In India, everyone thinks you are a big shot that you are going abroad - to a "foreign" country. Your cousins await for you for toblerones and foreign gifts. Your Indian relatives might think you are living the dream by visiting Bollywood foreign locations, partying and drinking, not having to worry about . Let's face the reality. Yes, you are earning in pounds and dollars but you are spending them too. Firstly battling with visas and immigrations, always feeling immigrant, living in fear of rejection/ racism, not fitting in completely, missing familiarity and family, guilt of not being able to take care of your family or maintain relationship with your friends. When you go back home, have you been nudged by random strangers to take you abroad as if you could help them get visas for them out of thin air? So what is it for you to, to make it in foreign country ? Have you made it? OR You have perfect dream and if you are in UK or London be Specific. What is your ambition ? What is satisfaction to you ? What makes you feel at home in a foreign country or you are living the dream ?
This is intriguing for me. There are so many people I know of who have studied abroad. Whenever they or my relatives from abroad come to India, they are treated very differently and respectably. I have not been abroad but I would love to know why people rush there? Why are their dreams centered there?
Indian parents are proud to say their children are studying abroad. Even as it is a matter of prestige, for them it also conveys that the child is brilliant and the family is able to afford the education abroad. Well, this is one side of the story. The other side is the story of ‘brain drain,’ where brilliant Indian students prefer to study abroad and finally they decide to settle down there, thus draining the pool of talented resources in the country. Most of India’s brightest students today work abroad. This is because: · Growth in Indian economy has enabled middle class affordability. · Bank loans and scholarships easily available. · Domestic in-take capacity is inadequate. · Idea of emigration also acts as a motivation. Until India matches the standards of education offered abroad – in terms of quality and cost – Indian students will continue to move abroad to fullfill their parents and their own goal.
