Immigration and India

Ok. This is a little of Intel and a little of India.

 

Intel had this science contest in the US (which I had read about briefly on the LAN). Of course, just another science contest (though probably a big BIG one). And without going into details I can let you assume all that you know about science contests. What was interesting, (as I had already noticed in our LAN article) was the list of winners-

 

Linda Zhou, Alice Wei Zhao, Lori Ying, Angela Yu-Yun Yeung, Lynnelle Lin Ye, Kevin Young Xu, Benjamin Chang Sun, Jane Yoonhae Suh, Katheryn Cheng Shi, Sunanda Sharma, Sarine Gayaneh Shahmirian, Arjun Ranganath Puranik, Raman Venkat Nelakant, Akhil Mathew, Paul Masih Das, David Chienyun Liu, Elisa Bisi Lin, Yifan Li, Lanair Amaad Lett, Ruoyi Jiang, Otana Agape Jakpor, Peter Danming Hu, Yale Wang Fan, Yuval Yaacov Calev, Levent Alpoge, John Vincenzo Capodilupo and Namrata Anand.

 

What a diverse group! Ummm… not really! What an Indian-Chinese group! Same as what Friedman has mentioned in his column. (List is from the column) But while Friedman is concerned about US' policy on immigrants, I am thinking more about it in generic terms.

  (By the way, before I forget, I have noticed how Intel US has a good number of Indians (and in key positions -- actually they actively encourage diversity) though I am sure that would be true of most companies. I know we were supposed to know it, but sometimes it gets at you! Ok. No more company propaganda.)

So what I am thinking is - Is allowing immigrants good for a country? Yes. Obviously. And not only because new ideas, new mixture of people and all that blah. But because the guys who are ready to move on are precisely the kind of guys who can spur improvement. And I think we should ponder a little more about that one.

That being said, is allowing people to immigrate good for us? Obviously not. Like I said, we would be left with a lot that is mostly complacent (though of course there might some folks genuinely interested in development).Besides, we would be losing a good number of resources, as is usually claimed.

Point is that it is high time we thought about valuing our brainforce and giving them a healthy environment. Correction. It is high time we started respecting people who know more than us and I mean this as individuals. The problem with India is not only money. It is the environment, the politics, narrow-mindedness and lack of sensible, objective, mutual respect. I could have ended this post with the first line of this paragraph. But I think the issue here is not that India needs x or y. Issue is how many Indians, as individuals, really practice what they claim India lacks. The day, that bridge vanishes, we would have an age of rationalism in India.

And I am waiting eagerly for it ….

Links...

While the buzz of #nithyananda slowly spirals down, here is a quick link on an interesting blog about him. (Rather, against him).

Very good for fiction. A little obvious when you realize it's real, but good work by those guys. And I like the writing style :)

While I do not consider him a topic worthy enough to dedicate a blog to, I will try to get back on "The God Market", as it goes today.

Frigid

Another poem.... Seems to be my non-sonnet week!

When I was about 4 years old,

and the world stretched in front of my curious eye,

Innocent, amazing and simple- reassuring as the pale blue sky.

I stood at my balcony,

still struggling my little hand the edges to reach

and watching day in and day out

The march of the red ants, their silent screech,

to a little anthill they had carved in the wall,

A refuge for winter, and the two week fall.

They walked all day collecting morsels of dead insects

and anything they could find-

collecting and cherishing as connoisseurs do wine;

years of patience and solid determination,

desire, motivation, focused hard work, deliberation

modeling all those values self-help books instill, and innately

sure formulae for success, and fame, stately

One day, as they marched along towards their "success",

I pulled them all out with a thin brown stick

and dissolved their long stored food into a little yellow mug,

Then poured it down the drain-

A four year boy rendering years of work futile -

years sewn from millions of impatient minutes

with the thread of hope and perseverance, undying enthusiasm-

all in vain now!

And years later, as I see you today,

I feel like the ants once did

Unable to get my shattered dreams rid.

Unable to remain. Frigid.

Swan Song

(A poem, after a long time!!! That too, a non-sonnet!!)

As I crawl out of one minute into another,

Time squeezing me into a shapeless jelly

On this endless day,

Each squeeze painting images afresh in my mind,

Of all the joys we had, of the sunny days,

I think of the lone phrase that had always dwelt in my mind

Its existence real, to me alone,

That popped yesterday in a moment of impulse,

Now reborn in this crowded world of thoughts,

Finding its joy, and slashing mine across.

I know I was wrong, I know you didn't deserve it.

And the confession was long due.

Yet sometimes the past is a ghost,

That haunts you long after you tried to bury it,

Long after you forgot.

You think 'it was just a mistake'-

And yet there can be nothing just about a mistake!

As time paints my world in black and white, draining all the color,

I can only erase myself out of existence, now

And give birth to the vacuum that has long consumed me.

And while in the vacuum labor, I hold at my tongue

the word I had always hated, knowing its innate iniquity,

But in the spasm that my vacuum was born,

In the moment of extreme pain, and shame,

Sinking in the shrouds of death, I say,

with a furious hope, and fear and qualm

"Forgive me! Give me a chance again!"

MFNIS

Huh, it's only 10 days! It seemed like aeons since I posted. (Wrote this on Feb 26^th).

Anyway, I watched another movie. MNIK. So much of noise about the movie. Though one should know better than to expect Shah Rukh Khan to make a convincing "different" movie. (Long ago, he made one Asoka, and we all know how conwinceing that was!)

But you see I was torn by confusion. On the one hand, I know Shah Rukh. And on the other, I know that Sena most often opposes good works (except for M F Hussain), whatever the stated reason. Anyway I somehow made myself watch the movie, at least for curiosity value.