We may not be having world class roads !

We may not be having world class roads!

Many of you must be having near and dear ones living abroad. I do not know whether you love or hate your “phoren” cousins. But I have a very dim opinion of the tribe !

The moment they leave the motherland, they undergo a major metamorphosis quickly shedding their character and attitude to everything in life. The deep change is glaringly apparent when they return after a couple of years.

A cousin of mine had come visiting us the condemned “natives” who continued to cling to their roots in Orissa, (Mind you that is their feeling, not mine!) We went on a trip to Puri and Konark. My cousin who makes at least 10 times what I earn forgot his wallet! Bhabiji though did have her purse, only had large notes which she ofcourse could not use to pay sundry expenses.

I had to shell out money for everything……..from parking tickets, food bills to the temple bhog ! NROs love to hoard their hard earned dollars!

The Lord’s temple was apparently too dirty for Bhabiji! She wrinkled her nose and went on complaining about the wet stones on which she had to walk with her bare feet. I dropped a bombshell to amuse myself! I revealed that even leftovers of meals people have at Anand Bazar are considered as holy prasad and is gladly eaten. She protested with wide open eyes: “How unhygienic!”

And the best part is that the lady who did her graduation at Bhubaneswar had left India the previous year only after getting married. See the change!

The biggest shock to the erstwhile importance of NROs is the total lack of requests by country cousins to bring them goodies. Nobody pleads with them nowaday to bring a much coveted pair of Raybans or Nike or the prized bottle of Scotch!

With liberalization hitting India, almost all phoren goods are now available here starting from zippy cars to Nina Ricci perfumes. In the distant past, when they did take the trouble of getting a Rayban or a Canon camera, they handed it out as if they had brought a piece of the moon!

I sometimes, wonder how can these guys for the sake of a career forsake their aged parents to rush off to the big Apple. As health care costs are prohibitive abroad, the ageing parents are usually left behind. The parents stare at blank walls and school memorabilia of dear son in the vast empty house pining for their dear progeny. Dear son, whom the doting parents educated at the best college is busy fattening his bank balance!

In fact, I pity the miserable lives the NROs live abroad! Behind the glitter of swanky cars and plush apartments is a life of toil and hardship and zero social life.

They will never tell you that the dollars they earn fetch much less than the rupees they would have spent in India. A cup of coffee costs 3 dollars or almost Rs.135 ! They can’t even dream of engaging a maid, or get a driver. A gardener in London will charge you 10 pounds (Rs.850) for an hour’s work. They have to wash their own clothes and iron them since laundries are prohibitively expensive and it is cheaper to buy a new shirt.

Even they have to learn hair cutting, since a visit to a barber shop in even a suburb in any US town will put you back by at least $ 30 or say Rs. 1200! And everybody expects a tip abroad! From the taxi driver to the barber to the hotel attendant!

NROs invariably look for a homely and docile Oriya bride for their lads since a gori bahu will never make coffee for the parents or be a home maker!

And the latest fad among some techie NROs is running websites where grandiose ideas are discussed by neo and semi literates who have the slightest idea about the state’s problems or issues. Many of them issue naïve appeals to the idiotic Chief Minister urging him to do something or the other. I have seen some of these websites and cannot but be amazed at the total lack of depth about our problems. I guess they indulge in this to satiate their innate desire to do something for the state without ofcourse signing any cheques or volunteering time here!

They never realize that unlike Chandrababu Naidu, the Queen does not know how to open his e-mails! And the minions who do so promptly trash them since they are not MOU related!

True we may not be having world class roads or airports. Again true that our officers are lazy and corrupt and the system fails to deliver unless you pull strings. However, we lead tension free lives without having to deliver according to deadlines. We have families and friends to fall back upon in times of crisis. Meet with an accident and ten friends will come rushing and do everything from getting you admitted to the hospital, donating blood and buying medicines. Unthinkable in New York or London !

We have cheap food, clothes and medicines without which life is impossible to live. We can definitely afford to keep drivers, maids or gardeners and not go broke!

So dear friends, I am in serious love with Orissa and am sooooooo happy to stay here!