Deprived of basic rights in a foreign land

“It’s Tuesday, there wont be any cops today to check,” said one man to another, goading him to carry on drinking despite having to drive back home.

So, for this guy, the absence of a cop is of higher significance than driving under the influence of alcohol.

The absence of a cop is of higher significance than being responsible for his own life and life of others on the road, needless to say, his family who might be waiting for him at home.

Ironically, in reality for his breed of highly educated, urban, upper middle class (rich), young, brash Indians, even the presence of a cop makes absolutely no impact because all they have to do is pay the cop a few hundreds and get by.

This guy is a very well educated, software engineer that has worked in the best of international companies, has travelled abroad. But chooses to live in India. This is why he loves his own country.

A lot of such Indian men I know choose to live in India/ want to get back to India in the name of patriotism and/or the cliché’ of ‘that’s the emerging market – that’s where the growth is. India is shining.’

To me at the heart of this ‘wear on my sleeve’ patriotism it is none of this.

To me, at the heart of this is to enjoy some of the basic rights and freedom that these men are deprived of in foreign countries. e.g:

• It is the ‘freedom’ to be able to bottle down as much alcohol as you wish…pay a bribe to a cop and get away on a high...
• It’s the ‘freedom’ to travel alone to hinterlands without fearing of being raped and murdered. Doing many such things that only a man can enjoy.
• It is the ‘freedom’ to be able to pinch the bottom of a woman in a bus, get some cheap thrills of it and not have any implications what so ever…
• It’s the ‘freedom’ to leach at women and/or pass lewd comments and have some fun at her expense…
• It's the 'freedom' to be under 18, brutally rape someone and be free in 3 months for being a minor 
• It’s the ‘freedom’ to return to a ‘hotel like home’ after a hard days work where some one has prepared the food, set it on the table, washed the clothes, ironed them…so these men can go back fresh for another hard day at work.
•  It is the joy of being treated like a king by the mother and in future the ‘in-laws’ for being the son and son in law respectively. 
• It is the joy of having another other gender to be called a wife who ‘provides’ and ‘serves’ – dotes on every word uttered by the man, has been taught not to ever question HIS authority.
• It's the 'freedom' that being a man, one can bully, threaten his way out of things or manage the corrupt processes where sheer arm wrestling can get things done. 
• It's the possibility to shout at a louder voice and make all the other voices shut up 
• Basically, it is the ‘freedom’ to walk, head held high in pride, pumped up chest and enjoy getting away with anything for being the superior gender. 
•  The joy of truly LIVING the ubiquitous, ‘chalta hai’ attitude, which all Indians love to hate but cannot live without.

Many of these ‘basic rights’ of Indian men are not met in western countries where over years and after many reforms and revolutions in the past, the society has become RELATIVELY tolerant to the existence of the other gender.

Who in their right frame of mind will ever want to give up on these rights and live elsewhere?

Incidentally, those that dwell on these basic rights, subscribe to them (consciously/ subconsciously) are also the ones to pretend to have a fire in their belly to change the country.

God forbid! The inferior races beware. 

(Little wonder that the inferior races try to wriggle their ways to other places eh?) 

(Recent incidents in India with respect to women's rights and a lot of discussions with various men made me write this rather sarcastic note. I do not mean to generalize. I am very fortunate that I have always had extremely open minded and supportive men around me. I continue to have them in my life. But I know there are not many like me.) 

Awaiting the Oxford alumni status

Thanks to 2 good samaritan class mates of mine, my business (thesis) project got submitted on time. I got the official confirmation of the receipt of my project from my college. (yes I can call it MY college)

Through the illness, this project proved to be a great way to keep my mind occupied with something else and something more interesting.

It feels good to have completed it despite so much going on.

It couldnt have happened without the support of V ...for keeping my focus on the project all through, Marc my professor for having gone through various drafts and providing feedback, Gautam and Isabel for submitting my project to the college on time and their enthusiasm to lift my spirits up.

Now that it's submitted, I await the results and so look forward to the graduation party in summer. I sure hope I can make it for the graduation.

And hope to get 'the' status soon too.
Feb 2012-Jan 2013, it was an awesome experience through the year.

Holistic policy making? (is that an oxymoron?)

Off late there has been a lot of news about Germany opening up to highly skilled Indian work force to address the skills gap in the country. In the last 4.5 years I have been in Germany, I have seen an increasing number of Indians relocating here.

Germany encourages these foreigners to learn the language and even offers ‘integration’ courses to learn more about the country and its culture. I highly appreciate these programs.

However, with my recent experiences with the German health system (which again relatively speaking is good), I wondered what about these systems becoming sensitive to the cultures and needs of these foreigners?

I use the word, ‘sensitize’ carefully because I do not expect whole systems to gain deep understanding of every different nationality that lives in Germany. But I do believe some basic level of sensitization (accepting diversity in the society) should go a long way.

• E.g. A sister in the University of Heidelberg Hospital (the best and most internationally diverse in Germany) will be able to find a vein in dark skin more easily without pricking me 4 times before she finally finds some blood. Only an experienced doctor gets it right the first time.

The health insurance company agrees to fund the expenses for the donor, including flight tickets, accommodation if required etc. Appreciate it. 

The kind of family orientation we have in India, there is no chance that just a patient and the donor will walk into a hospital to get a major surgery done on them. 

No an Insurance company need not spend for a big fat Indian family to fly over, however maybe some schemes/ some % can be worked out to HELP the immediate family (parents/spouse)?

A clear win-win for the German health system would be if along with opening doors for highly skilled work force of India, also sign up on collaborative health care with India (and other countries that bring tis work force). If the public health insurance system can fund for medical care anywhere in Europe, the only reason it doesn’t fund for medical care in India is because there is no official policy level agreement between the two countries.

• IMAGINE: German health officials ‘certify’ a few hospitals in every big city of India for their standard of healthcare and collaborates with them…. if this Indian work force living in Germany chooses, they can seek medical care (especially for big complicated issues) in their home country, get their family support, be in familiar environment…and be covered with the health insurance, it would be so much cheaper for the German system and satisfying for the patients.

As always, policy makers rarely think holistic. If only they did and explore possibilities, the world would indeed be more flat than it currently is.

Yes, I cannot help but think like a Design Thinker – even when I am sick. The world is full of ‘wicked problems’ to be solved and therefore full of opportunities.