The Interview

Addendum to my previous post by the Indian friend -

[I forgot to add a comment that I read in an article on Indian Muslims. The Muslims of India are following the pattern of US African Americans, young religious and politically active are incarcerated for various unexplainable crimes, many lured into the billion $+ BOLLYWOOD film industry having corrupt reputation and gang ties, music vidoes and rest in the countless news andcable media companies.

Few muslims who succeed in career and education either leave(Muslim Indian Expats In Gulf ,Europe and US ), or marry prominent Hindu and get high posts within political or business positions and those coming from families of wealthy landlords or Nawaab just continue taking care of their properties in a subliminal non ambitious way. But there are still some famous Indian Muslims like A.R Rahman, Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, Wipro`s Azim Premji, Azharuddin, Sania Mirza or Javed Akhter who humbly point to their religious convictions for their successes.

There are hopes that the current boom in economy might be a blessing for all. I hope and wish the same for Indian Muslims as after all they gave up Pakistan for Bharat and deserve justifiable recognition as Indians. ]

Rajesh,

I forwarded your article to a few Indian Muslim friends. One of them responded with her perspectives. Being an active woman in her community and a working professional in the US, she has her observations that I decided to post over here. Hope you will appreciate my extra effort :)

[Thanks for the interesting read. Having spent 18 days in Nov2005 in Delhi, Lucknow, Agra and Aligarh I must say, things have changed. I was there for five weddings - two of them were between Hindu girl and Muslim boy and Muslim boy and Arab girl. Three were between like minded similar families. The interracial marraiges, believe it or not, were between grand kids of high ranking govt. officials and between upper class rich business families. I do agree somewhat with the sentiments expressed in this article though in reality this is not the case.

Having close ties with Aligarh Muslim Univ and being part of the most recent Jahangirabad Institute of technology, JIT, I can say there is definite lack of ``fire in the belly`` amongst Muslims of India due to this presumption of job bias against Muslims in the work force. I know as a student of premedical Biochemistry I was selected from 700 applicants and was amongst the 6 female students in a batch of 40 students. Out of the six females, 4 were hindus and the other were muslims besides myself who got selection through source (daughter of DIG police and ex Alig). The segregated women`s college had 90-10 ratio of Muslims and Hindus. Fee and expenses were minimal and many were on stipends and there was open selection for Muslim applicants. With all this, there were always more applicants from other faiths than Islam and yet we complain there are no opportunities for Muslims in India.

Since 1990, most of the successful graduates of AMU have moved to the UAE and the gulf countries because pay scale and standard of living is much much better. I obviously speak for the UP side but in places like Banglore and Hyderabad, its very different where Muslims are very successfully employed or own business withouit much bias. But if one generalizes the whole Muslim population, obviously the most poor and impoverished state of bihar with so many Muslims need to be added in and that distorts the whole statistics. Add in the Gujarati Muslims and some from Punjab then figures distort further in terms of economic and academic levels.

So i would say, these articles and stories are good to read and give a perspective but they do not apply toward the whole nation. Currently there is a rise amongs marraiges between Muslim girls and Hindu boys. Reason, freedom of career/life, most are non practicing themselves they care less, third want to be secular and promote harmony at the cost of family disharmony.

Thanks for forwarding the article. Read the story of the 50+ Indian lady pretty inspirational. Chowk has grown, last time I visited was probably in 2000. Lots of articles now.]

Re: # 13

That`s sho shweet.


The intent was to highlight the fact that women in agressive careers have agressive personalities - high testosterone level. They cannot get along with an average man. These women need an above average(bright), mentally stable and physically alert handsome creation of God to complement the dangerously high level of testosterone :) The average kittens won`t be able to stand that energy level. Did you get it? Ab Samajh Ayee Ya Naheen? Khabardaar Ayinda Sae Zyada Chalak Ban`nae Kee Nakam Koshish Kee!!! Your comprehension is disappointing. My remark had no reference to the PMS you have been experiencing on Chowk. I hope you feel better. You can take some herbs to help your symptoms. Best Wishes.

February 27, 2006
Op-Ed Columnist
Graduates Versus Oligarchs
By PAUL KRUGMAN

Ben Bernanke`s maiden Congressional testimony as chairman of the Federal Reserve was, everyone agrees, superb. He didn`t put a foot wrong on monetary or fiscal policy.

But Mr. Bernanke did stumble at one point. Responding to a question from Representative Barney Frank about income inequality, he declared that ``the most important factor`` in rising inequality ``is the rising skill premium, the increased return to education.``

That`s a fundamental misreading of what`s happening to American society. What we`re seeing isn`t the rise of a fairly broad class of knowledge workers. Instead, we`re seeing the rise of a narrow oligarchy: income and wealth are becoming increasingly concentrated in the hands of a small, privileged elite.

I think of Mr. Bernanke`s position, which one hears all the time, as the 80-20 fallacy. It`s the notion that the winners in our increasingly unequal society are a fairly large group — that the 20 percent or so of American workers who have the skills to take advantage of new technology and globalization are pulling away from the 80 percent who don`t have these skills.

The truth is quite different. Highly educated workers have done better than those with less education, but a college degree has hardly been a ticket to big income gains. The 2006 Economic Report of the President tells us that the real earnings of college graduates actually fell more than 5 percent between 2000 and 2004. Over the longer stretch from 1975 to 2004 the average earnings of college graduates rose, but by less than 1 percent per year.

So who are the winners from rising inequality? It`s not the top 20 percent, or even the top 10 percent. The big gains have gone to a much smaller, much richer group than that.

A new research paper by Ian Dew-Becker and Robert Gordon of Northwestern University, ``Where Did the Productivity Growth Go?,`` gives the details. Between 1972 and 2001 the wage and salary income of Americans at the 90th percentile of the income distribution rose only 34 percent, or about 1 percent per year. So being in the top 10 percent of the income distribution, like being a college graduate, wasn`t a ticket to big income gains.

But income at the 99th percentile rose 87 percent; income at the 99.9th percentile rose 181 percent; and income at the 99.99th percentile rose 497 percent. No, that`s not a misprint.

Just to give you a sense of who we`re talking about: the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center estimates that this year the 99th percentile will correspond to an income of $402,306, and the 99.9th percentile to an income of $1,672,726. The center doesn`t give a number for the 99.99th percentile, but it`s probably well over $6 million a year.

Why would someone as smart and well informed as Mr. Bernanke get the nature of growing inequality wrong? Because the fallacy he fell into tends to dominate polite discussion about income trends, not because it`s true, but because it`s comforting. The notion that it`s all about returns to education suggests that nobody is to blame for rising inequality, that it`s just a case of supply and demand at work. And it also suggests that the way to mitigate inequality is to improve our educational system — and better education is a value to which just about every politician in America pays at least lip service.

The idea that we have a rising oligarchy is much more disturbing. It suggests that the growth of inequality may have as much to do with power relations as it does with market forces. Unfortunately, that`s the real story.

Should we be worried about the increasingly oligarchic nature of American society? Yes, and not just because a rising economic tide has failed to lift most boats. Both history and modern experience tell us that highly unequal societies also tend to be highly corrupt. There`s an arrow of causation that runs from diverging income trends to Jack Abramoff and the K Street project.

And I`m with Alan Greenspan, who — surprisingly, given his libertarian roots — has repeatedly warned that growing inequality poses a threat to ``democratic society.``

It may take some time before we muster the political will to counter that threat. But the first step toward doing something about inequality is to abandon the 80-20 fallacy. It`s time to face up to the fact that rising inequality is driven by the giant income gains of a tiny elite, not the modest gains of college graduates.

i thought the story was a bit exaggerated...the only thing i could relate is that education of muslim girl...because my own mother didn`t care much of the last, i suffer feeling not equal to a man...so yeah..the point of the story is great...the way he tells it...not so great
otherwise its` ok....

This is very nicely narrated story. You have a fluid writing style that keeps the reader engaged.
There is a subtext here that i`m missing out - Rohit`s arguments indeed make sense and I too am left wondering why all this is a bad thing and, more importantly, why a small company that has to hire good employees would shoot itself in the foot over abstract sociological arguments. This part did not quite gel for me.
In sum, the parts are well wrought but the sum is wanting.

Rajesh
I don`t understand some things in this story, perhaps I`m not quite up on IT terms. What exactly is a, ``knowledge worker``? How can a ``knowledge worker`` have a non-technical mind? Is it customary for HR people to sit in on a technical interview? The same question applies to Sales , Payments what ever??
Would a Project Manager be part of a specific team? I`m assuming it`s the same Rohit who is part of the Payments team?

``what do little communities wish to preserve themselves for?``

Why indeed?

My maama brought home to his village a Portuguese bride in the 1940s when Portugal still `owned` Goa and piped water and electricity were many decades away. My greatgrandmother thought if she could be brave enough to leave her people and come here, the Family should accept her as the eldest bahu, never mind what others said. And she became the Family`s favourite Maami. Ever since, mixed marriages have been the norm amongst all my cousins. I don`t think any of us have become less Indian or less Hindu in the bargain. I do believe marriages help mingling, not just of the genes, but of cultures. Civilizations have been wiped out and may still get lost in times to come, what do little communities wish to preserve themselves for? You`ve given us a good read. Thanks.

rajesh

Most stories do a poor job of articulating defensible views on conflicted matters.

I suspect I have an opinion exactly opposite of what you, anjali and most others here have. To aid clarity, could you please summarize your stand/views in a couple of sentences? Many thanks for the favor.

Re: # 8

This is not a true story but does contain elements I have encountered over the years. I call it the Sunil Shetty theory. He is from a conservative community of Bunts. He married a Muslim - a very gracious lady called Mana whose father is the eminent city father - Mr.Kadri and whose mother Vipula - I suspect - is Hindu. The character of Rohit is a combination of many people I know - who are otherwise wonderful people except when it comes to Muslims and women. Lastly, it was important that Adrian be Christian and that Ranjana be average. No Rohit could defend his case in any court if needed. I am ashamed to admit I would indeed be stricken if this were to happen in real life to me.

Sad but true.
Not only in employment but even in educational institutions this prejudice does exist.
Muslims would surely send more girls to serious professional education and not `cooking and mehendi` classes if they felt safe in society today. Even in one of the `elite` schools of Bombay I have known of instances of boys being teased and harassed because of their faith.
We cannot first terrorise a community and then say that they have a ghetto mentality. Can we forget that the first ones to get targetted in a communal riot were those who had chosen to join the mainstream and live in mixed localities?
But why don`t we remember and repeat the stories of many who braved fanatical forces to protect the innocent?

Ref ZahraJ #9

[Just recently, I heard an interesting comment by this Indian lady who is heading the Equities Division at one of the Wall Street financial institutions, she emphasized that women in finance and consulting should marry men who can tolerate their highs and lows. An average man cannot withstand that kind of hyper personality.]

ALL men, sweetheart, have learnt to put up with PMS.

Re: # 3

I don`t think you have seriously read my comment. I have no thinking problem. It is the reflex response that is the problem. I don’t believe in ghosts that doesn’t mean I can roam around graves in the dead of night without fear. Convincing subconscious is another matter.

Is anyone pointing out that rejecting an applicant because of their ethnicity/race/gender/sexual/political orientation or that of their spouse is discrimination?

In most democracies, anyway.

Re: 7

From:
http://www.jointcenter.org/DB/factsheet/marital.htm

Interracial Marriages
· In 1960 there were about 150,000 interracial married couples(1) in the United States. This number grew rapidly to more than 1.0 million in 1998. In 2000, they numbered 1.46 million.
· Black/white interracial married couples have increased seven-fold since 1960, from 51,000 to 363,000 in 2000. As a percentage of all married couples, this type more than tripled during the period. However, black/white marriages, which represented 34% of all interracial marriages (40,491) in 1960, fell to 24.7% of all interracial marriages (1,464,000) in 2000. About 70% of Hispanics also marry outside their group.
· Non-Hispanic blacks and non-Hispanic whites are proportionately least likely to marry outside their groups, and whites who do so are almost three times more likely to marry Asians and American Indians than to marry blacks. Over 93% of whites and blacks marry within their racial groups, in contrast to about 70% of Asians, and less than one-third of American Indians. When minorities marry outside their group, their spouses are usually white.
Notes
1. Interracial married couples refer to marriages in which one spouse reported as white, black, American Indian, Alaskan Native or Asian/Pacific Islander and the other spouse belongs to another of these groups.