NRI Maami

If on one hand, I am an NRI maami, on the other I am a ‘desi consultant’, and therefore any attempt to describe my own species should not really offend anybody else.

To those who are not familiar with the species, the species ‘desi consultant’ refers to the many millions of desis (a) Indians who live in the US and work in the IT industry as consultants.

We have a common origin - India, but our reasons to get where we are today are a little different.

1. Fed up being off-site : Works at the good old offshore development centre in India. Works until it’s noon in New York and doesn’t start until it’s noon in India. Has to take a lot of BS from the on-site resource who says one thing one day and another thing the next day but expects him to understand what was lost in translation. He decides it’s high time he moves to the other side of things.

2. Grass is greener in the US : Decides, that even though he is a mechanical engineer, he is not really cut out for that industry. Pays all that he earned so far on a course in SAP and decides, that is his ticket to the land of dreams.

3. Post M.S. failure to launch : Completed his M.S. in a state university, but due to a building collapse in Manhattan, or due to a recession caused by poor economic policies of a man from Texas, is forced to consider a very desi option he could have pursued two years before.

4. Make the Money : Earning lakhs of rupees is surely not the same as earning in thousands of dollars. Plans to make a move to the US by catching hold of a ‘consulting company’ to whom he can pay 3000 USD and buy himself a ticket to the US. In return all he has to do is be willing to lie on a seven page resume.

5. Home-making is back breaking : Newly married, comes on H4, but finds home-making is not as exciting as she imagined. So whether she was a graphics designer, or a programmer or a tester, or a student, it’s time to join the desi consultant clan - after all that is the easiest way to get an SSN and a driver’s license and some freedom in this country.

6. Dowry enhancement : What better way to improve his dowribility, considering most smart girls in his clan are doing their M.S. in the USA or are earning in lakhs in the Indian IT industry than to somehow get a H1B and take off to the US, which will automatically entitle him to more gold, cash and property.

 7. Here a little there a little: Pradeep reminded me about these guys. Company does a B1 or an L1 for him to work in the US temporarily. Finds that he likes the lifestyle and the money and decides to put up a resume on dice.com. Like a fly catcher, he attracts phone calls from desi companies begging to do his H1B. He stays on in the US with one of them.

More to come… Additions welcome!