Wapsi (The Returning)

re:#224 by MaheshG2
Mahesh Babu,
I did not invent the word Code Coolie.
It already exists, made popular by Harimau in Chowk (my apologies to him for dragging his name, but it is true!). I was one of those who said it ain`t fair but was voted down.
Sridhar

re:#228 by stuka
You forgot about what Salman Khan did to a poor worker sleeping on a pavement. In a drunkern daze, this actor drove over and killed a poor man. And got away with it because he proved in court he was actually not driving at all and his car was stolen! Some such thing.
In India, there is one rule for the poor, one for the rich.
Sridhar

Further reading on rights enjoyed by Indian citizens....The murderer (also involved in the Jessica Lal murder case) walks free. This is an example of Indian democracy and law and order in action.

Would you rather be a second class code coolie in the states or a full citizen like Nitish Katara, son of an IAS officer, to whom the state could offer no protection or justice.



Katara, an executive, was allegedly picked up from the wedding of a friend, Shivani Gaur, in Ghaziabad on February 16, 2002 by the accused. His burnt body was found on February 19 near Hapur crossing.

According to the police, Bharti stated that Katara had left with Vikas and Vishal from the wedding venue.

CHAIN OF EVENTS
February 16, 2002: Nitish Katara attends the wedding of classmate Shivani Gaur in Ghaziabad. Bharti also present with brother Vikas and cousin Vishal. Katara goes missing after wedding
February 19: Katara’s burnt body discovered near Hapur crossing. Vikas and Vishal arrested. Bharti leaves for the UK.

re:#226 by MaheshG2
No.
Just to show that AIDS is a real problem that threatens India`s economic development. I am sure most Indians on Chowk are not perhaps aware of this, mesmerised as they are by India`s IT miracle.
I have nothing against honest wage earners in India. That was your own assumption.
Sridhar

Sridhar:

But, as an indian to another, i am telling it like it is.Sorry, if i`m a little blunt!.Don`t fool yourself any longer mon ami.


Read this as...

But, as an indian (who got rejected for the third time for a tourist visa) to another(who has a green card) , i am telling it like it is (in my sour grapes induced imagination) .Sorry, if i`m a little blunt!( since I have never been abroad, I cannot be nuanced in my opinions) . Don`t fool yourself any longer mon ami. (Now I am off to salivate at blond babes on the hustler website and dream of getting to the west someday)

LOL!! Cayenne is the best entertainment on Chowk.

re:#222 by cayenne
Further to my post, US is a melting pot. Immigrants should be ready to ``melt into that pot``, to put it crudely.
Most South Asians (including me) have found that difficult. A lot of us carry baggage from home. All my colleagues are whites (i am in a hospital based group practice) and the biggest hurdle i have faced is my own ``aloofness`` that comes from the baggage i carry. Slowly i am shedding this baggage but this takes time.
I truly do not perceive any discrimination here. Maybe people here scrutinize me more than other and make sure i am good at what i do but that is to be expected. That apart, i have hardly seen any discrimination in my profession.
It may exist in IT field but then in IT most Indians are competing for the same pie with average American worker. How do u think the latter feels when he is deprived of a job by someone from Chennai who is willing to work at 1/10th the price (something that Lou Dobbs talks about all the time in CNN)?
Sridhar

Cayenne Moron:

As a Non Citizen I have more rights here than you do in India. A cop can stop you in the middle of the street and slap you around and you won`t do jack shit unless you are politically connected.

Don`t talk to us about second class citizenshep. We know coz we experienced it in India.

Talking of rights of citizens, interesting to see the sons of Indian politicians commit murder and walk free...As a brown man in the US i do not have to worry about some local Bal Thackeray type goonda raj.

Vikas Yadav granted bail in Jessica murder case
Former Rajya Sabha MP D P Yadav`s son Vikas, who is accused of destroying evidence in the Jessica Lal murder case, was Monday granted bail by a Delhi city court four days after it sent him to judicial custody.

Additional Sessions Judge H R Malhotra granted him bail on the same conditions, which were imposed on him by a sessions court earlier in September 1999, while ordering to release him on interim bail.

Vikas is facing trial for allegedly destroying evidence in the case in which former Union minister Vinod Sharma`s son Manu Sharma has been accused of killing the ramp model in a South Delhi restaurant on April 30, 1999.

re:#221 by Mantolives
Thanks.
Sridhar

#223, oh my God!

Have you lost your senility or what? Are you going to use India`s AID epidemic as a justification for your condescending attitude towards honest wage earners in India?

re:#222 by cayenne
Me thinks u are jealous.
It is different with medical fraternity.
But then you would not know, would you?
Sridhar

Sridhar,

What has Prashan`t interaction with Manto got to do with you calling software engineers disparagingly as code coolies? You think you are doing a favour to Manto by calling other professions names?

And what drift am I supposed to get from you posting negative articles about India? It does not change the fact that you are no different from people who look down upon people earning honest money just because they seem to be doing jobs that you wouldn`t like to do.

I am not the one putting down your profession or the US. So, whatever drift you have is lost on me.

re: India`s AIDS epidemic
India recently surpassed South Africa.
Not in any economic or developmental yardstick.
In AIDS epidemic.
AIDS in India will put to naught every developmental activity that is happening. A journalist in
Seattle Times has this to say:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2001899742_gates11.html
(But as I recently saw firsthand, India is on the brink of an AIDS catastrophe that could undermine the country`s potential for progress.

There are already over 4 million people infected with HIV in India, and the epidemic is on the verge of crossing over from those at highest risk into the general population.

If this happens, experts project that as many as 20 million Indians could be infected by the end of the decade — that`s more than twice the population of New York City. )
This is from another report:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/07/08/MNGVO7I80R1.DTL

(Estimates are that among India`s 1 billion people -- one-sixth of the world`s population -- only 0.5 percent are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. However, that translates into 4.6 million infections, more than any other nation except South Africa, where an estimated 5.3 million adults and children are HIV-positive.)

(``AIDS is one of the principal question marks hanging over India`s future, `` said the authors of a January report on the epidemic by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. ``This is a moment of special opportunity in India, a time when a decisive increase in support for its HIV/AIDS programs can really make a difference,`` said the report, titled India at the Crossroads.)

(``India has all the ingredients for the epidemic to explode into a major problem,`` said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Richard Feachem, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, sees in India today conditions reminiscent of those in Africa 15 years ago, when -- in hindsight -- Western leadership might have helped African nations avert the disastrous spread of AIDS on that continent. ``In country after country, they denied, denied and denied the scope of the epidemic,`` he said. ``They did too little, too little, too little, until it was too late.`` )

Economist (4/17/2004, Vol. 371, Issue 8371) has this to say:
(AIDS is mostly spread by sex--in India over 80% of infections start this way--and most governments find sex an awkward subject. India`s is no exception. It may be the land of the Kama Sutra, the land whose temples depict a licentiousness seldom shown in public elsewhere. But it is also a land so prudish that its film industry has only recently started to show kisses on screen. Defence is easy by comparison. India spent 3.1% of GDP on defence in 2000. It has nuclear weapons. It also has a space programme. It even offers soft loans to African countries to help them fight AIDS. But it is loth to launch an all-out programme to promote condoms. It prefers instead to preach ABC--Abstinence, Be faithful and use a Condom--a message whose crucial component tends to get lost in transmission, say those with experience of other epidemics.)
(In much of the country, particularly the more prosperous parts, it already affects other groups hitherto considered low-risk, notably teenagers and monogamous wives. Were it to spread into the general population right across the country, as it has in parts of Africa, the world would have a new pandemic of hideous proportions.)
Clearly, HIV infection and AIDS is emerging as the biggest threat to India in years to come.
One nugget not mentioned here is that India recently bypassed South Africa in the number of infected cases.
Is the country geared up for this problem?
Not even by a long shot. I will talk about this in my future posts.
Sridhar

#218 by rsridhar on April 20, 2005 6:34am PT
re:#208 by cayenne
Considering that India depends heavily on NRI remittances, it is funny u should call us coolies. As doctors, we are in the top income bracket. There is no discrimination in US. Can u say the same for India?
Sridhar


............You lie.And you know it.No discrimination in the US??.Please respect yourself and say no more.As for remittances, even those doing menial labor(construction for eg) is probably remitting more.And, the bulk of India`s Forex is made up of FII`s or FDI`s.Where else will you put your money??.This is where you`re heading when the next `Race War` starts in the US.Remember this next time you get in the car , heading to work.....

IN AMERICA,
If you`re WHITE you`re RIGHT
If you`re YELLOW you can be a FELLOW
If you`re BROWN, you can STICK AROUND
If you`re BLACK, STAY BACK.

You and all other south asians , regardless of occupation or rank are thought of as `coolies`, need based individuals and nothing more.You can believe that you belong and pretend that you are American.That is your privelege.But, as an indian to another, i am telling it like it is.Sorry, if i`m a little blunt!.Don`t fool yourself any longer mon ami.

Re: # 220

I second your claim. Even when you`ve been most upset you have refrained from making any personal attacks on my family. You are a true gentleman... despite the awesome gulf between our views. If an iconic figure like Gandhi needs defending from me, a nobody, you make a much better candidate than those who have presently taken on the task.

re:#200 by MaheshG2
Read Prashant`s interact with Manto (#191).
While i have differences with Manto, even at the worst of moments, i have never said anything insulting about his family.
Then i read this report of Delhi crowd`s boorish behavior at losing a cricket match (for God`s sake, it is only a game!). Are u then surprised that i get this feeling Pakistanis are just more cultured than Indians. Does globalisation also means losing one`s culture?
That remark by Gujju character is worthy of a code coolie. I could have done worse but i did not.
Tell u what.
I just had a brilliant idea. Starting from today, i am going to post some articles about India, about why it is still a third world country, about how poor it is, so on and so forth.
Get the drift?
Sridhar

re:#203 by Prashant123
Did u ask your dad the question that i wanted u to ask him? You are trying to evade the question. Find out from your dad how come he got so rich. If u do not know the answers, it may surprise u to learn that your dad may be one of those with the ``black money``. There are many such creatures in India sucking on India`s blood and vitality.
Sridhar