I and the NR in I : All my brothers, their wives and children, one of my two sisters and her family, my in laws, my wife and my only son --in fact everyone except me in my family is an NRI. And yet, this is what I have to say to NRIs: Your families - your parents and others included - did you no favour or disfavour by helping you settle down abroad. You did us a favour by doing well wherever you are. You are fighting your battles wherever you are without our help, and we are happy about it. We are fighting our battles wherever we are, without your help - thank you. We know you live in countries and with people with whom we do not dare compare ourselves - neither in terms of material progress nor in terms of mental caliber or civic sense or self-effacing commitment to their respective countries and societies. But we are doing our best to get by in this world, and hope, one day, to be proud of ourselves. But my request to you: please stop behaving like the proverbial rural boy who turns urban after the rest of the family sent him, at considerable cost to others in the family, to a city for a better future, and he suddenly discovers that almost everything about his village is filthy. I am sure none of you NRI guys, members of my own famliy included, likes to look a little like the guy played by Pran Chopra in Manoj Kumar's classic, Upkar. .Its about time you stopped preaching down to your poor rustic , illiterate and ill-bhaved cousins back in the village and its about too that we stopped complaining about your groundless arrogant self righteousness. If you are serious about changing whatever you believe is going wrong with your state, then please stop being a part-time Punjabi and come and fight the battles the hard way in the dusty fields and by-lanes of Punjab - like others have done before you (Kamagata Maru etc.) Motherland begs for either more than advice and constant grouses from its estranged children or just to be left alone to live with pride, though in poverty. ( Mannia main haan jungle, jammia vich jahaalat de/ Tenu maan bahut ne tarak, daleel, vakaalat de..) And I can only offer a doomed prayer that this is not seen to be linked to the elections in Punjab. I have said all these things before before and I will say these again, once the elections are over.)
I and the NR in I : All my brothers, their wives and children, one of my two sisters and her family, my in laws, my wife and my only son --in fact everyone except me in my family is an NRI. And yet, this is what I have to say to NRIs: Your families - your parents and others included - did you no favour or disfavour by helping you settle down abroad. You did us a favour by doing well wherever you are. You are fighting your battles wherever you are without our help, and we are happy about it. We are fighting our battles wherever we are, without your help - thank you. We know you live in countries and with people with whom we do not dare compare ourselves - neither in terms of material progress nor in terms of mental caliber or civic sense or self-effacing commitment to their respective countries and societies. But we are doing our best to get by in this world, and hope, one day, to be proud of ourselves. But my request to you: please stop behaving like the proverbial rural boy who turns urban after the rest of the family sent him, at considerable cost to others in the family, to a city for a better future, and he suddenly discovers that almost everything about his village is filthy. I am sure none of you NRI guys, members of my own famliy included, likes to look a little like the guy played by Pran Chopra in Manoj Kumar's classic, Upkar. .Its about time you stopped preaching down to your poor rustic , illiterate and ill-bhaved cousins back in the village and its about too that we stopped complaining about your groundless arrogant self righteousness. If you are serious about changing whatever you believe is going wrong with your state, then please stop being a part-time Punjabi and come and fight the battles the hard way in the dusty fields and by-lanes of Punjab - like others have done before you (Kamagata Maru etc.) Motherland begs for either more than advice and constant grouses from its estranged children or just to be left alone to live with pride, though in poverty. ( Mannia main haan jungle, jammia vich jahaalat de/ Tenu maan bahut ne tarak, daleel, vakaalat de..) And I can only offer a doomed prayer that this is not seen to be linked to the elections in Punjab. I have said all these things before before and I will say these again, once the elections are over.)
