The invisible embers

My son will cross over into that onerous age, of 18, in a few days from now.

Naturally, he is excited by a lot of things or stimuli. Most of them not of the sensual kind. Going abroad, to study and perhaps settle down thereafter is one. Having spent 13+ years at one of India’s top schools, it is no surprise that may of his class-mates are already in the GMAT / TOEFL mode, influencing him by their actions.

Our family too has its own share (significantly large) of NRIs and given the sort of life they have been able to achieve there, we see no reason to actively dissuade him. At least from the preparatory part of it. As we are in no position to “finance” a decent foreign education, the prepping will require serious efforts. That’s what we keep reminding him, whenever the issue surfaces for discussion.

Lately though, we find a substantial rise in “unhappy” NRIs, even among our close circles. Some express their dissatisfaction openly, some cite innovative excuses, most blame the post-meltdown scenario. Over the years, with mounting experience, we all develop the skill of hearing between the lines and understand what they are trying not to speak of. But our apprehensions have heightened nevertheless.

Today’s Guestview article (Mint; 11th August 2001, page 20 – Read at http://bit.ly/guestviewMint11aug) voices many of those unspoken words, in a very candid style.

I have never been to UK or the US. Most of our knowledge about England is through media expressions like the BBC, itv and hundreds of TV serials we have devoured since we were our son’s age. Though we started with respectable depictions in Suchet’s Hercule Poirot or Wodehouse’s Jeeves & Wooster, before long we were learning about the underbelly of UK. The wonderfully made Inspector Morse’s series or Helen Mirren’s legendary Prime Suspect episodes provided us a true picture of England, unfolding through the post-war years. “Things”, we found, were not as glorious as the wide-eyed NRIs would have us believe!

The past few years have been genuinely harsh on Europe & specifically around the UK. The unending influx of migrants from all over the world has stretched the English economy thin, almost to the extent of snapping. Naturally the social safety nets are also on the brink of collapse. Meeta Sengupta‘s article (Mint, mentioned above) paints a realistic picture of this “real” UK.

Today’s TOI edit page carries an article influenced by the same problems, but written in the trademark Jug Suraiya style. Light and on a positive footing. (TOI; 11th August, Read at http://bit.ly/JugsTOI11aug). Jug is the quintessential optimist brought up on Bengali diets of intellect & therefore closer to the Brit culture by default. Much like Ms. Karkaria).

Since reading the columns our levels of comfort (about our son trying to get admitted in UK or US for that matter) are markedly on a lower ebb and with good reason. Very recently i had the opportunity to interact closely with a Social Workgroup (or NGO if you must call it so) planning to set up a branch in India. The work that they do in UK, with much aplomb, consists mostly of bringing the “prodigal” sons and daughters back to the mainstream. According to them, the problems highlighted in Meeta’s article ARE in plenty and the Government simply can never cope up!

I am sure there must be places like Jug’s favourite Petticoat Lane (or is it Street?) which are truly cosmopolitan, secular and minding only their own businesses in a peaceful manner. But then, England will not turn into a marketplace soon! There are enough bad blood in the Oxfords and Cambridges, even without Asians making inroads.

And perhaps it’s time we discussed this with my son, in greater depth. He’s too young to know that there could be embers, glowing to singe, invisible beneath that harmless English hood