Page 3 - Seniors Today October 2020
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Publisher’s Note
NRI - Not Really Indian,
Noveau Riche Indian?
Many years ago, on a trip to Dubai I had a America/Manchester. Travel in the south
taxi driver by the name of Feroze, a Marathi- and the aim is the Middle East. The Gujaratis
speaking Konkani Muslim, and we hit it off want to travel to the US and almost everyone
really well. He came to Dubai as a driver for a is looking to exit India and make a life for
doctor. In due course he got married and his themselves out of this country. Feroze’s story
wife worked as a maid and cook in the doctor’s is a telling example of how lower-middle-
home. He then called his brothers and found class Indians found a good life for themselves,
them employment with friends and relatives something that could never have happened
of the doctor. He bought himself a car and in India. Could an Indian taxi driver afford
became a taxi driver attached to the hotel an engineering degree for his son or even a
where I was staying. catering college admission?
Feroze lived in a three-bedroom apartment, I find a taxi driver not just a great source
had a son who was preparing to do his of information but also a barometer on the
engineering and a daughter who was planning quality of life in any country.
to go to Paris to do a patisserie and a catering Minoo Shah, who left Pune and made a home
course. Feroze and his two brothers bought for herself in the US, writes the first of two
their parents an eight-acre mango orchard pieces on NRIs, profiles success stories and
in Ratnagiri. The brothers built themselves why Indians want to run away from India.
three houses and life carried on. On the day I
was to leave, Feroze came to drop me off to the
airport. We were conversing in Marathi and I
asked him if he ever thought of moving back to
India. In an instant Feroze replied, aho sahib
Dubai cha kutra bara (better a dog in Dubai).
Travel to Punjab and every taxi driver has Vickram Sethi
hopes and aspirations of moving to Canada/ Publisher and Editor-in-Chief
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