His house sits in one of the most upper-scale and affluent residential area of Chicago suburbs. As I walked inside the double-door entrance with marble sidings, I quickly realized that the inside of the mansion is even more impressive and pretty that outside view. There are two separate staircases leading to the upper storey; there are multiple bathrooms on the main floor; the open ceiling concept has a catwalk that overlooks the family room; the kitchen alone is bigger than decent size luxury apartment…
If you look at the size of house, you would think that some millionaire lives here. Maybe, he is a millionaire; it is hard to guess his wealth out of his humble disposition and very friendly nature.
After a brief chit-chat, I asked him about his occupation. I knew he was not working much currently, but I was very curious to find out where he got the big bucks to build that big mansion.
“One second, be right back”, he briefly went into the kitchen and came back with two cups of hot tea – steam still floating over the edges.
“It was a good job, a very good job. Only 15 minutes drive from the house,” he reflected on his past occultation, the cup of tea resting on his thigh as he leaned back in the easy-chair.
For 15 years, I found out, Ramesh had worked for an electronics company as a quality controller. He does not have any special technical education –engineering degree or anything else of the sort.
“I started on the assembly line, but I was promoted to the supervisor within years”, there is a happiness in his voice as he walks down the memory lane.
“Everybody appreciated what I did for the company. I used to get letters of recognition all the way from Japan – our upper management headquarters.”
“So, what happened?” I asked curiously.
“Outsourcing!” he did not feel any further need to explain. But then, after a brief pause, he spoke with a sad tone, his voice lowered, “they did not need us anymore, they found cheaper ways to do what we did, in other countries!”
“Oh, I see!” I did not know what else to say.
For the past 4 years Ramesh has struggled to find a decent job. Most of the jobs that need his skills are outsourced. After trying for years, he gave up on the job market, and tried to do what one of his best friends does – real estate agent.
“Real estate is not too hot right now”, I just said what everybody else says about housing market these days.
“I know”, he replied promptly.
“So, how is it going?” I asked, just to avoid the awkward silence after his brief response.
“Not good”, he paused, “People hesitate to hire an Indian real-estate agent in this overly white neighborhood. Only listings I get are the ones from Indians, but they always want to bargain down the commission.”
“That doesn’t help, right?”
“Well, it doesn’t matter. Nothing is selling now-a-days anyways!”
He put his empty cup on the side table.
After some more small-talk about family and weather, I casually asked, “Have you thought about going back to India? Many people seem to return to India now a day.”
“No, the kids are all settled down here. Everybody is here; there is no turning back for us”, it seemed like he had already given some thought and eliminated the R2I – return to India – option.
As I drove off his custom-made and well maintained driveway, I looked back at his huge house with a funny thought in my head – ‘You could never guess that someone living in this big beautiful mansion would be unhappy!’
Related Article:
- Brain Drain to Brain Gain – Indians Abroad
- Why do NRIs return to India?
- Paradigm of a promise- NRIs’ promise to return to India!
- NRIs’ random ‘things-to-do’ for the day!
- A father’s Pride
- NRIs’ misplaced nostalgia of good old days
