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Thirty-seven sets of smiles greeted the photographer�s �Say Cheese� as the class of 1997 prepared to take the first steps towards graduation. I looked around affectionately at each and everyone, remembering the first time I�d met them, the fights, the assignments, the class politics and finally the camaraderie that came along with three years of living, studying, working and partying together. And I wondered where each would be five years from now.
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Cut to 2003. Two emails from the e-group we�d formed right out of college lay marked as unread in my Inbox � always the second lowest in priority for my reading � the topmost being mails from my boss and colleagues, followed by mails from friends and family, then the group mails and finally jokes & junk to be deleted after a brief glance. When I finally got to them I read first about an alumni member of my college who�d just received an advertising award and I smiled as I felt proud of my background. The second was about a classmate who�d delivered a baby girl in the US and it got me thinking about those thirty-seven people �
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On last update, thirty three of the thirty-seven were in the US on H1�s/L1�s/B1�s and only four of us were still in India. Not surprising for a class majoring in computer applications, and I may have easily been one to increment the count of those abroad � for I had also had my share of chances, but there were some specific circumstances that caused me to stay on in India for which, till date, I am thankful.
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There are three things in particular that I feel have changed the face of Indian life in the two decades that I moved from childhood to adult status. These are the Maruti 800, Cable television and the IT industry. I heard on CNBC the other day that Indian IT exports have reached over Rs. 46,000 crore and for several minutes I could not assess the size of that sum until I realized that it was roughly 10 billion US dollars. A huge amount by any standards, and I could not help wondering how much more it may have been if my thirty-three classmates and several tens of thousand others had also stayed on here.
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I�m not going to jump into the debate of the pros and cons of the decisions of all those people for I have done so on numerous occasions before and always arrived at only one conclusion � that there is none. There are so many issues, points and feelings for both sides that I sometimes feel it�s a lose-lose situation. If you do go, you end up missing home and all things Indian. If you don�t, you always fret about how others make more money than you do.
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Instead I�m going to jump into a brief monologue of how India is so amazingly unique that you couldn�t trade it in for any country in the world. For it has some peculiarities that have shaped the lives, beliefs and attitudes of each of us.
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India has variety. Variety of cultures, traditions, languages, Gods and religions, the kind of which you would never find anywhere in the world. It�s a country, which celebrates, Diwali, Id and Christmas with equal fervor.
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India has cricket and Bollywood. The whole nation joins in, in wishing Sachin Tendulkar on his birthday and even the crappiest Hindi movie rakes in crores simply because there are so many people that they make money even if a few watch it.
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India has ambition. The ordinary middle class graduate also wants to make it big in life and isn�t content with small and odd jobs. Indians also have a �survival of the fittest� attitude. You learn to become tough because you�ve fought for a lot in life � whether its to get in ahead of others in the movie ticket line or to get onto the final inch left on the lowest step of a bus as people hang out of it from all sides.
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Indians speak English. Its been said that there are only two good things the British Raj left us � our railway network and English. And even the education system that we cribbed so much about when we were children deserves due credit for its that very system that has trained us all, making us intelligent as well as hardworking � a combination that�s a sure shot to success. Small wonder then that so many Indians who live abroad do so very well there.
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I�m not denying that we have our faults � corruption, poverty, illiteracy, lack of amenities and infrastructure, but who doesn�t have faults? A mother loves her children anyway and so should the children love their motherland. For all those who studied Civics in school and still have some recollection of �We the people ..�, remember also for a moment what we studied about rights and duties. India is a country, which has stepped forward to provide dual citizenship and all the rights that go along with it to Indians who may actually not be fulfilling their duties as they go about the business of creating a good life for themselves and their next generation in a foreign country.
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India is truly the largest democracy in the world. And what�s important is not where we were but where we�re going from here. For us, the only way is up.
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BPO�s are the latest thing to hit the industry and several thousands of people will be benefited by more jobs, good salaries and increased purchasing power, which will undoubtedly boost the economy. Our population, which had for years and years been touted as our biggest handicap is now converting itself into our biggest asset as more and more �manpower� oriented industries move operations to India � low cost skilled manpower � it�s a brilliant combination and India is fast emerging as the world�s back office.
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To all the people responsible for bringing about such an amazing change for our country � Sanjay Gandhi for starting Maruti, Rupert Murdoch for bringing Star TV in, Narayan Murthy for creating Infosys, and many many others � what I have to say � is �.. Thank you. And to my thirty-three classmates living in the US, what I have to say is ��. you�re missing out guys, because this is where all the action is.
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