Brain Drain

As the name suggests it is on IIT Brain Drain from India to US. I wrote it 2.5 years back during my internship. It was certainly more relevant at that time.
----------------------------------------------------------

Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2005 06:11:12 -0700 (PDT)
From: mitesh agrawal mits_mitesh@yahoo.co.in

To: "eurotrip05@yahoogroups.co.in"
Subject: Time to Think

Hi all,

Here is a little incident happened with me, kindly
spare some time on it.

But before that I would like to tell you something
that you people might already know and that struck my
mind as well after the incident.

There had been great discussions at many places in
India, including IITs about the so called "Brain
Drain" from India to specially US and specially from
IITs.

People have been putting forward many arguments in
favour and against of the above fact. They say
students get well educated in India (use the resources
here) and then they go to US and make their career and
never come back to India (work for US and thus make
the future of US). And the people who never come back
say that why should we go back, if we are getting
higher status of life, earning much more and having
better social security, day – today things are more
easily accessible with lesser effort.

I am sure this mail could be little out of interest
for many of us. But I request you to please go ahead.

The incident is as follows:

On last Thursday, 9th June 2005, I went to the boat
race competition in my town, Tuebingen. It is some
sort of a yearly festival happening in Tuebingen.
There I happen to interact with an elderly lady (a
resident of Tuebingen), her brother and his French
wife who came to visit her and at present are settled
in USA.
After asking few other things such as where do I work,
how long would I be here; they asked me, “Do you have
to study further or work after you finish your current
studies?”
I said, “Yes, I can work.”
“Where would you like to work?”, they asked me next
with curiosity.
“….U.S…”, I replied with a question in my mind that
why were those people so curious to know it.
And they immediately, before I could even finish,
replied with a little anger and desperation in their
voice, “Why do you want to go to US? You people take
higher education outside, make money outside and then
you don’t go back to your country. You should go back
and work for your country and serve your country
people.”
And I was sure any one could make out that there
statement were just not sarcastic or were intended to
insult some educational system or some intellectual
community, but was having a clear intonation of
worries for the development of our country (!!!Haan
Hamara Desh = Mera Bharat Mahan!!!).
One elderly German man and his aged French wife,
settled in USA have so many worries and thoughts for
Our Country.

“We have a family doctor, who is an Indian.” they
added, “When we asked him, “Will you go back to India?
He said, “What is remained there in India, there is
nothing, why shall I go back to India.” Then, he said,
“I have all kinds of comfort in USA, the standard of
living is much higher here and it is very easy to make
money here.””

Though I tried to defend myself saying, “I would like
to came back to India after working there for a few
years.”

They said, “Your country needs you. It is okay if you
go out to make money or to gain some experience for
some time, but then you should come back and help in
developing your country. Instead you people actually
work for US and develop it further“, to end the
discussion.

This discussion left me in my deep thoughts…and in a
need of another discussion…

We say proudly that there are 35% doctors in US are
indian, nasa scientist and silicon valley. I don't say
you don't go out to make money or to make career but
come back to make future of India and then no time we
will be equivalent to the so called super power
"UNITED STATES OF AMERICA". Well…this sounds like an
idealistic theory but it can be practiced only if the
intellectual mass of India like will make an effort to
this.

Of course, decision is yours, but give it a thought.

I don’t want to extend the discussion further, but
before ending it I would like to give an example for
the people saying, “No one actually comes back, above
ideas are only good to think and talk about.”
There is an Indian Post Doc in my lab. He has done his
PhD at EPFL, Switzerland (not a part of European Union
only because people there think that their standard of
living is too high to be the part of EU) and
currently, he is doing his Post Doc research for past
three year at Max-Planck Institute for Developmental
Biology at Tuebingen, Germany. He is planning his way
back to India. So after a total duration of 6-7 years
in Europe he is moving back to India.

I don’t need to say anything more in these regards.

People are invited to put forward their views and
criticism on the lines but don't expect me to reply
them all.

Hope you are all enjoying your happy EURO TRIP.

Wishes and Cheers,
Mitesh Agrawal
3rd Year, Dual Degree Student at
Indian Institute of Technology Madras,
Chennai, India.

P.S. I regret if above mail takes you out from a good
mood.

Message: 10
Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2005 15:26:44 +0100 (BST)
From: SANDEEP LAXMAN
Subject: Re: Time to Think

hi all,
i think mitesh has put up a very good point. During my
exchange program here in france i was granted the
wonderful ooportunity to go look not only into the
life and habits of the people here and understand them
but also reflect upon the life and needs back home.

One thing i realised i europeans are very patriotic to
their country, culture and tradition. When i came here
i saw the felt both a great sense of pride for the
deep and rich culture of our country and also at the
same time felt pain in knowing the fact tht we do not
value it as much as we should. Europeans do not value
America much. I know this might come as a shock to
most but its true. ( I do not intend to hurt the
sentiments of pro-Americans but i am just stating the
facts i have learnt in the past 1 year. For them the
only culture America has is earn money and shop till u
drop.

But y i am i saying all this?? becoz all this made me
closer to India. We all know tht iitians are by far
the best brains in the county - so called the cream of
the country. but if we ourselves are goin to desert
our land, who is goin to take up the charge?? the only
ppl remaining will be the corrupt politicians...

But again we get a much better life in europe or the
US. So, the final question tht remains to be asked to
ourselves is whether we are more important or our
nation???

Countries like Taiwan, Korea and Japan were in the same
state tht India are today, 50 years ago. But they had
a generation of hard working people who have made
their countries "developed"....

I apologise if this hurts somebody's sentiments but I
think this is a very relevant question becoz we are
the next driving force for our country/ world. Please
feel free express your views...

Sandeep

PS:thnx Mitesh, i had this thing on mind too long...

3rd Year Elec.
IIT Delhi/INSA Lyon