Bonfires, Strippers and Immigration

5.30 am, Monday

Never thought that I would ever, EVER get up at 5 am to get ready for a presentation and that too by myself.

Last night was Guy Fawkes Night and as I watched the brilliant fireworks exploding overhead, I could still remember the old nursery poem. This was not taught to us in our schools back home, but it was required learning in England and hence my cousins taught it to me when they would come for their occasional visits.

Remember remember the fifth of November

Gunpowder, treason and plot.

I see no reason why gunpowder, treason

Should ever be forgot...

So, I watched “Guy” burn on Glasgow green and drank a pint in his name, one of the earliest revolutionaries against the Empire.

Night before that, I saw another very British tradition….kissograms!!!

I was on duty as ASR for the night and as luck would have it, it was a Saturday and Halloween party time!!!

So, anyway, case studies of an ASR record as follows;

* Two drunken females who couldn’t get inside their rooms
* One drunk female who couldn’t get out (Why don’t boys get into problems when they are drunk, I wonder?)
*Five cases of eggs and vegetable throwing competitions….hmmmm!!!
*One Halloween party where noise levels could be heard five blocks away.

So, Jim, the guard and me made our way upstairs, to hunt down the owner of the flat where the party was being held to impose peace and order….well that WAS the intention.

Anyway, suddenly I see this police woman walking into the room and I go... Oh, shit, there goes my job!!

And THEN….the policewoman or the woman at least, starts dancing to the music and starts stripping….

Jim, relaxes and settles back to watch the show…and I watch with my jaw open wide enough to let in a battalion of flies.

Basically, a kissogram is a girl/boy who comes, strips for the intended person, smooches them and leaves, all this for a price range of 55-90 pounds. AND its legal!!!

So, I watched a kissogram and got a visiting card from the ….umm, lady!!!

And THEN I wrecked the party!!!

:D

Even living here is a culture shock. Apparently, strippers and kissograms are must-haves for 18th birthday parties and such.

I am again amazed at this culture which is so open and therefore in certain areas so much better than our silly hypocrisies back home.

Which is another way of saying that I WISH someone had got me a kissogram for my 18th birthday…..?

What was I doing on my 18th birthday?

Hmmm, I think I was preparing for a moot and later went out and got sloshed on cheap rotgut Indian whisky.

By our standards, that was quite a nice party. This leads me to the next question, something asked by a lot of people who have made the difficult journey till here…

Is there a better alternative to the years of intensive study and the high rate of attrition inherent in our education system?

Ever since I remember I have been studying and studying and studying….

My old buddy, pari used to say there were only two stages in an Indian student’s life – studying and drinking!!! Nothing else!!!

I mean, all I was doing was the same as my other pals. Nothing great, nothing new…

The fact was that getting anywhere in India was a one way lane and it was overcrowded beyond belief. We slogged our arses off just to get somewhere and sometimes, that somewhere was not enough.

I was lucky, many weren’t.

And then, I saw my younger brother and his pals and then my even younger cousins and saw that I had a positively easy life…

Where will this end?

What of those children who don’t make the leap?

Children here choose areas which I haven’t even heard of and take gap years, a concept I am still coming to grips with.

Our folks are more caring, more considerate than the parents of these brats and yet, so many hearts are broken for the simple law of averages, for the simple rules of competition.

My growth and development professor explains this as the difference between economic growth and economic development. When a country earns more money it is eco growth, when a country invests in the facilities it offers to its citizens, it called eco development.

When will our country be able to offer development?

Today, I don’t blame the parents who came here and took the decision to stay back. I mean, we deride and despise them for their decisions back home.

We call them Non-Resident Indians, Not Required Indians, No Responsibilities Indian, Non Returning Indians…

Were they wrong for choosing a better chance at life for their children…

Forget the past generations, what of us? This generation, MY generation.

We, the ones who reached foreign shores, have fought a bloody way to get to this country and as we look back, our trail is littered with the corpses of old friendships lost because they lacked our pace or because the pace of time eliminated them from our lists, dead bodies of dysfunctional families forgotten in the mad race to get that sought after college, that internship which would look good on our CV’s, that better University, that better job….

We have been to the wars, us students, and we bear scars, all of us….

Would it be unreasonable for us to be scared that our children might not make in the ever increasing competition of the developing countries?

Would it be wrong on our parts to not want to inflict such scars on our children?

Would it wrong for us to choose the option to stay behind?

And if we did choose that decision, what of our children?

Would they appreciate that decision?

To deprive them of identity, support, culture and family for better education, amenities, facilities, advantages?

How do we even or ever make that decision?

Still wondering…….