Expectations

What is there in America that gets all the Indians positively salivating?

Lakhs of Indian software engineers have migrated to the States and have set up household. The quality of these people are either brilliant(IIT/IIM passouts) or mediocre - people like me and inferior. The number of people in the second bracket is growing exponentially by the day. These people want to cling to America - they do not want to go back to India and they are forever expressing the pretension that they miss India and are not able to go back.

I am filled with an impotent rage when I think of these people. As H.G Wells so cleverly put 'Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo'. I too want to stay on in the States but my conscience pricks me reminding me of my parents. I also miss the life in India. But I cannot escape the fact that the people who are staying on forever at onsite actually enjoy a better social standing back in India. People are so proud to state that they live in America. They think that makes them so much better than the unfortunate few who never got to see the sun in the States. It is stupid psychology at best but there it is. You might be working in a bakery/sandwich shop/laundry out here yet you would be hallowed in the eyes of your parents/neighbours/relatives/friends for earning your livelihood in the promised land.

Let me come up with some actual examples.
1. My college buddy D stayed approximately for two years in the States. She works for T. Now she is happily married with a kid.
2. Another college buddy M stayed in the States for 10 months. She had to come back because she was sick. Now she is married and settled in Kolkata. Do not know about her future onsite plans if any. She works for C.
3. One of the poorest performers in our batch at our college S has recently gone back to India after spending 8 months in the States. She works for I.
4. I have lost count of the others in T and C who have repeatedly been travelling worldwide.
5. My ex-colleague N has travelled extensively across UK and USA. He is presently in Miami. He works for C.
6. Another ex-colleague A is back in the States for a second stint. He had originally gone to USA for 2 months. He spent 8 months here and then went back to India only to come back for another 8 months or so. He works for C.
7. M, an ex-colleague had visited Australia earlier. She then went to Denver and from there she has taken up another one-year assignment in Arizona. She works for C.
8. S, another ex-colleague went to Netherlands initially for 3 months. Since then, she has been to Los Angeles for 6 months and New Jersey - New York for 1 year. She works for C.
9. B, a colleague here, has been staying on for the past five years. He is even scared to take a flyback lest his place here is taken up by someone else.
10. S, another colleague was staying on since more than 2 years yet was very unhappy to have not got sufficient time at onsite. He would have stayed on forever. It needed a near-fatal accident to put him out of action and rethink his plans of going back to India.

In contrast to these golddiggers, there are a handful who never went to onsite because they wanted it that way:
1. J, an ex-colleague has had 2 short stints in the states - about a month each. He is relunctant to visit America because he does not like it here. He works for C.
2. D, a close friend since my college days came back from America within a day! She was loath to stay away from her hubby. She works for O.
3. S, another close friend from my college never went to the States because her husband was away on work and she probably did not want to leave her father alone. Also, her own onsite opportunities would span 2-3 years if she chose to take them. She works for T.

A few salient points that came out of the listing above are:
1. Women who are high-flying are either unmarried or have accomplished their foreign aspirations before getting married or having kids.
2. Men who have been living on at States are either unmarried or have their spouses accompanying them.
3. T and C provide ample opportunities to visit UK/US

My situation is like the person standing in front of a pot of gold. All about him people are rushing past to loot the gold. He stands with his hands folded pretending to a principled figure while all the time his mind tells him that he is an idiot who is letting opportunity go by.
I think it is better to get to do what my heart wants now and here rather than wait for my parents to pass away and remove the obstacle to my staying on at USA.
I am no better than these greedy Indians. I get agitated when I see my colleague's tenure being extended. I too want my tenure to be extended. But, somewhere in my heart I know that I cannot reconcile myself if I actually stay on beyond my one year tenure.

My train of thought has been broken by a lunch that I went out to with M and S - two of my colleagues here. I will terminate this post here.