Outsiders who became Insiders

They are two tall, pink Irish guys with golden hair, stuck in between the traffic, with bicycles and cars and trucks surrounding them, honking their way out, in middle of Mumbai traffic, bewildering them on a hot sultry afternoon. No, they are not just another pair of European travellers searching for India in Snake charmers and along the beaches of Goa. What do they do here?
Paul and Alan are here to work for a renowned software firm just like the thousands of Indian Outsourcing professionals. I spoke to find out about their time in India and to get a glimpse of their country and culture.

Could you tell me about yourselves?

Paul : I am from the county of Limrick in Ireland. I have done my Bachelor of Sciences in Computer Systems form the University of Limrick. My hobbies include Movies and music.

Alan: I am from Dublin, the capital city of Ireland. I have a B.S in Software Engineering. I am interested in travel, theatre and golf.


Before you came to India, what did you think it would be like?

Alan : I hadn’t thought that India would be so developed in terms of Infrastructure and Services.

Paul: Yes, from the documentaries we had seen on TV, I was imagining a not so developed country.

What was your first impression of this place?

Alan : Shock! I still remember that day when we came out of the airport and were surrounded by swarms of beggars. It was shocking!

Paul: I had a tough time getting adjusted to the heat and the jetlag. We had our training in Trivandrum. I noticed that there were coconut trees everywhere.

Alan: Yeah, There was this distinct sweet smell of coconuts in the air everywhere.

Are there no beggars in Ireland?

Alan: There are…but no so many and the poorest of the poor in Ireland are not so poor.
They get their social welfare payments and housing in welfare houses. So it came as a shock.

How did you land up in an Indian software consultancy?

Alan: We received an email from our employment agency informing us of the recruitment. I was enticed by the prospect of working in another country. So I applied for the job, cleared the interview and tests and here I am.
Paul : The same is the case with me as well!

How did you find the tests and the interview?

Paul : We found them difficult, especially the quantitative section.
Alan: Yes. We found the interview tough as well as we were asked all sorts of questions regarding our computer skills.

How do you find the people of India?

Alan: Everybody is very friendly and obliging, except for the Rickshaw drivers.
Paul: Indians work very hard.

What is it that you don’t like about India?

Paul: The heat! It gets on to me. The pollution, the smells and the open drains!

Alan: I can see women involved in Manual labour. I don’t approve of that.
I don’t want to offend anyone. But I feel the poor people are simply ignored. And there is this discrimination; I don’t know if it’s the casteism, where I find the rich just totally ignore the people below their standards.

If there is something you would take home from the Indian culture, what would that be?

Alan: Their friendliness!

Paul: Yes! The way one person takes the tickets for everybody when going as a group. I was really surprised.

If there is something Indians could learn from the Irish, what would that be?

Alan: Indians work too hard! I was shocked to find people working from 9 A.M until 11- 12 in the night. People in Ireland work hard between 9 and 5, at other times, you can find them relaxing. And there is no concept of fun at work. Work is work and Fun is fun. Indians could learn to unwind from the Irish.

If you could take something with you back home, what would that be?

Alan: An Elephant.

Have you taken a ride on an elephant?

Paul: Yes, when we were in Trivandrum

How was it?

Alan: Extremely painful! But was a wonderful experience!


How does it feel when you are stared at?

Alan: I feel like I am a beautiful woman!

Tell me something about the educational system in Ireland.

Paul: We have 8 years of primary education, 5 years of secondary education after which some people attend college. Education is free in Ireland.
Alan: it is compulsory. If parents didn’t send their kids to school, they would be in serious trouble.


Did you work anywhere before other than your internships?

Alan: Yes! I used to work part time in a super market and in a bookstore for sometime when I was in school and college.

Paul: I used to work in a warehouse and a petrol station.

How did those jobs help you?

Alan: It gave us some extra bucks for pocket money.
Paul: It taught us the value of hard earned money and helped us learn discipline and timekeeping.

How do you find Indian cuisine.

Alan: Indian cuisine is not new to us. We have been to Indian restaurants in Ireland.

Paul: We have chicken kurma, chicken masala, Rice and a variety of other Indian foods.

Are there many Indians in Ireland?

Paul: There a many Indian Doctors as there is a shortage of doctors in Ireland.
And then, there are Indian students studying in Ireland.

Tell me something about your festivals and Religion.

Paul: About 90% of Irish are Roman Catholics. 7-8% are protestants and the rest are all sorts of people.
Other than the usual Christian festivals, St. Patrick’s Day is very special to the Irish. We have parades. My mother makes green and orange jelly. We wear Shamrocks on our shirts.
Alan: It’s a very important celebration when we meet up with friends and family at Pubs and parties. We eat, drink and make merry.

You go to Pubs as a family?

Alan: Yes. But the Pubs in Ireland are unlike the ones we find here. It’s more of a friendly place with no entertainment other than spontaneous sing – songs, Where we go in as a family and meet up with friends.

Paul: But these days, the traditional pubs are giving way to more modernized ( Americanized) ones with loud music and dancers. These are frequented only by the younger generation.

What are the primary occupations in Ireland?

Paul: Agriculture is the primary occupation.
Ireland is the second largest country doing outsourcing next to India. American companies outsource to Ireland as they have comparatively lower taxes than in rest of the European countries.


When is the best time of the year to visit Ireland?

Summer is the best time to visit Ireland. Summers are short and last for only two- three months: May, June and July.

What are the tourist attractions in Ireland?

There are a lot of historical monuments and castles; The Ring Fort is a must see.
The country- side is green and beautiful and just right for long rides.

What are your future- plans?

Alan: I plan to travel, earn enough to see me to a comfortable living and help me travel
On a long term, I plan to buy an apartment in Berlin and another in Italy.

Paul: I plan to travel as well. I plan to pursue my studies after year or so. We have the Mature student’s education programme where people get back to college to continue to their studies after working for a while.Thank you. Wish you all the best!

STORY TIME

This is a story that i wrote way back in 1999...

A Better Tomorrow

It was a quiet place on the outskirts of London. It was a huge Manor. There was a stone walling round the house and the Manor. A little girl was swinging in a tree a few yards away from the house. The house was single storied with roses and bougainvilleas all around it.

The scent of the flowers mixed with the air had made the occasion of a sunny day more joyous with the sound of the child’s laughter.

“Faster”, “More….!!!”, Said Marianne our little heroine to her friend George who was her classmate, friend and nearest neighbor. Marianne was six and George was seven.
Marianne had the hair of a Barbie doll. Golden hair tied into a ponytail which had beautiful curls below. She had crystal blue eyes with dense eye lashes that made it difficult for anybody to take one’s eyes off her.

George was a red haired boy with the inquisitiveness of not many boys of his age.

“Now its my turn”, said George in a rather commanding voice of a sea captain.
“But you said 50 each and only twenty five are over” said Marianne.

“I said 50 swings and not 50 to and fros together”. This was George.

“Oh George! Please let me swing for some more time”
“No Marianne. Be a lady. Keep your promise.”

Marianne with the dignity of a proud young lady but with the disappointment of a six year old climbed down. And George took over the swing.

Hardly had he swung for two minutes when he had half of his share left an unexpected shower poured down and they had to go home.

Thus our little hero’s account had a balance!

George bid bye to Marianne. Lifting his little cap, he just ran with the swiftness of a fawn. His green coat faded into the greenness of the farm.

“Marianne! Get in honey or you will catch cold”. Marianne’s mother Rosaline was calling up on her child. Marianne lifted her blue frock carefully guarding it from the puddle and caught her hat with the other hand so that it wouldn’t fly away in the wind and obeyed immediately to her mother.

“What a great child! So lovely and sweet” Thought Anna, the maid who worked for them. Rose, Marianne’s mother was a woman of thirty. She had a good stature and was a respectable lady with the elegance of a Chinese tea server in everything she did, but for her craving desire to sing. When she sat behind the piano it would be like a thousand plates being broken one by one and the sound being amplified. It was really horrible.


But thanks to Marianne and Stephen, Marianne’s younger brother, she was engaged with her children mostly and found no time to cater to her desire. She had blue eyes which had left their copies in Marianne and Stephen but had dark hair. She wore a thin pair of spectacles on her nose. She looked after the Manor and the house.

Stephen the little brother was a year old and he was as plump as a fresh tomato. There is nothing more to say about him. The only thing he spoke was “Ba Ba Ba”.

Marianne’s father Robert was a merchant. He owned a small Super Marche in the suburbs of London. He was a tall man with balding blond hair and dense moustache which gave him a rustic look. But he was all the more a fine gentleman.

The shop was frequented by many kinds of customers. All through the day, he would sit at the counter. Every now and then, he would check whether everything was going on properly.

Every afternoon, Anna would bring him his lunch to his cabin. He was very particular about timings. When it was lunch hour, it was real lunch hour during which, the shop was closed and each of the 6 employees had to be off the shelves for the next forty five minutes. He was a caring but strict employer. So everybody respected and liked him.
He would return home by eight everyday and they all would have their supper.

Anna, the housemaid was a black woman but her heart was the whitest. She was a little fat and looked fatter in her crisp cotton frock and apron.

The next day after the shower, George met Marianne at the school in the locker room. He reminded her of his “balance”. She agreed to clear her “debt” that evening.

The tree that George and Marianne swung under was a huge acorn tree. It was surrounded by other trees also. Rosaline, Marianne’s mother was passionate about the trees because, they carried for her, her thoughts about childhood. She grew up with them. It was where she played hide and seek and swung a hundred thousand times.

Whenever she felt upset, she would go to the place surrounded by trees. It was to her like a mother’s lap. The fresh air filled with life giving gas made her feel fresh and she relished the refreshing feeling.

She liked even the skeletal bare trees in winter, because she believed that those bare trees sprouting again in spring represented to her something. And that something is this!

A bare tree does not indicate that the tree is dead. It is just in slumber! Similarly whenever she was upset she would think of the trees and say to herself, “A day of despair indicates that I am getting stronger and not that I am gonna be doomed!”

Among those group of trees, there were two trees that were planted by Robert. Those two particular trees bore on them “Rubies” as Robert liked to call them. They were apple trees and Robert held great pride for having looked after those saplings to become a tree.

To Anna, after a hot afternoon in the kitchen, sometime with the trees and birds had become a routine.

And to our little Stephen, it was a haven to play chasing butterflies, birds and caterpillars.

George was looking forward to get his share of swinging. George liked very much to swing. He especially liked to feel one with the air.

In the evening, he washed up and had his “lupper”. That is how he called his teatime snack. He wondered why people who invented the term “Brunch” hadn’t thought of “Lupper”. After his lupper he drove on his bike to the tree haven.

As he hummed his favourite song, cycling, he was suddenly taken aback when he realized what he saw. What had been a haven yesterday had become nothing but a flat land. He was deeply disappointed. Marianne who had just returned from school was shocked too. Everyone was shocked. Anna had to stay at the SuperMarche from Morning as they were cleaning up at the shop and she had to help them. Rose, too had left to town to do some shopping that morning.

The land where the trees grew did not actually belong to Rosaline and Robert. It had long been barren and so Rose’s mother had sown in life. The new owner had chopped them off to build his dream factory there. But that had chopped the dreams in many people’s hearts.

Poor Georgie was deeply disappointed…Though Marianne promised to swing him in the swing at school, to him , it would never be the same.

The Green fields and the mountains moving to and fro would not match the concrete building moving when he was on the swing he thought.

Rose’s eyes became clouded when she saw the treeless garden. She went inside the house and cried in solitude. She had lost her mother’s lap!

Robert felt crushed like an apple in a cider bin when he saw that his pride had disappeared in the air.

Only short stubs were left behind on the land. Anna too felt very bad.

Even little Stephen felt glum and sultry with no usual tender evening breeze.

Rosaline went there at night. Now who would rouse her from despair? She had become desperate beyond desperation. She was weeping silently in the moonlight. Robert could see her from the window of his study. He could do nothing to console her because he himself was deeply disturbed.

Rosaline knelt down and kissed the trees good bye when her hands struck something! A new ray of hope!

She felt hopeful again. She lifted what her hands had touched. There were so many of them. She lifted them all with a feverish excitement. She became gay and was looking for them in the dim moonlight. She could lay her hands on only some of them at night. She carefully brought them home.

On seeing them, Robert’s face was lit up too. They were all seedlings that had sprouted from the fallen fruits in the recent showers.

Early next morning, Robert picked more of them. Together Robert and Rose planted them in their own manor.

George came that morning to borrow their axe. He took home some of the saplings too. The spirits of the dead trees were thanking Rose, Robert, George and others who were helping them survive.

Five years hence.

“Now its my turn”, said Stephen to George.

Rosaline and Robert came home after an exhausted afternoon. Anna had prepared tea and set the tables near where the boys were swinging.

At once, a flash of smile spread across their faces erasing the weariness off their day.
The pleasant breeze carrying with it the fragrance of roses and lilies wafted by and it was reassuring.

They will certainly leave a better place for their children! How about you?