Gated In Bangalore

The media often carries stories of the returned native and their gated community lifestyle in Bangalore and elsewhere in India. The more I read about the perspectives of the individuals who have made this choice, the more confused I get. While moving back to India at this time makes perfect sense from a career growth perspective, every other aspect of the "return to India" deal seems fraught with angst and confusion.

To begin with, the ideal of being close to ones roots and having children immerse in one's own culture is severely compromised by choosing to breathe in the rarefied atmosphere of an NRI enclave. When parents persist in celebrating Halloween and the like in India, they confound the problem manifold. Needless to say, the locals would be totally out of their depth. Presumably then, social interactions would need be limited to the similarly foreign returned with total years spent in the US, citizenship status of family members and the like forming key indicators of social status and net worth.

These children will likely end up doubly confused about their splintered identity being unable to straddle two worlds with as much facility as their parents. It would have to be thrust on them because they would not see the need to maintain multiple mixed identities. It seems to me that the objectives beyond career are not clear enough to be pursued to any logical end.

It is a pity that children get to be the victims of such appalling lack of direction and focus. Are we raising a generation of super-rich, US-born, India-raised misfits with horribly entitled attitudes ? It would be an awful lot of stunted if not fully wasted potential - a national loss.