Brainsick Soliloquy

Another interesting aspect of Indian psychology that has pervaded the work culture of Indians comes to notice here. In the couple of weeks I have been here, I have observed that all people leave their jobs exactly at 5pm and return home. Not the Indians though. Like back home, Indians stay on till at least 8pm before they head back home. And some of them trudge back to office on weekends to work. Working on weekends is tantamount to committing a grevious sin for persons of other nationalities (read Americans, Europeans and other westerners – includes Australians too). Even banks here do not work on weekends. The scene back in India is better left unsaid. We know the indefinite number of extra hours put in by those employeed in almost all industries. Working extra hours is the norm. A mere 9 to 5 existence in the office is considered detrimental to one’s career.

Are the Indians stricken by some kind of a work related Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or is it that they are the most pliable ones to dump work for extra hours without demands of additional compensation? Companies back home murmur about work-life balance of its employees, but do any of them really take efforts to implement them? Quite a hot (and sensitive) topic, just like summertime in Sydney.

Cut to the present! Isolationism and protectionism may not be new to Indians who have lived through four decades of it till the early 1990s. Interestingly the Aussies still are very protectionist in their decisions. I am not talking just about national economic decisions. Even in personal buying decisions, Aussies are quite jingoisitc about buying things that are Australian-made. This is most evident in food items where they prefer everything that is resourced within the country or at least packed within Australia. It also reflects in their tendencies to outsource (IT outsourcing is all I know about in this context). Australian firms, unlike the American ones are very tentative when it comes to outsourcing their IT needs.

Understandably, all these many centuries of living an isolated, ‘island-like’ existence have made them very conservative on opening up certain sectors of their economy to ‘outsiders’. But there is a dualism in this regard too. Sectors which are open have little or no Australian presence at all (which talks quite a lot about the quality of Australian produce). For example, in automobiles, the only Australian brand I have seen around is Holden, which again is not truly Aussie since its been taken over by GM. Agriculture or food products on the contrary is a sector where only Aussie brands are seen. The policy of protectionism looks like a conscious political decision to keep the agricultural community appeased (its not just in India that government policies are tuned to appease interest groups!). Not surprising either since agriculture is a big employer here.

So what is wrong in being Indian and buying Indian! In the span of writing an article I have turned into a key activist of the Swadeshi Jagran Manch!