Thinking Firang - Working Desi

I was born and bought up in India, did all my schooling in India, and worked for a year exactly in India too. Yet all my childhood I dreamt of only one dream, to earn some substantial amount of money. Since I lived in a port city in India, all activities related to shipping and logistics were always heard off, and my father being in one of the reputed export companies, Ships were always on my mind. Through known acquaintances I learnt that if you would sail on a ship you not only earn good money but see the world. So I carved my career in a way so as to be in the shipping world forever. But then destiny had its own idea and denied me the chance not once but thrice. So then my next available opportunity to earn some good money was to work abroad, be an expatriate and do all that I wanted to.

Expatriate I became when I first got my overseas appointment, the management though being Indian was influenced by the phirang way of working and implementing, in certain ways of the entire operations. I worked for almost 5 years in that company and later joined another one in a different country where the entire manager’s string was phirang. An influence which molded me in a certain phirang way of working in my professional life as well as in my daily life. Almost not realizing I was in a way shedding my negative desi being . For good or bad which I now contemplate and still question myself on my way forward.

There is always a certain way that a phirang would address an issue. Be it in work or play. He decides. Not always he makes the right decision, but to err is human, be it desi or phirang. Taking a bull by the horns is what I have grasped, patience is what I have learnt and a positive attitude is what I endorse. You may loose but give it your best shot, be the hammer instead of the anvil, are some of the aspects which can be inherited blind folded. But there have to be lines drawn, as the phirang way of operating is never ‘the’ best always. That’s when the desi dude should be awakened. The desi style is nothing but unique, tolerant, resilient, humble, flexible, modest. Yet sometimes that’s when the desi attitude fails in possessing these very characters at an extremely fanatic level. That brings nothing but sheer downfall of the great character wall if I may call it.

What needs to be attained is an amalgamation of the phirang with desi. A burger roti with Dal pasta. That’s a perfect combination. The result being a man with immense sense of esteem with no boundaries in attainability. The sky is not the limit when you know you can amalgamate those two individuals within u.