Self-Competence, Students and Some Brickbats

There are a plethora of issues going on – both at a personal and in the outside world. It is definitely not easy as it looks to be after the hammerings, I took to my processing unit in the last many months. The hammering being taken by my brain since the last two years is definitely a pity and getting recovered, relieved from this beating is a huge effort. This should have never panned out this way and I am exhausted, tired after taking this mental and physical toll. No one should have gone through this known or unknown and something going on in full visibility for so long is very pathetic. But I am OK and happy with it as long as it is within limit and rendered to safe working conditions.

There is a good feeling to use your potential mentally, physically and achieve higher efficiency and efficacy. I lead a mission mode work back in India as well, but I am pushing myself further after reaching U.S. There are few reasons to push harder with determination and diligence: - 1. Position in onsite 2. Customer value or delight 3. Achieve Success 4. Achieve competence 5. Last but most important – Creating value back to the poor in India. These are the reasons which are at play when you decide to work harder from a stage which resonates with a bigger echo than somewhere else.

If we try to dig further into each of these, the first two are inter-connected as in when you reach onsite in tech, you are expected to stretch a bit, do good work which positively impacts the client and the relationship with the client. The third one is known to all, that to be minutely successful, you need to work harder. This is also relevant when you are unsuccessful on three earlier attempts. I will come to the fourth one in a bit. The final and most important reason is I always think how my work impacts the poorest of the poor in the country. I know crores back home look at what you do in foreign country. If you do not dig in, work hard, make it count and take the fruits back home; it simply becomes a pleasure, visiting trip. This is a rare opportunity which crores back home look for and feel bad about their own selves as to why it did not come to them. Unless this opportunity improves their lives, there is no meaning in hurting the feelings of one and all. Simply, it should not be another routine pleasure trip but one of hard work, torture, stress, strain in pursuit to achieve something meaningful. This is the philosophy behind pushing harder in theory which can sometimes become dangerous, scary in practice.

That said, with the factor of severity going up, I would still like to stay in U.S. and continue for few more months. As long as the outcomes are good, there is no reason in throwing it away in middle and going back. I cannot imagine going back to the old life in home city after battering for five years. The home nation can wait, the home states can wait, the old life can wait while I am in middle of another good purpose. While it is a partial philosophy in staying put in U.S. the other reason is the fourth point I mentioned above. That is to achieve competence. This is the most important drawback of my life – lack of competence. I have been called these names by outsiders and by my inner self as well: 1. Incompetent 2. Fit for nothing 3. Good for nothing 4. No real utility. 5. No ability to work.

The five might be similar but I had to put in five different names to convey the anguish, despair, and importance. In a way, I am working hard to achieve competence. I am staying put to achieve competence. I am not escaping, going back, or retreating to achieve competence. I would like to grow myself, advance myself, improve myself, remove the stain on myself, make amends and use the opportunity to become a great worker – for myself, for my family, for my nation and everyone. This is the area I am working on, while in the work, in the foreign nation, without lamely escaping to the comforts of home. I am amplifying this concern in this medium to gather help from one and all, in creating the next version of myself. I know there is no better nation than U.S. in creating competent people. When you act out of your comfort zone and develop new competencies, will you grow as a person. A dug-in, not-retreating, intrinsically growing person on a good track spreads growth externally as well. This is the real progress, an individual like me need to make.

While these are the internal issues plaguing me, let me talk a bit about home affairs. Whenever I travelled to U.S., I found myself staying with students who are pursuing their higher education. In a way, they are a great bunch of individuals to live with. If my family in the home nation drive me in everything and enable to reach this far, it is this family away from the family in U.S. that drives me further all along. In these past 7 months, these individuals have complemented me tremendously and I strived to pay back equally. I cannot remember how many times these youngsters have crossed all the safe lines to set the giant wheel in motion. Together, we produced outstanding outcomes, and I cannot perceive the same if I stayed in any other setting.

In this light, I am all for the success and great future of the youngsters from India, U.S. and every place around the world. Particularly, I know how much some of these youngsters crave for opportunity and prove themselves. U.S. is a great country to provide that opportunity to thousands of Indian students every year. These students also work extremely hard to make a mark over here and induce energy in the foreign, home nations.

To expand the scope, let us consider three groups of youngsters who I am aware of –

1. Indian students in U.S. 2. Indian students in India. 3. U.S. students.



I came from the first group and lived with them several times. Every year, around 2 lakh students from India enroll at universities across the U.S. and if you travel to U.S. there is a good chance that you bump into many of them at any place. U.S. is a popular choice for Indian students to make their next phase of lives. It is of paramount importance that the ground is set for them to get their higher education and make a good living post education. I know there are hurdles all along the way and how difficult it is for them to cross them all. Initially, they need to clear the exams back in India, get admission letters from a university and a visa which will give a new direction to their life.

While in U.S., they had to earn for all their expenses, commute, tuition etc. while also being a support to their elders back in India. I know this difficulty, pain and my inability firsthand, since I dropped out of graduate studies due to tuition fees, expenses beyond my reach. Then comes the hurdles of part time jobs, assistance, aids, loans etc. which need to fall in place for a smooth travel. With so much of efforts they attain their higher degrees and come to the pool of job seekers, looking for work visas. So, it all comes to pass based on their needs and the struggle to pass each phase.

I am particularly thankful to U.S. for being a breeding ground for lakhs of international students since many decades, providing them education, employment and a decent life after flying away from their home nations. Remember, these youngsters in foreign land are not without education, not without food, not without housing, not without employment, not on streets demanding basic necessities. The only difficulty, struggle for them is to stand on their own legs. I failed at that and wish success for every Indian student who comes here for new beginnings. I praise the magnanimity, effectiveness of the U.S. in absorbing these many students and providing a life of their dreams. The student’s success is paramount, the student’s future is paramount, and we need to strive for a country where every youngster is given an opportunity to survive and excel.

I came from the second group as well – Indian students in India. I studied in India for twenty years before taking up a job during my formative years. I had the desire to serve the homeland and gave it all during that time, but it doesn’t matter. I was fortunate to get a job on campus during education but how many youngsters have the benefit of getting a good job as he wishes. The unemployment in India is 7.77% at present and rural unemployment is 8 %. This asks for a lot of improvement where every individual capable need to take the onus to create jobs.

The graduating students generally complain of good opportunities and stiff competition for anything. It is tough situation for an average Indian student to make a decent living. One in five college graduates is unemployed. That is a staggering 20% unemployment among young graduates. This can be much higher in states like Bihar, U.P. etc. This high unemployment rate among the college educated has caused what the World Economic Forum calls "widespread youth disillusionment," claiming it's a threat to India's economic stability – and is part of a growing crisis in India's job market. Those who work in the so-called "informal sector" – jobs in construction or agricultural labor with no guarantee of work or a wage from day-to-day, have long had difficulty supporting themselves and their families. And now, even education is no longer a guarantee of a job. Many educated workers complain of a lack of job security, employment benefits and salaries that often fail to meet minimum wage requirements.

More than 12 million people had applied for 35,000 clerical jobs at Indian Railways — one of the world's largest employers. The government revised rules to favor those with higher qualifications even for jobs that had previously needed only a high school degree. The most recent manifestation of such disillusionment among those with degrees came recently, when thousands of young job seekers set fire to an empty stationary railway coach in eastern Indian city of Gaya to protest the restrictive qualifications set for railway jobs. With the acceptance rate hovering around 2% for the government jobs, the Indian youth can better get into ivy league colleges. This is the sad reality on ground across the country, which is a tough challenge for even an excellent government at the helm. To benefit an average Indian graduate who are in crores left lurching, the churning needs to happen in India, the action needs to happen in India and giant tides need to lift the populace out of the misery.

The third group is the U.S. students which is alien to me. But since I am living among them, I am particularly surprised at the astronomical rates of tuition for these students in their own country. While everything is free till college, suddenly all the hell breaks loose at that time. One thing which bothers me is the loans to pursue education and the situation that these students are falling in the trap of debt at a young age is alarming. Just look at the figures and it will blow your mind. Federal student loans make up the vast majority of American education debt—about 92% of all outstanding student loans is federal debt.

Americans owe nearly $1.75 trillion in student loan debt, spread out among about 48 million borrowers. That’s about $412 billion more than the total U.S. auto loan debt. Among the class of 2020, 55% of bachelor’s degree recipients took out student loans, graduating with an average of $28,400 in federal and private debt. And 14% of parents with children in the class of 2019 — the latest data available — took out an average of $37,200 in federal parent PLUS loans. These are just some of the shocking student loan debt statistics as Americans continue to be burdened.

The government can subsidize education, or the universities can lower the costs for native students at least to put away these students from loan traps. How can you ensnare young adults in your own country into an agreement to pay-off thousands and thousands of dollars? It is a trap to push these young working population to subsist from pay-check to pay-check for so many years. I myself suffer from these payment schedules all my life but not for education. I paid less than two thousand dollars as tuition fee for my excellent 4-year undergraduate studies back in India. The rates have increased now but still no comparison. I know the U.S. is great for the top 5% capitalists who keeps on growing rich and the government needs to re-distribute as a socialist to make lives of working population bearable. I am surprised to see no government till the present one has bothered to provide relief to these youngsters. The student loan forgiveness is a good exercise and serves a good purpose, but the students should not be loaned for education in first place.

I covered the internal affairs, home affairs and now let’s move onto external affairs. The pick of the times is again Great Britain which has an Indian Prime Minister after all the other options are vaporized. Better become a colony of India and extend the rule of PM of India over its Indian colony. This would definitely provide a great governance which every English man needs at the moment. There are 5 Prime Ministers over the course of last 7 years and many vying to become one. I would like to throw my hat in the ring and experiment as well, since the vetting for the unimportant PM position is least. I can pick my roomies as ministers in charge as well overlooking finance, home and all unimportant positions who can resign if they don’t like me at any point of time. But I will immediately leave once the night party is over and roomies resign the next morning. If you feel I am funny enough and meet the criteria for PM of Great Britain, please select me and I wouldn’t disappoint your already low expectations by reaching further lower. While I do not mean anything but best wishes to new PM, I do not mean anything but humor in the small above write-up. I do understand the situation is anything but humorous for a lot of common British citizens. Yes, it is unfortunate to bear witness to the series of events unfolded over the past few months. Yes, it is imperative to wish great days ahead for the kingdom under new government. And yes, the tough times do not last a lifetime on the tough British people.

The last external affair to touch is the takeover of Twitter by world's richest person and eliminating half of the tech jobs. As a user of Twitter, this surprised me. The tech people need your support and not firing to achieve the impossible. Twitter is a great idea and platform which has a bearing and weightage of stalwart people speaking out their minds. Just to provide them with a playground needs a lot of curators. This is not just programming but ensuring a platform to meet the needs of all its users. A performing person needs to be encouraged and not fired. Layoffs are for extremely non-performers or the bottom 10% in general theory. A 7 thousand employee count for a brand as big isn’t a big number either. It's hard to fathom and explain this disruption but hope it takes the best direction for a platform I use day-in and day-out.