The Swadesh Syndrome

We are a tribe, we graduate students in US. We are entirely different from our sister tribe in Europe, our cousins in Australia, Singapore and New Zealand and other smaller fragments scattered all across the globe. Without going into a detailed analysis of why we are different, I am going to go straight to the one focal difference. We are all here to elevate the pedestal we stand on or to occupy a higher pedestal as human beings. USA is a land of opportunities, both academic and entrepreneurial. Since we Indians are entrepreneurs by nature, more entrepreneurs (and slightly lesser academicians) throng this country every year to make more money, to build their own house, their own personal space.

Let’s face it, there are a multitude of reasons for each of us to be here be it to earn money, to rise above the billion strong crowds, to carve a niche, to buy an AUDI, to become an American citizen, to marry a gori and so forth. You can rationalize your reason for being here with whatever reasoning you wish or all of the above or some other personal reason you have conjured up to suit yourself. the reality however is that before coming here we are all allured by the promise this place holds for us. But at the core of it all we crave for our roots. According to a recent news input, India was the top receiver of migrant remittance with remittance from US being the single largest component of that. That is a good enough proof of existence of the Swadesh Syndrome. It was first aptly portrayed by Shah Rukh khan in the movie Swadesh. Gainfully employed at NASA and accepted as a US citizen, he played this dude who chose to go back to India to assuage himself of some nagging pangs he felt and ended up staying there forever.

This is the worst manifestation of this syndrome. And since this is a movie and far removed from reality, we will discuss some more real manifestations of this syndrome.

When some of us come here, we are barely out of our teens, having some weird notions of academic grandeur or of the colorful life here. Some of the latest rajshree production movies will have you believe that white chicks big time dig brown skin dudes. Other allures include strip clubs, all night bars, dollars, fast cars and other delusions of utopia. So two year paid slogging or five year on peanut salary slogging looks a small sacrifice in the large scheme of things. When we get here however we acquire a sense of reality. White chicks don’t exactly overtly dig brown dudes and since actuality you are a little below on the food chain, you have to work more hard on that front. Rest whatever money can buy you will end up buying if you can get your H1B which is getting exceeding difficult as the years pass by. Your friends on the other hand who stayed back in India are living the dreams you had envisioned. They might just have the hyundai santro or pink zen estillo but with a stable job they are right up on the food chain to score a chick for both long term/short term purposes. This is when you get the first manifestation of Swadesh Syndrome. You suddenly start noticing Indian girls on campus and they suddenly start looking more ‘attractive’. You start slipping one or two hours beyond the allotted 20 so that you can spend those extra $$$ trying to woo that new found ‘love’ of yours. The fact that she has some cool software consultant lined up for her right after her graduation becomes painfully clear to you at a very late stage and then you look ‘homeward’.

The second manifestation of this is seen in those who quit India as they did not want to do any software job and after doing their masters/PhD they want to do ‘real’ technical job with cool job profile and even cooler paycheck. Quantum mechanically there may be a parallel universe where everything is perfect and all pieces fit nicely in the puzzle of life. But this isn’t that universe. There isn’t a cure for this manifestation. The huge education loan you took means that you will have to do some job. Drinking bear on Sundays with friends on same boat and eventually getting married are the most recommended frustration assuaging practices.

The third manifestation is of the other kind. It is seen in people with very strong ties to their home who want to go do their higher studies in the US so that they can go back home and cure the system of all the ills that plague it. Decent folks these, ironically they are the ones who end of finding the love of their lives here and rationalize their staying back here by saying that home is where heart is. They do go back but that’s mostly post retirement/ after getting their children married

These are all the manifestations I am aware of based on a broad spectrum of people I have come across. I will be lying if I don’t admit to having any of the above described manifestations. After all we all do. There is no shame in it. We are humans and are eternally in the quest of greener pastures but the 'browner' ones cannot be forgotten altogether.