Such is Life...

India has become synonymous with outsourcing (equivalent to cheap labor) and most MNCs believe that all Indians will accept whatever is offered to them. We suffer from a severe colonial hangover to the extent that we believe any place foreign is a better place than India. You will find most commonly that if an American or anybody from the EU is offered a position in a foreign country, s/he will always be offered an ex-pat salary and benefits. But if an Indian is offered the same position, not only will he NOT be offered an ex-pat salary, he will be offered a salary which is considerably less than what would be offered to a local. And the sad reality is that if one Indian refuses to accept this discrimination, there will be a hundred more Indians willing to take up the offer for an even lesser amount.

Indians are a preferred race for assignments in MNCs because we are willing to work obscene hours for obscenely small amounts. We are very efficient, mostly honest and never lazy. Of course, what happens when we work for the Indian government is different ball game. I have theory about that too; the people who work for the government have a different mindset that cuts across all boundaries of race, religion, sex and nationality. But that is a topic for another ranting.

Of course the easiest way to stop this disparity in salaries is to refuse to accept offers that are less than the market value, but then it means we lose the whole outsourcing advantage. So finally what can I do, except rave and rant at the unfairness of it all and yet feel proud and excited at the prospects of new heights that Indians can now scale.

So like Bryant H. McGill once said

“You may find many contradictory statements and philosophies within my writings. However, to this I will say such is life, for life is full of contradictions.”