Comments on: Call centers cope with verbal abuse

By: TTG

TTG — Thu, 03 Mar 2005 22:58:35 +0000

Wow, my points really are going straight above your head. The fact that these people are popular is exactly my point - they write such negative stuff, and they get awards for it. Anybody who tries to project India in a positive light gets yawns and indifference. And if you actually read my comment you would have noticed that I said:

It is an established fact that the most vehement India-haters are Indians themselves, within and without their country

By: RC

RC — Thu, 03 Mar 2005 17:37:17 +0000

TTG, Some of the India haters that you mention in your comment are a lot popular in India. How do you explain that?? I have an explanation but it will require another blog. Whenever A Roy, Rohinton Mistry et all are recognized here in the west, it becomes a headline in Times of India. How do you explain that?

By: TTG

TTG — Thu, 03 Mar 2005 17:04:15 +0000

First, I don’t see any particular trend of people coming back to India. Sure some of them have, and it’s been newsworthy. But the general trend is still of people going to America. Second, whether people’s parents’ left because of lack of opportunities or because of bitterness, they obviously weren’t happy with their home country so they left. So it would naturally follow that the impression of their home country in their new adopted country would be slightly negative. I don’t understand what the big deal about this is. It follows naturally. But there is a difference between “slightly negative”, and the impression that desis create in America, in India, everywhere. Yes, I make broad sweeping generalisations, and here’s another one – Indians are ridiculously harsh when judging their home country. Much more than people of other nations. And it is that overly-critical cynicism that is so much a part of our psyche that contributes to the poor impression of India. Don’t believe me? Check out http://www.deeshaa.org. This guy writes absolute shit, and then he gets an award for “Telling It Like Is”. Rohinton Mistry was invited on to Oprah, and his book became a bestseller – why? Because it wrote about a few castrations, beggars, suicide, all in India. Arundhati Roy writes well, but she writes about what – Caste Discrimination. Born in brothels wins an oscar, but not Little Terrorist. One of them portrays India in an awful light, the other one tells a more neutral and interesting story. Which one do you think won at the Oscars? And Born in brothels isn’t even a true documentary. It has fictional parts to it as well. V.S. Naipaul is a known India-hater, and a Nobel prize winner too. He once made the following comment – “What does a dot on a woman’s forehead represent? Why lack of intelligence, of course”. It is an established fact that the most vehement India-haters are Indians themselves, within and without their country. This needs to stop. But I don’t remember saying that this justifies calling up Call Centre workers and blasting them or singing stupid hate-filled songs on the radio.

By: DesiDancer

DesiDancer — Thu, 03 Mar 2005 16:29:47 +0000

TTG- what do you think, then, of the reverse-brain drain and why baby boomers and older members of Generation X are packing up and moving back to India?

Surely most of our parents came here not out of a bitterness toward India, but through the realizations that the opportunities they sought in life were not available at that time, in India.

Do you think the "reverse brain-drain" is based on a sense of resentment toward the US?

By: sd

sd — Thu, 03 Mar 2005 00:57:10 +0000

Since we're talking about Indians in American history, I'd like to recommend the following:

"Caste and Outcaste" by Dhan Gopal Mukerji

It was originally published in 1923 by E.P. Dutton, republished by Stanford University Press in 2002. Here's an excerpt from a review : "Mukerji (1890-Ã‚Â1936) was the first South Asian immigrant to the United States to carve out a successful literary career, publishing more than twenty books of nonfiction, fiction, poetry, drama, translations, and children's stories. Caste and Outcast was the first book on India written by an Indian that was widely read in America."

By: Deepa

Deepa — Wed, 02 Mar 2005 22:23:03 +0000

No, thank you, AC! Good find.

By: Anonymous Cow

Anonymous Cow — Wed, 02 Mar 2005 21:42:50 +0000

And thanks for the info, Deepa! That was awesome stuff

By: Anonymous Cow

Anonymous Cow — Wed, 02 Mar 2005 21:41:44 +0000

Found something at: http://www.iafpe.org/php/showNewsDetails.php?linkid=5&newsid=5

There seem to be quite a few articles if you do the following searches, although I don't have the time to pore over them: "Indentured servants" Asian Indians

Asian Indian Indentured servants

By: Deepa

Deepa — Wed, 02 Mar 2005 21:36:53 +0000

If you’re talking about my reference, I’m not surprised…I got it over 10 years ago, so it’s unlikely to appear in electronic form. And I didn’t get it as part of a course..but I wish I did have the name of the journal. Awfully sorry about that.

By: Ennis

Ennis — Wed, 02 Mar 2005 21:15:19 +0000

THAT IS SO ANNOYING! I googled the reference and got … nothing. It’s a cardinal sin to create a coursepack without a full citation for each article! They don’t even do it any more for copyright reasons.