Sunday, October 23, 2005
On the road to Bangalore -- The Washington Times
On the road to Bangalore -- The Washington Times
Palm Meadows, it's called -- an enclave of gently curving streets, Spanish-tile roofs and lawns manicured to putting-green perfection. Before Christmas, colored lights go up around the windows of its tidy suburban homes. At Halloween, costumed children ring doorbells up and down the block.Southern California? No, a gated community near Bangalore, catering to young Indian professionals who are returning to India from the United States. Living in the U.S. had been a goal for many young high-tech professionals, but now, the jobs are moving to India and so are the programmers and engineers. According to the Associated Press, "The Indian press call it the "reverse brain drain." and the AP concluded, "Many of those brains came to Bangalore." For many of these former U.S. residents and their families living in Bangalore can be quite a change:
But it can be a shock to arrive in India from an American suburb.
Wealthy customers can wander through India's air-conditioned shopping malls, but this is still a country where more than 800 million people survive on less than $2 a day. Even the wealthy must face cities crowded with poverty, where malnourished children are commonplace and railroad tracks double as open-air toilets.
The returning expatriates worry about the country's pitifully slow ambulance services and wonder what to tell their children about the beggars tapping on car windows at stoplights.
