time – I think it was less than 24 hours. Walking into work, you are in the midst of a place where you are met with “what are you doing here” kind of looks and conversations that go no longer than a “hello” however hard you try. If you have a new role to boot, welcome to the party!!

I can tell you that this concoction really hits you! I was hit and hit pretty hard too. There’s never been a time in my life when I’ve missed home ever so badly. Initial thoughts were pretty simple – which headhunter can I call to get back home now? Who are the old bosses that are hiring that I can reach out to? F@#$ this, I can get back home and find a job., 3 months – worse case, 6 months!

The search to find a place to live in is pretty interesting too! I’ve had pretty much every corner of London recommended as a place to live in and in literally 60 seconds being critiqued as a horrible place to live in too! Wow!! Is this a city that people live in?? With confusing views and conflicting opinions, you are left wondering why the hell did I move!!

Speaking to friends who have done this before, I realized that I was not alone in feeling this way. It’s that age old thing of grass being greener on the other side and being uprooted from your comfort zone that make you feel queasy. Every one that I have spoken to thinks this is just a phase, a phase where I draw a line on the sand to say here is what I felt only to change things around in 6 months time. Whilst time will tell if this in indeed true, here are my top 5 tips for those that plan to move overseas.

1. We never spend time preparing for a move overseas mentally – while the excitement gets the better of everything else, please spend time preparing mentally. Overseas moves are pretty stressful
2. Speak to friends about places to live in. Remember, every area is safe and equally unsafe. Doing some ground work ahead of time saves you a lot of stress
3. Overseas moves are not for the faint hearted and pampered ones – Washing clothes despite using a washing machine and pressing clothes are pains that a two rupee coin can ease back home.
4. I don’t know if feelings would have been different had I been single. If you are married, never ever move without your family. It’s cute to say I will move and my family will join me later, but on the ground, they can provide you tremendous support when you attempt to win small battles on your own and alone.
5. While we all know that “ change” is difficult and the only constant in life, going through that change is a lot more harder than what you think.

Cheers and happy moving! I’ll tell you if I feel any differently after 6 months!

Image Credit: wwarby

Popularity: 27%

The latest and most frequently used word in the world is “Recession”. Anyone and everyone is talking about recession.

Almost all the companies have cut down on onsite travels, administrative cost and other perks. There are no more free lunches literally. Companies are introducing Performance Improvement Plans and giving zero hikes or bonuses. Everything has only one reason. RECESSION.

From a middle class citizen’s point of view, Restaurants have become expensive, shopping malls are empty, and food prices have gone up too. The fuel prices have gone down by almost Rs10 and still the auto guys crib for more money as it is recession time. Even the local vegetable vendor blames recession for increase in the prices. (I wonder why it is only the recession that is affecting the prices and why isn’t the falling inflation causing any price falls.) Everything is going up except my income and I too blame it on recession.

Is India really going through a recession or is it just the cold we have caught because USA sneezed? Are we just projecting a slowdown as a recession? Of course it has affected India because of the outsourcing and we too had job losses. But can we call it a recession still?

There is a difference between recession and slow down. The dictionary meaning of recession is two continuous quarters of negative growth where as during slowdown there is growth but it is slow. And who says India has negative growth? The RBI is still predicting a GDP growth of about 7%.

Our banking sector is still very strong and the interest rates are still high compared to other countries. We can still pass through this recession in US without getting into it.

Of course the government is trying to make things better by reducing the interest rates, announcing stimulus packages and various other measures to pump money into the market. We can be hopeful that the various stimulus packages being announced by the Indian as well as global governments will give a boost to sectors like infrastructure, automobile, cement and metals. This will increase the business and also the ‘recession free’ politics ‘industry’ is ready to infuse money in the name of general election and that should be a boost to the economy as well.

Apart from all this we also have some responsibilities t improve the situation. We need to use our resources effectively and at the same time focus on innovation.

Recession forces people to spend less and save more for adverse situations but we Indians are not new to the idea of savings. We just need to chuck the extra credit card spending, check our expenses, promote the right things and viola we’ll be on our way out of this crazy situation. Being thrifty will surely help us get out of this slowdown earlier than others.

This is the time to capitalize on things which we are good at. Tourism is going to be hit because of global recession (obviously there will be less number of people visiting the Taj Mahal this year) but we can promote health tourism which is still a cheaper option in India with best of services available at cheaper prices compared to USA or Europe.

Agriculture is still the backbone of our economy. Let us make that stronger. We need to get the farmers back to the fields and the higher dollar value can get us more money for our agriculture exports.

Instead of worrying about losing outsourcing jobs we can start innovating our products. IT industry which has been worst hit due to dependency on US can start focusing more on product innovation and less on services. Once the situation improves we’ll be less dependent on US plus we can be a major player too rather than just being the back office of the world.

Remember how India tackled the bans that were imposed by the world especially US after the nuclear tests. We became almost self sufficient in the things that were banned by other countries.

When the next boom comes, we can reap the benefits of effective resource utilization and innovation and be ahead of other economies. We surely have the talent and means to get out this slowdown without slipping into recession.

I strongly feel this economic condition is just a wake up call for us to be more responsible and more cautious and to realize our abilities to drive away the recession blues. Jaago Re!

Popularity: 29%

Pakistan has been passing through chaotic times for quite some time. It was forced to cede some power to the Taliban and promulgated Shariat law in SWAT region. And a few days later, innocent Sri Lankan cricket players barely escaped being massacred in Lahore. The Times of India front page article of 11^th March suggests that Taliban is knocking at the door of Peshawar.

It is very intriguing that Pakistan which was created for people of Islam to live in peace has had a tumultuous history of chaos and terror right from its inception. It is estimated that in a population of 160 million there are 40 million firearms and 4 million drug users.

On the other hand, India which is a melting pot of all religions under the sun, basks in peace and brotherhood, relatively speaking.

Why is Pakistan which was founded on the basis of one religion, as a refuge for Muslims, going through such bleeding and pain?

Jinnah wanted all religions to flourish in his country. However, a few months after his death, vested political interests implemented their own agenda. The Basic Principle of the Constitution (Objective Resolution 1949) adopted in 1952 stated that the Quran and Sunnah were to be the sources of all laws in Pakistan, that it would be an Islamic Republic and only a Muslim could be the Head of state.

The Soviet intervention in Afghanistan in 1979 was a god sent opportunity for President Zia and the US for different reasons. The US wanted to create a Vietnam for the Soviets in Afghanistan. Zia seized the opportunity to further the cause of Islam and fight against the communist infidels. With the Inter-Services Intelligence Agency (ISI) as its active collaborator, the CIA equipped the Afghan dissidents known as Mujahideen with billions of dollars of cash, weapons and explosives.

Meanwhile, thousands of young Madrassa students, known as the Taliban (Students), were recruited from Afghan refugee camps, brainwashed in Pakistani madrassas, trained and equipped by the ISI and were sent to Kabul.

These students are also sent to Kashmir or other parts of India to spread the Jihad. Some of them are now turning against their own government as suicide bombers or assassins.

On the social front, the government in NWFP in 2002 adopted the agenda of the Talibans and banned co-education, movies and videos, put women inside Burqa, and doled out harsh Islamic justice to the poor.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani ruling establishment and the military have become myopic, failing to see the wanton destruction of the country from within. Instead, they try feverishly to catch up with India in their army, air force and navy strength.

The fast moving and frightening events in our neighboring country offer very powerful insights and lessons for all of us and our country.

The Pakistanis and the Americans are now discovering to their horror that the Frankenstein they created in Pakistan and Afghanistan is now coming to haunt them. May be, poetic justice is catching up.

Minorities in a nation contribute tremendously to the internal gelling, enrichment and understanding among citizens. M.J Akbar wrote in his Sunday “Siege Within” column in the Times of India,

“A minority is the yeast that enables the national flour to rise.”

Flourishing nations in different parts of the world resonate with this truth.

The events in Pakistan should serve as a huge warning to all us to be weary of those who seek votes or divide people along religion lines. They have demonstrated time and again that such elements wreck the unity and peace in the country and their extremism has spawned many a terrorist.

The vision of founding fathers and leaders makes enormous difference to the destinies of nations. Vision based on human potential, aspirations and endeavor, goes to create prosperous nations while those based on past fears and limitations pave the way for failed states. We in India are lucky that we had visionaries like Gandhi and Nehru who only saw harmony in myriad cultures, religions and languages co-existing together.

In another article which appeared in the Times of India on March 8, M.J Akbar writes,

Every Indian Muslim should offer a special, public prayer of thanks to the Almighty Allah for His extraordinary benevolence – for the mercy He had shown by preventing us from ending up in Pakistan in 1947.

May our national flour continue to rise and rise.

Image credit: Meanest Indian

Popularity: 17%

This quote is, without-doubt, attributable to the President-Elect of the United States. Ever since I heard him say it with passion for the very first time early in ’08, I have been enamoured. Why? Read on

There’ve been many factors quoted by the experts for Barack Obama’s popularity around the world, the least of which is not the historic factors surrounding his origins. That aside, the ability to intellectually connect and therefore favourably polarize people isn’t being quoted (at least publicly) as the principal factors for his worldwide acceptance.

If looked closely, there’s a lot of similarity between his position in the American ecosystem (and the demographic engulfed within) and India’s current position in the economic world order:

Rising from a position of adversity, where the only way is up, it is possible to talk on the same terms what India’s economic growth has done to the world’s perception as has Obama’s win done to America’s (and indirectly the world’s) perception of race. Not for a moment am I indicating that this is a win of any sorts for any non-political reasons, but let’s take a magnanimous look at the impact of “faith, belief” and “hope” in the end result.

India, as it’s been since 1947 until the technology-driven economic boom of the 21^st century, has been at some level continuously driven by the “hope” that the hard work of the people will bear fruit eventually. We are not the new world order, yet, economically or strategically, but India is the new kid on the block that the neighbors stand up to take notice.

If I were to express all of this change or transformation in one key word or phrase, it would arguably be the “HOPE” or the “yes we can” attitude. That we didn’t definitively come out and say as much explicitly reflects on the confidence that initial success gives you to make that bold statement.

To draw a parallel again, note that this wasn’t Obama’s message from the get go, but rather the initial primary wins over Hillary that gave him the confidence to put his confident foot forward and issue the war cry of “yes we can”.

The message to the new “leaders” (I prefer this to “politician” for its long been misused and therefore tarnished) that govern India should be: Drive Change at all levels, for it is change that gives rise to new possibilities; use hope to power this transformation, and the beliefs from past successes to achieve this change.

Signing off, I hope (yes I do too) it is time to expand on the original quote:”Yes we can, and we should!”

Image Credit: Elika & Shannon

Popularity: 9%

Pakistan’s untiring denials to accept the truth reminds me this famous saying – when cat drinks milk stealthily, it shuts its eyes assuming that nobody is watching it. Its seems so evident that Pak is acting blindfolded and trying to find excuses to accept the truth in the dossier which was recently been produced by our home minister on Mumbai attacks. Even the British, now approve involvement of Pak militant groups. Until now we have come across short sight, long sight, far sight and hindsight, so what do you call this behaviour? – Ignore-any-evidence-by-India Sight

What could be the reasons making Pak do this?

Being called Terror State

If the culprits are handed over to India, then Pakistan might be having a fear of these culprits letting all secret terror acts disclosed to India. In turn this might call for more pressure from International community, especially USA, to ban all active in-situ outfits and pronounce Pakistan as a Terror State.

Sanctions And Political Coup

A declaration of terror state would have consequences like sanctions of all kinds from the international communities. As it is the economic condition is not in a good state in the country, and such sanctions could lead the nation into another political coup. Result could be another Musharraf kind of era.

ISI Activity going public

We may only have gathered some evidence around ISI links to terror activities all these days. But if culprits are handed over to India, Pak might be apprehensive of having ISI activities being made public. An insecure feeling of having its national intelligence’s activities made public.

Or Simply Self-Esteem

The relations between India and Pak have never been healthy, India has always been considered as archrival by Pak. By handing over the criminals to India, is it in a way succumbing to India and hurting its self-esteem?

But one thing that Pakistan seems to miss the point is – if it hands over the criminals to India, it keeps its honour and respect in the world community, in that helping the community to tackle terror.

Image Credit: Stuti

Popularity: 10%