BASKING IN REFLECTED GLORY

GR Gopinath, founder of Air Deccan, has published an article with the above title in The Hindu on 07/12/2021. The article is made on the background of Parag Agarval taking over as the CEO of Twitter which gave the Indians the hubris to tom tom the Indian CEOs in the leading US corporates.

Basking in reflected glory (BIRG) is a self-serving cognition whereby an individual associates himself with known successful others such that the winner's success becomes the individual's own accomplishment. Thus, on the social media, every one is living it out as Nooyi, Nadella, Pichai, Banga, Agarval, Krishna and others. 

Gopinath has a different perspective. He is not thumping the chest but is seriously asking on why these people who are trained in India, go out to a foreign land to make it great there? Premier institutions of the country, the IITs and IIMs have become the breeding ground for corporate honchos of foreign companies. He asks, why can’t such people make it big in India to take the country & its economy forward? 

He also speak of the insecure Indian diaspora who in spite of the success there, still have not become part of the American culture and mooring. The first gen immigrants there, despite their vocational success, always have to live with a borrowed identity which is not a comfortable situation. That get naturalized only with the second and the third gen. He goes on to compare these successful Indian honchos with their Chinese counterparts who goes back to their native land to build up hugely successful business organizations, often with borrowed ideas from FB, Google & Amazon. And, he closes the article asking which of the above model is the best, leaving the readers to find the answers themselves.

These days thousands of Indian students go abroad for higher studies. As per Assocham, over USD 13 billion is spent per annum by about 450000 Indian students for education abroad. The reasons of them going abroad are the lack of quality universities and job opportunities in India. How would the authorities view this to stop the brain drain? When it comes to creating quality education, our planners are clueless and the not-so intelligent ones left behind are working hard to please the powers that be by recreating the ‘pushpak vimana’, ‘brahmastr’ & the plastic surgery of Sushruta, trying to live in the past. 

The migration trend that started with India’s globalization in the 90’s continues but now, India is trying to imbibe the spirit of nationalism based on right wing ideas. However, at this juncture, we must accept that we are neither here nor there. The aspiring youth in the country knows where to go & what to study to make his career and life, the insight of which is totally lost on our nation makers. We are only indulging in scoring brownie points by taking the names of Nadellas & Pichais without knowing how we create them here.

Till we realize and learn, let us live basking in the reflected glory.

Cheers!