Here's a post I wrote 3 weeks ago. Since then, there has been an anti-corruption movement that resulted in the passing of the Jan Lokpal Bill last week. Also, the Indian cricket team won the Cricket World Cup, which united Indians like very few events have before: it was a collective fist pump for a country that desperately needed one. I hesitated to post this before, but having re-read this, I stand by my words. Let me know what you think.
I've realized that I'm not willing to work a regular job in India; there are a number of cultural issues to deal with that I'm tired of fighting. Namely, there is a lack of accountability (work gets passed around like a hot potato), there are too many interruptions (people not finishing their work on time), and, most importantly, the fact that work happens at a very slow pace. In between the tea/coffee breaks, betting on cricket, celebrating everyone's birthday/wedding/property acquisition, etc. work doesn't get done on a timely basis. And that's when there aren't external events like power outages, traffic jams and transportation strikes getting in the way. Sometimes, those factors totally prevent work from being done and require jugaad in the form of paying bribes, extending deadlines or simplying giving up because the work is impossible. The end result is unpredicatability: a work day that could be completed from 9am-5pm is extended from 10am-8pm. In the end, it's just not worth it because that's time and effort that takes away from someone's well-being. That's ok for a lot of working people who don't want to do anything but watch TV in their free time, but not for me. I'm in the prime of my working life and not utilizing my ambition would be mortgaging my future.
It's very difficult to live in urban India because of hassles that must be dealt with everyday. These include water/power shortages, pollution, traffic congestion, a lack of law & order and many, many other things. Here's a good post that further describes the state of young people in India today. Not to mention the scams that are making news everyday, from land scams to commercial airline pilots with fake licenses and the cash-for-votes scandal opened by the WikiLeaks cables. But that's not the point. The general state of things right now is so bad that it really cannot get much worse. My theory is that there must be someone somewhere creating solutions to these problems. And because Indians are so entreprenurial, these problems will be fixed. It won't be easy and it definitely won't be quick, but it will happen simply because there's such a big opportunity at stake (and so much money to be made in the process).
With the conclusion that I won't work for a company in India, I've decided that I want to create work for myself. It won't be an immediate venture because I'm not sure yet what I'll do or how I'll go about it. But I know that I will do it India because this is where my future lies. This now feels like home and I am very interested in being part of India's success story. Right now, I'm leaving for the US to improve my skill set and aspire to start my own business (or join a like-minded one) but my long-term goal is to work and live in India. In the meantime, I hope that living conditions in India improve so that we can all lead healthier and more productive lives.
I'm very hopeful for India's future as long as information flow and transparency improve in the public and private sector. It's a lot to ask for but I think it's possible; people are interested in making India work because the old ways of doing things aren't get it done anymore. As the world's largest democracy, India has been called the world's greatest social experiment. Now is its final exam.
