Techie families
Redefine content and class
Creating a new caste among castes.
Like every other week, today was a wedding day. It was the wedding of a good friend and fellow IIT Alumnus’ daughter. The gorgeous bride and her charming Indian origin groom flew in like destination wedding guests. The parents had it all worked out. The function was executed with ISO 9001 precision and went off without a hitch. Everyone was photographed, the food was brilliant, seating was adequate and like always the conversations were memorable.
Seated on the table with me were eminent academicians. Both the brides parents are distinguished engineers – the father from industry and the mother from academia. The guest list reflected their professions. The groom was from up north. Educated family, father is a Professor and siblings are in the U.S. The bride and groom are from different communities – both sides were happy that at least the chosen partner is of Indian origin.
Trump and H1B discussions apart, the conversation veered to evolution of our caste system.
We have the various community bodies. The Parsi Panchayat, the Maheshwari Samaj, the Jain Mahasabha, the Diocese Church, the Agarwal Samaj etc. They have their idiosyncrasies and incestuous approaches.
But what happens when these very communities go into a place like IIT. They lose their caste identity and take on a new identity. It is like a conversion. From being a Jain or Christian or Marwari to being an IITian.
The same thing happens if you join the defence forces or the civil services. You take on a new identity. And in more ways than one convert. An IAS officer identifies with a batchmate much more than he does with a fellow community member. If both husband and wife are from the same cadre – chances are they would be from different communities – and then the family identifies more with colleagues than with relatives. Family bonds remain but the identity changes.
This instills a certain change in behaviour. One civil servant is more like another civil servant than he is like his own sibling. This detachment from his birth caste or community prepares him well to become a global citizen. Rising over the limitations imposed by caste and creed.
It is for this reason that they can adapt in culturally diverse geographically dispersed global organisations. It is one of many reasons why we see so many Indians in global corporates than other nationalities.
It is also interesting to see why America is king of MNCs. One of course is access to capital through stock markets. The other is the reality that Americans don’t want to work. The brightest become lawyers and chase dead bodies. The smartest become investors and invest in those that work the hardest. All said and done – America is an inclusive merit driven society. Merit matters and therefore a job goes to the person who is best suited for it.
Irrespective of nationality or community.
Being from IIT helps
Being a Brahmin doesn’t.